Rancho Mission Viejo is a 23,000-acre ranch in Southern California and the last active cattle ranch in Orange County. It is also home to a master-planned community of the same name. Developed on a portion of the ranch, this 6,000-acre community is expected to feature 14,000 homes and 6,000 Gavlián 55+ residences upon completion.
‍
For Paul Johnson, now retired Senior Vice President of Community Development at Rancho Mission Viejo, the key to developing a thriving master-planned community of the size and stature of Rancho Mission Viejo lies in a three-pronged approach. The goal was to create great spaces, build a strong physical community, and make it sustainable, ensuring the lifestyle remains operationally and financially feasible long after the community is complete.
‍
"There is nothing worse than the developer being there, creating these great marketing moments, and the minute you walk away, there is no way the community can maintain the same operations financially.”

Although sustainability offers long-term benefits, it doesn't necessarily align with the short-term goal of selling homes. Bridging financial sustainability with an experience that would help sell homes became a top initiative for Rancho Mission Viejo.

Paul envisioned an app that offered a comprehensive mobile experience of lifestyle living, fully branded to Rancho Mission Viejo. This seamless integration with their marketing efforts effectively conveys their vision and messaging, highlighting the unique qualities of The Ranch.

Building a native app posed challenges, primarily since nothing like it existed on the market in 2017. To navigate this, Paul and his team turned to April LaMon and Mike Swanson who were well known for their work in digital behavior analytics."We knew we wanted to create an app to help residents build connections the way they desired. Since everyone has a cell phone and, in 2017, when we started, you could do everything online, we decided to offer a mobile experience for all aspects of their lifestyle."

Within 90 days of launching the Ranch Life app, over 90% of the residents had logged in and were using its features. Still, with a focus on always offering what the community needed, they looked one step further at how they could manage access control through the app.

"Alosant developed a Bluetooth conversion for all 400 of our access points, allowing anyone with a Ranch Life app to open any facility they had permission to. This new enhancement also allowed us to manage control better and understand what doors folks were opening and when."

The Ranch Life app has over 9,000 users across multiple user groups, including active adults, Gavlián 55+ residents, apartment dwellers, and more. The app enjoys over 98% adoption today. With features like access control and enhanced personalization, Rancho Mission Viejo can now create a lifestyle experience for home shoppers and residents that matches everyone's unique needs.

To learn more about Rancho Mission Viejo and hear other thoughts and learnings from Paul Johnson, listen to our Alosant Innovator Series podcast featuring Paul.