You will not find a Trilogy community older than the one in Gilbert. Shea Homes broke ground here in 1999. Twenty-six years later, Trilogy at Power Ranch still anchors the south end of the larger Power Ranch master plan. The community holds 2,035 single-story homes, a renovated 27,000-square-foot San Tan Club, and a charter-club calendar that has had a quarter-century to settle into rhythm. If you are weighing this guard-gated 55+ community against newer Trilogy properties in Peoria, Wickenburg, or Rio Verde, one question shapes most of your decision. Do you want the brand at its most lived-in, or at its most launched?
That question is easy to test. Drive past the gate at Village Parkway and Higley Road on a clear winter morning. The streets read like a place that has worked out its rhythms. Maintenance trucks know the routes. Golf carts know the cut-throughs. The bocce courts at the San Tan Club are full by ten. There is none of the unfinished feel that comes with a brand-new 55+ community.
Daily life at Trilogy at Power Ranch is shaped by three overlapping circles. The first is the Trilogy enclave itself: 670 acres of guard-gated streets where every household qualifies under the Housing for Older Persons Act. The second is the larger Power Ranch master plan. That is a 2,284-acre multi-generational development with its own lake, parks, schools, and commercial corners. The third is the southeastern edge of Gilbert proper, where the suburb meets the agricultural fringe and the San Tan Mountains rise to the south.
Most residents move through all three on a normal day. A morning workout at the San Tan Club fitness center. A mid-morning bike ride on the Power Ranch trail loop, which dips outside the gate. A run to the corner Bashas’ or Fry’s a few minutes north on Higley Road. Lunch back at Slate Bistro inside the gate. The pattern is unusual for an Arizona 55+ community. Residents move freely between an age-restricted private space and a fully family-friendly master plan without leaving home.
Power Ranch as a whole is not age-restricted. The full master plan will hold eleven neighborhoods and roughly 7,400 homes at build-out. Of those, only the Trilogy section qualifies as 55+. That structural fact shows up in daily life in two specific ways. Trilogy residents are spared the school-day traffic patterns that define many family neighborhoods. At the same time, they have ready access to Power Ranch’s lake, splash pad, basketball courts, and year-round community events. The all-ages neighborhoods help underwrite the master association. The result is a 55+ address with a multi-generational sound around it, instead of the silent perimeter of a fully isolated retirement village.
Across its build-out, Trilogy at Power Ranch offered 26 different models. The phases began with UDC and finished with Shea Homes after the brand pivot. Every home is single-story. Every home meets a Mediterranean architectural standard with stucco walls and a tile roof. Lots are low-maintenance, with drought-tolerant landscaping. Sizes start at roughly 1,141 square feet and climb past 3,000 square feet for the largest estate plans.
Floor plans share a recognizable Trilogy DNA. Open kitchen-to-great-room flows. Primary suites separated from guest rooms for visiting-family privacy. Two-car attached garages. Covered patios sized for a grill, a small table, and a planter or two. The smallest plans suit a downsizing solo buyer or a snowbird couple. The largest are family-hosting homes designed for adult children and grandchildren who arrive in waves through the cooler months.
The earliest phases of Trilogy at Power Ranch carried UDC-designed plans. Shea Homes acquired the brand and rolled out its own series. By the closing phases in the mid-2000s, Shea had standardized energy and finish packages across the inventory. The practical result for a 2026 buyer is simple. Not all Trilogy at Power Ranch homes are technically Shea-built. A careful inspection should confirm the original builder, the build year, and the sequence of major-system upgrades.
Because the community is fully built out, every transaction here moves through the resale market. Many homes have been renovated at least once, often twice, since their original close-out date. Common updates include high-SEER variable-speed HVAC systems and low-emissivity replacement windows. Kitchen finish refreshes are widespread. Some owners have converted dens that were originally framed as third bedrooms. Buyers who plan to update should price the work realistically. A 2026 desert-landscape refresh, a primary-bath remodel, and a kitchen tune-up can run $60,000 to $120,000 above acquisition cost depending on finish level.
The amenity center at Trilogy at Power Ranch is the San Tan Club. The 27,000-square-foot clubhouse was significantly renovated in 2015 and has been the social spine of the community since the early years. Outside its doors, the 18-hole Power Ranch Golf Course threads through the community. Dick Bailey designed the course as a par-71 routing of roughly 6,700 yards from the back tees. The Queen Creek wash threads through several holes.
Dignity Health Mercy Gilbert Medical Center
The pairing matters for buyers comparing this property with newer Trilogy communities. Many later Trilogy builds carry expensive golf-membership initiation fees layered on top of HOA dues. At Power Ranch, the golf course is a public-access daily-fee facility. It is not a member-only country club. That keeps the all-in monthly cost meaningfully lower than its Trilogy siblings while still offering golf inside the gate.
Inside the San Tan Club, the 2015 renovation added an upgraded movie theater, a full-service cafe, and an enlarged fitness center. The hobby footprint extends well beyond what most active adult clubhouses carry. There is a ceramics studio, a stained glass workshop, a billiards hall, a card room, and a quilting and scrapbooking suite. A computer lab still draws daily users. Slate Bistro and the Trilogy Cafe operate as casual restaurants on the property. Dinner inside the gate is a routine option rather than a special-event arrangement.
Outside the clubhouse, two resort-style pools handle the temperature-driven seasonal swing. The lap pool serves morning swimmers and aqua-fitness classes. The second relaxation pool is the social center on warm afternoons. A heated spa runs year-round. It is a particular draw on December evenings, when daytime highs sit in the high 60s and the pool deck reads like a covered patio with steam rising.
The Dick Bailey routing makes the most of Power Ranch’s gentle elevation changes. It also follows the natural drainage line of the Queen Creek wash. Several holes play across or alongside the wash. The wash functions as both a hazard and a wildlife corridor. Jackrabbits, quail, and the occasional bobcat are routine sightings. The course operates on a daily-fee model. Residents play at preferred rates without being locked into a country-club membership obligation.
A typical week at Trilogy at Power Ranch is built less around one big event and more around three or four recurring threads. Bocce leagues fill the courts most mornings between October and April. The stained glass studio runs open hours twice a week. Seasonal classes fill within hours of the registration email. Bunco, mah jongg, line dancing, and pickleball ladders cycle through the calendar. Friday evenings at Slate Bistro and the Trilogy Cafe pull together a steady cross-section of residents. Dinner inside the gate becomes a chosen ritual rather than a default.
The social baseline is friendly without being demanding. New residents who arrive in November are usually folded into two or three activity groups before the holidays. Long-time residents speak about the calendar as something they shape rather than something handed to them. The reason is partly structural. Charter clubs are resident-led, lightly governed by the HOA, and free to evolve.
The active charter-club roster is broad. A wine society organizes monthly tastings. A travel group runs cruises and motor-coach trips. A women’s club and a men’s club anchor the social calendar. There is a bocce league, a tennis ladder, and a pickleball league. Craft circles cover quilting, scrapbooking, and stained glass. The travel group is a notable resource for snowbirds making the seasonal transition into permanent ownership. It functions as a built-in social network for couples and solo residents who arrived from outside the Phoenix metro.
Snowbird ownership at Trilogy at Power Ranch follows the standard Arizona pattern of October arrivals and April departures. There is one local wrinkle. The surrounding Power Ranch master plan is full of working families, school-age children, and weekend community events. Residents who keep grandchildren or visiting family in mind often take advantage of the master plan’s lake and splash pad. Both sit a few minutes outside the Trilogy gate. The cross-generational mix is not a programming feature. It is a geographic accident with real social consequences.
Gilbert sits at the southeast corner of metro Phoenix. Mesa is to the north and Queen Creek is to the southeast. Trilogy at Power Ranch is in the lower-southeast quadrant of Gilbert. The location is near where the suburb’s grid breaks up into rural lots, with the San Tan Mountains lifting the horizon to the south. The Superstition Mountains define the eastern view in the longer distance. Loop 202, the Santan Freeway, is roughly five minutes north and west. That spine connects the community to Mesa, Tempe, central Phoenix, and Sky Harbor.
Three landmarks form the practical geography of daily life. Loop 202 is the spine that carries residents toward Sky Harbor International Airport in roughly 30 minutes. Drive time depends on the time of day. San Tan Village is the regional retail anchor. The open-air shopping district at Williams Field Road and SanTan Village Parkway carries Apple, Dillard’s, Macy’s, and a long list of restaurants. Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport sits roughly 10 to 15 minutes east on Loop 202. It serves as a low-cost alternative to Sky Harbor for residents flying Allegiant or Sun Country routes. Together, the three points form a triangle that frames most of how out-of-state buyers move in and out of the property.
The closest big-park outdoor draw is San Tan Mountain Regional Park. The 10,000-plus-acre Maricopa County preserve is roughly 15 minutes south. Lost Dutchman State Park, near the base of the Superstitions, is a 35-minute drive northeast and a frequent winter day-trip target. Gilbert Regional Park, closer in, offers a stocked fishing lake, splash pad, dog park, and miles of paved walking paths.
Healthcare from Trilogy at Power Ranch is best understood by service line rather than by hospital name. Three different systems operate within a fifteen-minute drive of the gate. Cardiology has a clear local anchor. Banner Heart Hospital sits on the Banner Baywood campus in Mesa and is a regionally recognized cardiac center. Orthopedics and surgical services flow through Dignity Health Mercy Gilbert Medical Center. The full-service hospital is roughly seven miles north of the community. Same-day urgent care is the densest layer. Banner Urgent Care, Dignity Health Now, and HonorHealth FastER locations dot the Higley Road and Loop 202 corridors. They handle the bulk of non-emergent issues without a primary-care appointment.
For higher-acuity specialty care, residents typically route to Banner University Medical Center Phoenix or Mayo Clinic Hospital in Phoenix. Both sit roughly 35 to 45 minutes from the gate by way of Loop 202. The geographic logic is straightforward. Routine appointments and common surgeries stay close. Academic-medicine cases travel.
Mercy Gilbert is the closest full-service hospital to Trilogy at Power Ranch and the one most residents name first. The campus carries a 24-hour emergency department, a heart and vascular program, and a range of surgical specialties. An attached medical-office building houses the bulk of the local Dignity Health specialist network. For residents who want a single system across primary care, specialty referral, and hospital admission, Dignity Health offers the most consolidated option in this corner of the East Valley.
A practical pattern has emerged among Trilogy at Power Ranch residents in the past five years. The routine annual physical is handled in-network through a Medicare Advantage plan. A concierge or direct-primary-care relationship sits alongside it for after-hours access and unhurried visits. Telehealth has become a baseline expectation for medication management and follow-up care. That matters in a community where snowbirds toggle between Arizona and a home state. A buyer evaluating the property in 2026 should price both the in-network access and the optional concierge layer when modeling annual healthcare cost.
The cost picture at Trilogy at Power Ranch breaks into three pieces that move at different speeds. The acquisition price is the largest variable. Resale prices in 2026 typically begin in the low $400,000s for the smallest 1,141-square-foot plans on standard interior lots. Prices stretch into the $800,000-plus range for renovated estate-tier homes on larger lots with golf-course or wash views [UNCONFIRMED — verify with current MLS]. The HOA dues are the most predictable. Owners pay both a Trilogy-specific assessment and a Power Ranch master association fee. Together they typically land in the approximately $400 to $600 per month range, depending on the specific assessment cycle [UNCONFIRMED]. The third piece is the carrying-cost layer: Maricopa County property taxes, utilities, and any optional services.
Trilogy at Power Ranch dues fund the guard gate, common-area landscaping, and San Tan Club operations. The two resort-style pools and the fitness center also draw on the assessment. The reserve account cushions major-system replacements such as roof refurbishment on the clubhouse and resurfacing on the pool decks. The Power Ranch master association fee is separate. It funds the larger master-plan amenities — the lake, parks, and master-association programming. Buyers should request the most recent budget and reserve study during escrow rather than rely on a list price disclosure. Both numbers are revisited annually.
Read the full Arizona 55+ buyer’s guide
Dogs and cats are permitted under standard limits. Leash and waste rules apply across the trail network. Rentals are subject to the community’s CC&Rs and should be reviewed with care if the property is intended as a part-time or investment home. On the tax side, Arizona offers two structural advantages for retirees. The state fully exempts Social Security income. The Senior Property Valuation Protection Option freezes the assessed valuation for qualifying owners 65 and older with income below state thresholds. The Maricopa County Assessor publishes the application and current income caps each year. Many Trilogy at Power Ranch residents qualify by their second or third year of ownership.
Trilogy at Power Ranch is age-restricted under the Housing for Older Persons Act. At least one resident in each home must be 55 or older, and no full-time resident can be under 19. The age rule applies only to the Trilogy enclave, not to the surrounding Power Ranch master plan, which is multi-generational.
HOA dues at Trilogy at Power Ranch typically range from approximately $400 to $600 per month The fee covers guard-gate staffing, San Tan Club access, two pools, the fitness center, common-area landscaping, and reserve contributions. Owners also pay a separate Power Ranch master association fee.
Yes. Dogs and cats are permitted, with reasonable limits on the number of pets per household and standard leash and waste rules on common-area trails. Owners should review the current pet policy in the CC&Rs before purchase.
Yes. Trilogy at Power Ranch is a guard-gated 55+ enclave inside the larger Power Ranch master plan. The main entry is staffed, and residents access the side streets through a combination of guard wave-throughs, vehicle decals, and gate codes.
Dignity Health Mercy Gilbert Medical Center, Banner Heart Hospital, and Arizona General Hospital – Gilbert all sit within roughly 15 minutes of the Trilogy gate. Banner Health, Dignity Health, and HonorHealth all maintain outpatient and urgent-care locations along the Higley Road and Loop 202 corridors.
[IMAGE 8: Trilogy at Power Ranch San Tan Club exterior with pool deck in afternoon golden light]
The most useful first visit to Trilogy at Power Ranch follows a predictable shape. Plan for a three-hour window. Arrive at the Village Parkway gate with an appointment confirmed through a 55+ specialist or the listing agent. The guard will not pass through walk-up traffic without an active showing. Walk the San Tan Club first. The clubhouse is the single best read on the daily texture of the community. Drive at least three different streets. Aim for one in an older Trilogy phase, one in a Shea-built later phase, and one that backs the golf course. Stop for a coffee at the Trilogy Cafe and watch who walks in.
Out-of-state buyers should plan two visits if the calendar allows. The first is a fact-finding pass. It compares Trilogy at Power Ranch with at least one other Trilogy community in the Valley and one non-Trilogy 55+ option in the East Valley.
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The second visit is the offer-readiness pass. A buyer walks two or three specific homes and confirms inspection and lender logistics with the local 55+ specialist before writing.
Before the first visit, three pieces of homework save time on the ground. First, request the active resale list from a Gilbert-area 55+ specialist. Pre-screen by floor plan size, build year, and lot characteristics. Second, drop pins on the map for the San Tan Club, Mercy Gilbert, San Tan Village, Loop 202 access, and Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport. Drive the routes between them on a normal weekday at the time of day you would actually use them. Third, ask the specialist to compare Trilogy at Power Ranch with at least one newer Trilogy property in the Phoenix area. Confirm that the resale-only, no-initiation-fee model genuinely fits how you want to spend money in retirement. Many buyers think they want a brand-new community. After one walk through the San Tan Club bocce courts on a Tuesday morning, they discover that twenty-six years of settled neighborhood is the actual draw.