By Blake Herzog
For this year’s House & Hearth issue we’re sitting down with Maria Nalda, co-owner of Crystal Creek Builders. Her impoverished European childhood helped her to build the resilience and persistence she needed to overcome the obstacles of a high-powered career in the upper echelons of corporate America. Once she realized what that career was costing her, she followed her heart to volunteering in Asia and to her children in Arizona.
Through Match.com she met Scott Nalda, who had purchased Crystal Creek from its previous owners a few years earlier. Now 60, she’s rediscovered herself by guiding clients through the process of building the customized home of their dreams, enjoying life with her family including two grandchildren and pondering a return to writing children’s books.
Prescott LIVING: I’m sitting with Maria Nalda in the artfully decorated conference room at Crystal Creek Builders, one of Greater Prescott’s premier custom home builders, which she co-owns with her husband, Scott. Let’s start with your background. From reading your Women in Business bio, it’s clear you have quite a story.
Maria Nalda: I was born in Spain, in a tiny farming town on the border with Portugal called Terrado. It was poor, and it was during Franco’s dictatorship, so life was hard. My family didn’t have much. On top of that, my mom struggled with serious mood disorders and borderline personality disorder, so home life was difficult.
By the age of 4, I was responsible for seven cows.
When I look at my granddaughters now, it’s hard to imagine a child that young being responsible for getting them to the fields, making sure they ate, keeping them out of other people’s crops, and bringing them home safely. I was an only child, but I was not a pampered child.
I walked about two miles to school each way. Then, when I was 8, my parents had the opportunity to come to the United States, but they couldn’t bring me, so they left me in a convent. I stayed there for four years with no contact from my parents. I was 12 when I was finally reunited with them in Newark, New Jersey.
I arrived not speaking a word of English, trying to navigate a tough environment, a mother with serious emotional struggles, and a father who worked constantly and stayed away from the house as much as he could. I realized pretty early that my way out was education, so I pushed myself hard. In high school, I graduated near the top of my class. The class that kept me from valedictorian was English, which makes sense because it was my third language. I also speak Portuguese.
I earned scholarships and could have gone away to school, but my parents wouldn’t let me. It was OK to leave their daughter in a convent, but it was not OK for me to leave them because by then it reflected on them. We lived in a close Spanish community where everyone knew each other’s business, and my leaving would have been judged. So, I stayed local, went to Kean University, studied accounting because I was good with numbers and a guidance counselor told me it paid well, and finished in three years. It was all transactional.
I was just trying to find my way out.
I married the first man I fell in love with when I was 21, and in many ways, I ended up marrying my mother. He struggled with mood disorders of his own. We had two children. I focused on my kids and my career because divorce was not an option in my mind. Ultimately, because of his struggles, he took his own life.
I became a supermom and superworker and went from being the little girl running with cows in a small town to an executive at a Fortune 50 company.
Prescott LIVING: Which company?
Maria Nalda: Prudential Financial. I made it pretty far up the corporate ladder. But in the middle of raising two teenagers and dealing with my husband’s death, I started having serious health issues. I had been there for 20 years.
Around that time, my daughter had come to college in Arizona, and my son said, “If she’s not coming back, I’m going too.” My parents had already moved back to Spain, and I found myself asking what I was doing. I was chasing titles and the golden handcuffs, but I had lost sight of who I was.
I decided to leave corporate America and started volunteering to reconnect with myself. I worked with children, including in the Philippines, and wrote three children’s books about helping kids navigate the harder parts of life, the loneliness, the fear, the feeling of not belonging. Eventually, I followed my kids to Arizona.
Along the way I met Scott. He started pulling me into Crystal Creek one small ask at a time, and before I knew it, I was all in. All the skills I built along the way now show up in what I do every day.
Prescott LIVING: How did you meet your husband, and did he already own Crystal Creek?
Maria Nalda: He bought Crystal Creek in 2014. We’re actually a Match.com success story.
I moved to Arizona in 2017, and my kids kept telling me, “You need to get out there.” I was living in Chandler, and Scott was in Prescott. I almost dismissed him because I wasn’t interested in a long-distance relationship.
Right around Christmas, he sent me a thoughtful email about a photo of my kids. Something about it made me respond, and that’s how it started.
At the time, I was just leaving my corporate job. We met on the 12th, and by the 16th, I was on a plane to Manila to do volunteer work.
That experience changed me. I thought I had seen hardship before, but I wasn’t prepared for what I encountered there. I worked with children who were suffering, and in some cases had passed away, families who couldn’t even afford a funeral. It broke my heart in a way I had never experienced.
Scott stayed in touch with me during that time. I was not at my best. I was emotional and overwhelmed, and he showed up with a level of care and steadiness that meant a lot. Together, we helped cover the cost of a little girl’s funeral.
When I came back, we saw each other again, and everything just fell into place. I had gone from being very guarded and driven in my corporate life to feeling completely open and vulnerable, and that didn’t scare him. He stepped right into it with me.
We got married on the third anniversary of when we met, in 2020, in the middle of COVID.
Prescott LIVING: So, how is your work for Crystal Creek different from your career at Prudential?
Maria Nalda: When I joined corporate America, I had to work extra hard. I had the grades, but not the same background or schools as my competition. I started in accounting and technology and reinvented my career several times. Did it touch my heart? Not really. I was good at it and I got it done, but it felt mechanical.
Crystal Creek is completely different. This is a human experience. Our clients are building the home of their dreams. Every home is different. Some are retiring here. Some are downsizing. Some are creating a place for their grandchildren. Others are still growing their families. Our job is to understand the home they’ve been carrying in their minds, bring it to paper, and turn it into reality. That brings a level of satisfaction that nothing in corporate ever did.
You see it in their faces. It starts with a floor plan, and suddenly they’re imagining how they’ll live there, where they’ll have their morning coffee, how they’ll enjoy the sunset. Then we bring it to life with 3D visuals and flyarounds, and it becomes emotional. There are tears. That moment of, “This is going to be our home.” Then we build it. They select the finishes, the flooring, the countertops, the cabinets.
It’s an adventure for them, and being part of that journey is very meaningful.
I think I was always meant to be here. In corporate, I did a lot of public speaking, presentations and women’s forums, and people would often ask, “If you weren’t doing this, what would you have done?” I always said, “Probably interior design or architecture,” because I just love it. And here I am.
Prescott LIVING: It couldn’t have worked out better.
Maria Nalda: Scott and I really complement each other, both personally and professionally. We share the same values, and that foundation carries into how we run the business. From a skillset perspective, we fill each other’s gaps. He brings deep construction expertise and strong business sense, while I bring the creative vision, operations and strategic thinking. Together, we make a great team.
Prescott LIVING: Where do you build?
Maria Nalda: We focus on the premier communities. Most of our work is in Prescott, Prescott Valley and across the Williamson Valley corridor, extending down toward Las Vegas Ranch.
Prescott LIVING: You will help people find a property if they need one. Is that more often the case, that they don’t already have the property?
Maria Nalda: About 50% of the time they’re still looking for a lot, and yes, we help with that. We offer free lot evaluations so people can make informed decisions before they buy. A lot of times people focus on price and think, “This is the most affordable option,” but they don’t always understand what comes with it. They might find something online, see it on Google Earth, and it looks flat with beautiful views.
But what they don’t see is that it may sit in a drainage area or require significant site work. What they saved on the land, they end up spending in construction, and it can limit what they’re able to build. We walk the lot, evaluate it and help them understand the real cost and what’s truly possible before they commit.
Prescott LIVING: Tell us about your full-service approach. How does Crystal Creek guide clients from start to finish?
Maria Nalda: We call it “from design to keys.” Everything happens under one roof, and we handle every aspect of the build from design through completion. Scott and I are both at the table from the beginning, and as a husband and wife team, we naturally bring two perspectives. Most of the time, the men want to understand how the home is going to be built, the structure, the systems, how it all comes together. The women are thinking about how it’s going to look and how it’s going to feel. We’re able to guide both sides of that conversation, and that makes a big difference. Clients feel understood, and decisions come together more naturally.
We also have in-house design, so we can walk clients through selections step by step and keep everything aligned.
And we handle everything behind the scenes, permitting, HOA submittals, all of it, so they don’t have to think about it. It’s a very personal experience, and we’re right there with them through all of it.
Prescott LIVING: How many employees do you have?
Maria Nalda: We are 10 in the office, that’s our core team, and it’s a really strong group. Beyond that, we work with many subcontractors, most of whom we’ve had long-standing relationships with.
We work with some of the best in town. That combination of an excellent internal team and trusted trade partners is a big part of why we’re able to deliver the level of quality and experience we do.
Prescott LIVING: How has Crystal Creek grown over the past 35 years?
Maria Nalda: It has really adapted to the times. In the early years, under the previous owners, the focus was on developing communities and building more budget-friendly homes. After the 2008 financial crisis, the company had to shift, and that’s what shaped the model we have today.
Scott took it over in 2014, and I joined him in 2018. At that time, he was building about 10 homes a year. Today, we’re in the 20s, and that growth has been very intentional. As the market evolved, so did client expectations, and we made the decision to invest in the experience. We’ve built a strong team, brought design in-house, and created a space where clients feel comfortable and supported through the process.
Our focus has always been on quality and how people feel while they’re building their home. Over the past two years, we’ve received eight awards, and we’ve become known in the community for the quality of our builds. Even real estate agents will point out when a home is built by Crystal Creek.
Prescott LIVING: What do you see in the future for Prescott’s luxury home market?
Maria Nalda: We’re seeing a strong move toward mountain modern, cleaner lines, more glass, and homes that feel more connected to the outdoors.
At the same time, the classic ranch style will always have a place here.
That’s part of what people fall in love with when they come to Prescott.
We’re also seeing more thoughtful design overall, homes with more movement in the architecture, more attention to fire-conscious building, and a shift toward richer colors and natural materials like real stone. But what really stands out is how people want to live in their homes. They want light, views, and spaces that open up. Big windows, large sliders, places where they can sit with their morning coffee, hear the birds, and feel connected to where they are. At the end of the day, it’s less about a specific style and more about creating a home that feels right for their life.
Prescott LIVING: What are your plans for the future, for the business and personally?
Maria Nalda: From a business standpoint, it’s about staying grounded in what we do well. There’s a lot of noise in the world right now, and our role is to create a sense of stability for our clients. Building a home should feel like a positive, exciting chapter, and we’re very intentional about protecting that experience. We want people to feel taken care of, informed, and confident from start to finish.
Personally, I would love to get back to writing children’s books. Especially now that I have little granddaughters, it feels even more meaningful. I started writing them because I wanted to help children navigate the harder parts of life, the things I wish I had help with growing up. Feeling abandoned. Feeling afraid. Not knowing where you belong. Those themes still matter to me deeply.
Prescott LIVING: How many books have you written?
Maria Nalda: Three. I self-published one, and then a company suggested turning it into a series. The other two are written but not yet published. I’d like to write one more and then re-pitch the full series.
Prescott LIVING: You have two children?
Maria Nalda: I have two, and Scott has one. They’re all adults. One of our granddaughters is 7 and the other is 5 months, so we like to joke that the future is female. They’re in Chandler and Phoenix, so we still have the house I bought when I first moved to Arizona. We spend our weekends there to stay close and be part of the little ones’ lives.
Prescott LIVING: Do you get to go back to Spain frequently?
Maria Nalda: All the time. My parents moved back about 20 years ago, and now they’re in their 80s and their health is getting more fragile. My mom’s
memory and personality have changed a lot. She went from being very strong, with mood swings that kept you on edge, to having dementia, and in a way it softened
her. Now she’s this sweet, gentle version of herself that I never experienced growing up. She just wants to be loved.
Life has a sense of humor sometimes. And sometimes it doesn’t.
I love to travel back as much as I can, and I talk to them every day.
