Residential Community: Hines secures 3,000 Acres

HOUSTON – – Houston-based Hines, one of the world’s largest real estate developers, has purchased 3,000 acres on the west side of Houston for a large-scale planned community.

Years from now, the development will have more than 7,000 homes.

Construction will begin early in 2025 and the initial lots will be delivered to home builders in 2027 with the first home owners arriving shortly thereafter.

The acreage is approximately 40 miles due west of Downtown Houston where Hines has developed a number of skyscrapers, including the 75-story JPMorgan Chase Tower, the tallest building in Texas.

The new large-scale planned community is west of the Grand Parkway and south of the Westpark Tollway, near the town of Fulshear, which has been entangled in Houston’s relentless westward growth patterns in recent years.

Houston has been near or atop the nation’s leaderboard in home construction for years, often building 40,000 single-family home sales per year, standing with Dallas year-after-year as the top two residential building markets in America.

Home builders, by offering mortgage buy-downs and trimming construction costs, have claimed larger shares of the housing market at the expense of existing homes. Therefore, land sales in Houston’s exurbs and suburbs have been strong as developers clear the coastal prairie for new residential subdivisions and new homes.

For the new 3,000-acre Fulshear project, Hines has partnered with multiple home builders to acquire this land, including Toll Brothers, Perry Homes, Highland Homes, Village Builders/Lennar, Dreamfinder Homes/Coventry Homes, Westin Homes, Newmark Homes, and Beazer Homes.

“This submarket has been ranked the second-fastest growing city in the U.S. for the last two years, making it a prime market to deliver high-quality and unique housing options,” said Rob Witte, Senior Managing Director, Head of Residential Land Development and Self-Storage, Americas, Hines. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime piece of land, and we worked tirelessly with our builder partners to ensure we had the opportunity to build what is one of the best sites in Texas.”

Amenities in phase one are slated to feature a five-acre recreation center with a resort-style water feature and hiking and bike trails will be incorporated throughout the community alongside over 800 acres of natural oxbow lakes, greenspace, and mature trees. Hines will also be responsible for the completion of the Texas Heritage Parkway from its current terminus at Westpark Tollway to the southern boundary at Winner-Foster Road.

Although well known for its commercial projects, such as the Galleria mall and high-rise properties including the 64-story Williams Tower (nee Transco Tower), Hines has developed a number of residential communities. Since 2005, the firm has completed 26 communities across the southwest, with 13 currently under construction. Houston communities include Brookewater, Creekhaven, Raburn Reserve, Grayson Woods, Somerset Green, Laurel Glen, and Wildrye, which recently started construction.

Decades ago, in Fort Bend County on the southwest side of Houston, Hines started the 9,700-acre First Colony, which was developed in partnership with Stichting Shell Pension Fund.

Today, Hines has 5,000 employees in 31 countries. The company was founded in 1957 by Mr. Gerald D. Hines. After graduating from Purdue University, Mr. Hines moved to Houston and resided at the local YMCA before launching into real estate development and creating a company which now has $93 billion in assets under management. Mr. Hines passed away in 2020 at the age of 95.