Hines Sells 7 Dallas-Fort Worth MPCs In $800M Deal With Starwood Capital Group

A portfolio of 11 Texas master-planned communities – including seven in the Metroplex – changed hands last week for $800M. 

A joint venture between an affiliate of Starwood Capital Group and Starwood Land picked up the portfolio from Houston-based developer Hines.

The developments feature more than 600 acres of commercial land and 16,000 remaining residential lots, The Dallas Morning News reported. In addition to the Dallas-Fort Worth communities, the remaining developments are in the Houston and Austin metros. 

“This is a high-quality portfolio created by a first-class investment manager and developer, and we plan to build upon the excellent work Hines has completed to-date and bring the development vision for these communities to fruition,” Starwood Land CEO Mike Moser said in a statement. “We look forward to engaging with homebuilders to expand the communities’ offerings.”

The communities are scattered throughout the Metroplex, ranging from Waxahachie and Midlothian to the south up to McKinney to the north. 

The DFW communities include:

• The 1,263-acre Myrtle Creek development in Waxahachie.
• The 1,100-acre Wildflower Ranch development north of Fort Worth.
• The more than 1,000-acre Furst Ranch development near Flower Mound.
• The 700-acre Northspur development in Terrell.
• The 414-acre Aster Park development in McKinney. 
• The 287-acre Creekside development in Royse City.
• The 251-acre Redden Farms development in Midlothian.

Wildflower Ranch is slated to have more than 3,300 homes from builders such as Beazer Homes, Bloomfield Homes, Brightland Homes, Highland Homes, Lennar, Toll Brothers, Coventry Homes and William Ryan Homes.

Furst Ranch will have over 1,300 homes in its initial phase, though future phases could add 5,000 multifamily units, another 3,000 single-family houses and 1,000 senior homes. Northspur is expected to have around 1,500 homes and Aster Park will have more than 1,100.

The Houston communities sold by Hines are Brookewater, Creekhaven and Wildrye. Mirador in Austin was also on the shopping list.

Hines partnered with Trez Capital on nine of the communities and also worked with Bloomfield Homes, Caravel Ventures, Estein USA, GMcivil and Sumitomo Forestry America.

Hines Managing Partner and Head of Americas Ray Lawler said he was “delighted” by the success of the deal.

"This transaction showcases the deep investment appetite for well-located, master-planned communities that deliver much-needed housing to high-growth markets, and capitalizing on tailwinds in the living sector,” Lawler said in a statement. “Single-family housing, and the living sector generally, is a high-conviction investment theme for Hines globally.”

Master-planned communities have been cropping up all over DFW, with many eschewing city limits, and municipal control,  to build in extraterritorial jurisdictions. However, battles over those developments are brewing, with many cities and municipalities using water rights to exert some say-so over areas likely to be annexed into the city down the line.