Hidden Gem To Hot Spot: Megaresorts Set To Transform Quiet Lake Texoma — For Better Or Worse

Developers have called Lake Texoma a hidden gem of North Texas, but more than $8B in resort projects planned for its shores could transform it into a well-known destination for travelers across the country. 

Located around 90 minutes north of Dallas on the Texas-Oklahoma border, the nearly 76K acre lake is one of the largest reservoirs in the U.S. It has long been a day trip destination for summer fun, boating, fishing and other recreational activities amid the continued influx of residents to North Texas.

But two projects aim to make Lake Texoma a year-round hot spot with grander ambitions: The $6B Preston Harbor development with a Margaritaville Resort at the center on the Texas side and the $2B Pointe Vista development and its Hard Rock Hotel and casino across the border in Oklahoma.

How it plays out is a matter of opinion. Residents and existing businesses have raised red flags that the projects could change the character of the area and siphon commerce away from local establishments. Yet those close to the projects, and even some former critics, say there is plenty of opportunity for everyone.

“The area is just going to explode – it’s the next big thing,” said Horizon Capital Managing Director Dave Johnson, a partner in the Preston Harbor project with McKinney developer David Craig of Craig International.

Developers and community leaders say Lake Texoma and the surrounding area is up to the challenge of supporting these multibillion-dollar projects, but existing residents and businesses aren’t as sure.

Following Denison’s announcement of the 2,700-acre Pointe Vista master-planned development, upset residents flooded comment sections to complain the project would ruin a peaceful area, destroy Lake Texoma's original charm and native prairie as well as run off wildlife.

The 28,000-resident town of Dennison is already seeing a housing boom and could grow even faster thanks to the opening of a new private hospital and a pair of semiconductor plants coming to nearby Sherman, bringing thousands of jobs.

“We had no say,” wrote one local commenter. “It is unaffordable for 99% of us and it is destroying one of the most beautiful areas of Lake Texoma. This will not bring in more to support the tax base, actually will cost the city and county tax payers more.”

Concerns about the local impacts of large resort project are common, and they were initially shared by Lake Texoma Association Executive President Brandi Burkhalter.

Burkhalter worried the huge projects could negatively affect existing hospitality-based businesses like the Tanglewood Resort in Pottsboro. She ultimately concluded a rush of new interest would be a net benefit to other hotels and businesses.

“There's going to be an influx of visitors at some point that want to try [the new resorts] out, but then they're either going to figure out they can afford to go there or they can't,” Burkhalter said. “It may just be an opportunity for [existing attractions] to … add some additional things that could help their business.”

An economic impact study conducted by Hotel & Leisure Advisors for Kalahari Resorts & Conventions supports that theory. H&LA sifted through two decades of data on impacts to surrounding hotels after the water park resort chain opened locations in Round Rock, Texas, Sandusky, Ohio, and the Pennsylvania Poconos. The study showed huge hospitality projects increased market occupancy levels across the board, even at competing hotels, over a 20-year span.

More full-time residents and more visitors in hotel rooms is an exciting prospect for all the communities neighboring Lake Texoma in both states, said Janet Reed, Chamber of Commerce Executive Director for Durant, Oklahoma. 

“Any type of resort like this, in any community, has to be looked at as a very positive thing,” Reed said. “You're bringing in tourists, which brings in new money.” 

Construction is already underway on the Hard Rock Hotel, which will be on the Oklahoma side of the lake in the Pointe Vista development, west of Durant. It will eventually offer more than 19 miles of shoreline, multiple hotels, a casino, a golf course, an enclosed waterpark and 2,100 homes. 

The Hard Rock Hotel Lake Texoma resort is slated to open in summer 2027, while the buildout of the full Pointe Vista development could take up to 15 years. 

The 3,100-acre Preston Harbor development on the Texas side of the lake will have 7,500 homes, including single-family, multifamily and active-adult communities. Its calling card will be the $100M Margaritaville resort as well as retail elements and an upscale marina.

Infrastructure construction for the development is underway, with the project’s official groundbreaking likely to occur sometime next year. 

Margaritaville has two other Texas resorts built or in development, but the North Texas area was the company's most desired location, Johnson said. 

“They've really created, I think the best term is ‘a lifestyle,’ because as we did our research, it just really fits,” Johnson said of the pairing of Margaritaville and Lake Texoma. “The more people we talked to, a Margaritaville resort just made perfect sense.”  

Johnson expects Preston Harbor to be a haven for empty nesters looking to be close to grandkids in DFW and those wanting a second home near the lake. Its multifamily component will also be a viable option for workers at the planned semiconductor chip plants coming to Sherman, he said. 

Preston Harbor could attract 20,000 new residents to Denison, nearly doubling the size of the Grayson County city.

That could be life-changing growth for the city. Denison Development Alliance President Tony Kaai said the only thing comparable to it is the nearly $30B that Texas Instruments and GlobiTech said they will invest in semiconductor chip plants in Sherman.

Kaai was initially surprised by the announcement of the competing Hard Rock Resort, but he said he trusts the developers know what they’re doing. 

“I'm sure they've done their due diligence,” Kaai said. “They had to sell somebody [that] the thing is going to make money.”

The developments are set to further the already-accelerated growth of Grayson County, which saw a 13% population increase from 2010 to 2020, according to census data. The Texas Water Development Board predicts the county could grow by nearly 9% from its 2020 total of 136,212 residents to more than 148,000 in 2030, per the Texas Council of Governments.

Projections place the county north of 250,000 residents by 2060.

All that growth has made the remaining land in Grayson County more attractive to investors. Developers have scooped up 1,500 acres of land between Preston Harbor and U.S. Highway 75 despite there being very limited existing infrastructure in that area, Kaai said. 

“These developers are gamblers,” Kaai said. “So now we're taking the water and sewer [lines] out there, so they will have water and sewer for this other several hundred acres.”

Getting to the Lake Texoma area is also likely to get easier as an extension of the Dallas North Tollway could make the trip up from Dallas much quicker. 

Construction is currently underway on the extension of the DNT from U.S. Highway 380 to FM 428. Design of the next phase of the project, which will extend the tollway from FM 428 to the Grayson County line, is scheduled to start in 2027. The Grayson County Regional Mobility Authority is looking at a project that would then extend the toll road farther north as the Grayson County Tollway.

McKinney city officials are moving forward with a $70M expansion plan for McKinney National Airport that would bring a commercial passenger terminal. Airports in the Durant area are also working to extend their runways and bring in commercial flights, Reed said.  

These could service visitors to the upcoming attractions at Lake Texoma or things like the planned $200M surf and adventure resort development in McKinney and the “golf nirvana” of the Omni PGA Frisco Resort, as Johnson called it. 

Frisco saw a boom in luxury hotels following the announcement of the PGA’s plan to move to the suburb. Growth is likely to drive the same phenomenon across the region, adding rooms, increasing occupancy rates and boosting the average revenue hotels earn from occupied rooms, according to Frisco Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Christal Howard. 

“Even with all the growth and additional hotels coming into the area, those metrics remain strong, and that's an indication of how desirable Frisco and the surrounding areas remain as a destination,” Howard said. “It's great that there are so many opportunities to bring different types of people and audiences to the area and give them something that they're looking for.”