Oden Hughes purchased 18.7 acres off Kingsland Boulevard, halfway between the Grand Parkway and Katy Mills, Bisnow has learned. ARA’s Tom Dosch (here with his wife, Jackie, in Israel—they just did a two-week mission trip with e3 Partners) tells us his team repped Oden Hughes in the land acquisition; they scoured the entire Houston market looking for sites and decided to come back to Katy. (Oden Hughes built and quickly sold Parkside Grand Parkway nearby—ARA was involved in that site acquisition in 2013 as well as the recent sale, which garnered good returns.) They purchased this tract off-market.

Tom says there haven’t been many multifamily land sales this year—his team has closed 10—and development has slowed dramatically. But Oden Hughes loves this location and has seen the strength of the area with Parkside Grand Parkway, so it’ll start construction almost immediately on a 389-unit community. Rendered here, it’ll open in late 2016. Tom’s particularly excited about this transaction not just because it’s one of only a few to close in Katy this year but also because it pushes the ARA Newmark land team over $1B in total sales, a milestone in the land industry.