A new community in southern Fort Bend County is set to get underway with all lots nowsold to homebuilders.
Esperanza, a 442-acre community near Needville, could have its first move-ins withinthe next six months.
Windy Hill Development closed the sale of 336 acres to Lennar Homes in November afterpreviously selling 108 acres to Rausch Coleman Homes in August 2022.
With that, the League City-based development company, headed by Randy and RachaelHall, has exited the project and left it in the hands of the two homebuilders, which willdevelop their lots, streets and amenities. Rausch Coleman told the Houston BusinessJournal the company is still finalizing its park plans, but they typically includeplaygrounds, a walking trail, park benches and a pavilion.
Windy Hill accumulated the former farmland in February 2022 from four differentsellers, some with ownership dating back to the time of the Texas revolution, Randy Hallsaid.
The site is directly east of state Highway 36 between FM 361 and Oberrender Road, about7 miles south of downtown Rosenberg. Esperanza is zoned to the Needville IndependentSchool District.
With the help of the selling families, the developer obtained the entitlements from thecounty and established a municipal utility district for the community, which is not in anycity’s extra-territorial jurisdiction.
The homebuilders hesitated when interest rates kept rising, and Lennar terminated theinitial contract for its acreage in early 2023, Hall said. But the homebuilder reengagedonly a few months later, in summer 2023, as the market improved.
Rausch Coleman has started developing the first of about 440 homesites, and Hallexpects Lennar to get started on its 1,260 lots in the next two to three months.
“Including Rausch and Lennar, there will probably be close to 500 lots developed withinthis calendar year,” Hall said. “And then that would occur probably … every other yearover the next three to five years, depending on the market (and) the velocity of thesales.”
Lots will have front widths ranging from 45 feet to 60 or 65 feet, he said, with two- andthree-bedroom homes ranging from 1,400 to about 3,000 square feet and priced fromthe $300,000s to the $450,000s.
Windy Hill purchased the land through Houston-based private equity firm ConnorInvestment Real Estate and initially planned to develop the lots itself, Hall said.
“But then we were approached by both Rausch and Lennar about buying the projectwhen it was fully entitled — meaning the utility district was created, the drainage planwas approved by the county,” he said, “All of the things that they needed to have happento mitigate the risk of developing lots, we did that.”
The advantage for the homebuilders is that they pay a lower wholesale price for the landinstead of the retail price for already developed lots.
Windy Hill has several other communities in the works, including the 442-acre FreedomTrail near Dayton in Liberty County and the 138-acre Indian Springs near the easternshore of Lake Houston, among others across Greater Houston.
Esperanza is not the only residential community being developed in the southern part ofFort Bend County.
Starwood Land is developing the 933-acre Emberly along U.S. Highway 59 south of FM360, The Signorelli Co. is working on a 4,700-acre “town” called Austin Point with anexpected 14,000 homes about 8 miles east of Esperanza, and Johnson DevelopmentCorp. plans to develop a future 1,490-acre community on the historic 21,000-acre GeorgeRanch.
“Needville is going to be the next Katy in the next 20 years,” Hall said. “We see that samegrowth in (southern) Fort Bend County. The small communities of Pleak and Fairchildsand Needville all are on every builder’s radar right now.”
