psukhu
07 March 2003, 01:48 PM
From the February 28, 2003 print edition
Best Land Deal
Travis Ranch: a complicated land deal
Christine Perez Staff Writer
KAUFMAN COUNTY — Land sales don't get more complicated than this. The 2,400 acres off the southeastern shore of Lake Ray Hubbard spanned two counties, Kaufman and Rockwall, and four municipalities: Dallas, Heath, Forney and Mesquite.
There were no utilities to the site, and unanswered questions about how they would ever get there. The value of the property was difficult to assess, but the owner — former Texas Gov. Bill Clements and his family — did not want to tie up the property for an extended period of time without substantial earnest money.
"It scared off a lot of big-time names in Dallas who were unwilling to do so," said Greg Cannon, who along with Tom Pearson at Cushman & Wakefield brokered the sale. "It required us to find a buyer with a lot of fortitude."
Enter Sam Ware. The maverick real estate developer fell in love with the property and thought it would be the ideal spot for a new residential development. Ware eventually convinced the city of Dallas to approve its first-ever municipal utility district, putting him in charge of building streets and bringing water and sewer services to the property.
At full build-out, Travis Ranch will include 6,000 to 7,500 homes and have a taxable value of $1.5 billion to $2 billion.
James Feagin, president of Landmark Interests L.P., is overseeing the project's development and marketing for Ware. Fort Worth-based Carter & Burgess Inc. is performing engineering work at the site.
Ware is planning a Texas theme for Travis Ranch, naming all streets after the state's cities, counties and rivers. He will use the former Clements ranchhouse, a 6,000-square-foot home, first as a marketing center, then as an amenity center. The ranch is still home to about 30 longhorn cattle, which Clements sent to Ware in exchange for allowing him to keep his horses on the property.
Pearson said many doubted the sale would ever go through.
"There were any number of opportunities for the deal to go sideways," he said. "Once we came up with what we thought was a good price range, we worked on getting terms that both sides could live with. None of this was easy. Besides hard work, there was a little bit of luck in there, too."
Contact DBJ writer Christine Perez at cperez@bizjournals.com or (214) 706-7120.
© 2003 American City Business Journals Inc.
Best Land Deal
Travis Ranch: a complicated land deal
Christine Perez Staff Writer
KAUFMAN COUNTY — Land sales don't get more complicated than this. The 2,400 acres off the southeastern shore of Lake Ray Hubbard spanned two counties, Kaufman and Rockwall, and four municipalities: Dallas, Heath, Forney and Mesquite.
There were no utilities to the site, and unanswered questions about how they would ever get there. The value of the property was difficult to assess, but the owner — former Texas Gov. Bill Clements and his family — did not want to tie up the property for an extended period of time without substantial earnest money.
"It scared off a lot of big-time names in Dallas who were unwilling to do so," said Greg Cannon, who along with Tom Pearson at Cushman & Wakefield brokered the sale. "It required us to find a buyer with a lot of fortitude."
Enter Sam Ware. The maverick real estate developer fell in love with the property and thought it would be the ideal spot for a new residential development. Ware eventually convinced the city of Dallas to approve its first-ever municipal utility district, putting him in charge of building streets and bringing water and sewer services to the property.
At full build-out, Travis Ranch will include 6,000 to 7,500 homes and have a taxable value of $1.5 billion to $2 billion.
James Feagin, president of Landmark Interests L.P., is overseeing the project's development and marketing for Ware. Fort Worth-based Carter & Burgess Inc. is performing engineering work at the site.
Ware is planning a Texas theme for Travis Ranch, naming all streets after the state's cities, counties and rivers. He will use the former Clements ranchhouse, a 6,000-square-foot home, first as a marketing center, then as an amenity center. The ranch is still home to about 30 longhorn cattle, which Clements sent to Ware in exchange for allowing him to keep his horses on the property.
Pearson said many doubted the sale would ever go through.
"There were any number of opportunities for the deal to go sideways," he said. "Once we came up with what we thought was a good price range, we worked on getting terms that both sides could live with. None of this was easy. Besides hard work, there was a little bit of luck in there, too."
Contact DBJ writer Christine Perez at cperez@bizjournals.com or (214) 706-7120.
© 2003 American City Business Journals Inc.