Johnson Development Corp. Signals Intent to Build 1,600-Acre Community NW of Houston
By JEFF JEFFREY
HOUSTON – An affiliate of Houston-based Johnson Development Corp. has filed a general plan with city officials for a 1,622-acre master-planned community northwest of Houston.
The proposed community, dubbed Jubilee, would be located southwest of U.S. Highway 290 and Katy Hockley Road in northwest Harris County, a few miles west of the Grand Parkway.
Documents filed with the Houston Department of Planning and Development provide few details about the project beyond a general plan to build at the location. However, the documents said the application was filed by Houston-based LJA Engineering and listed an affiliate of Johnson Development Corp. as the developer.
Johnson Development Corp. did not respond to requests for comment.
That said, the property’s previous owner, Houston-based Rockspring Capital, marketed the 1,622-acre parcel as “ideal for the next major master-planned community in the Northwest corridor.”
Johnson Development Corp. paid an undisclosed price to acquire the property in 2017.
At the time, Rockspring Capital was seeking nearly $43.5 million, according to previous Houston Business Journal reporting. When the deal closed, Rockspring Capital described it as the largest in its history.
Harris County Appraisal District records say the property had a market value of $18.5 million as of Jan. 1.
Rockspring Capital began assembling the land tract in 2006 and finished acquiring all the parcels in 2008. The private real estate investor did some entitlement work, including creating four municipal utility districts on the tract, to prepare the former ranch land for development.
Rockspring Capital and McAlister Real Estate first took the property to market in 2009. But the property failed to move as the Great Recession took hold in Houston.
As HBJ previously reported, Rockspring Capital began getting calls from developers and homebuilders once the financial markets began to harden again, though most were interested in purchasing smaller parcels of about 300 acres at most.
After Johnson Development Corp. purchased the property, a spokeswoman told the HBJ that the company “had no immediate plans for development.”
Three years later, the company’s executives appear to have changed their mind.
They wouldn’t be alone.
As Caldwell Cos. President Fred Caldwell recently told the HBJ, demand for single family homes has skyrocketed this year, in spite of and even because of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic.
Caldwell said many millennials and baby boomers have been looking to move into Houston’s suburbs to find more space after being forced to work from home for months this year.
“There is no question that the rise in working from home has helped to drive sales this year,” Caldwell said. “Many of the floor plans that are selling have one or two studies, which is common with two adults working from home. Covid-19 has really pressed that trend.”
Record-low interest rates have also helped to spur home sales, Caldwell said.
Should Johnson Development Corp. move ahead with the Jubilee master-planned community, it would be the developer’s first project in northwest Houston.
Johnson Development Corp. is the developer behind the local Fall Creek, Grand Central Park, Harmony, Harvest Green, Imperial, Jordan Ranch, Riverstone and Sienna master-planned communities, among others.
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