News Article | 8/13/2009

Hillwood to develop new lots in Alliance

Hillwood Residential is beginning the development of 78 lots on 30 acres in the Bluffs section of the 2,300-acre Heritage development in Alliance.

The developer will break ground Thursday on the next phase of the masterplanned community in north Fort Worth.

“It makes sense to start a new phase of Heritage at this time because of what the market is telling us,” said Fred Balda, president of Hillwood Residential, in a statement. “Due to continued job growth in the Alliance area and a pent-up demand for housing, Fort Worth’s economy is expected to improve faster than many areas of the country. This next phase will allow us to work with our builders to meet the demand of buyers looking to locate in the highly amenitized Heritage community.”

Heritage, which opened in 2001, had 232 housing starts in the last year with an average sale price of $230,000. There are about 7,000 residents in the development, in 2,600 houses.

The Bluffs phase will be built by Toll Brothers and Standard Pacific. The houses will start at $280,000.

Heritage includes 10 miles of hiking and biking trails, 100 acres of parks and open spaces and other amenities.

Hillwood Residential, founded by Ross Perot Jr., has developed four masterplanned communities in Alliance.

This decision to finish the new Heritage lots comes at a time when bulk lot development has slowed. Much of the focus of the industry over the last year has been to work down the inventory of finished vacant lots. There are 92,335 vacant developed lots in Dallas and Fort Worth, according to data from Dallas-based real estate analysts Residential Strategies Inc., which is an 80-month supply. In the past year, there have been 8,860 lot deliveries, down 64% from this time last year, and there are 5,812 lots currently under development.