Hillwood to develop prize tract

The Perot family’s Hillwood Residential is making a pricey land development play in the heart of North Dallas.

Hillwood has contracted to purchase almost 22 acres at the southwest corner of Inwood Road and Royal Lane.

The big lot has been on the market for $28 million and was originally acquired as an estate for Dallas businessman Kenny Troutt.

But the Troutts changed their minds about building a home and put the land up for sale last spring. Mr. Troutt had assembled the property along Bachman Creek from a half dozen owners.

Now Hillwood hopes to build a small gated neighborhood for super luxury houses.

“I think we will end up with somewhere like 17 or 18 lots,” Fred Balda, president of Hillwood Residential, said Thursday. “It’s going to be one of the highest-end communities in that part of town.

“We are looking at homes from $5 million to in excess of $10 million,” he said.

Most homes in the immediate area already sell in the millions. And one of the neighbors is Ross Perot, the father of Hillwood founder Ross Perot Jr.

“I think that’s a home run,” said agent Eleanor Mowery Sheets of Coldwell Banker Residential. “We can sell that all day long.”

Hillwood is one of North Texas’ largest residential community developers, with projects all over the map. But most of the company’s subdivisions are aimed at high-volume homebuilders.

However, in Jackson Hole, Wyo., Hillwood is developing an exclusive residential community even more expensive. “That project has $10 million lots,” Mr. Balda said.

The North Dallas development is in the early planning stages, he said. The land is already zoned for one-acre lots.

Real estate agent Allie Beth Allman said she’s been getting at least a handful of calls a week since the land went on the market last May.