San Antonio Business Journal - June 10, 2005 by Tricia Lynn Silva
A team of developers working to bring more country living to the area is moving forward with its next project.
Locally based Post Oak Development of Texas Inc. and Dallas-based Baruch Properties have inked a contract to purchase roughly 1,750 acres of land. The tract is located on Highway 16 (Bandera Road), about six miles north of Helotes and just west of Park Road 37.
The bulk of the land lies in Medina County, which is just west of Bexar County; about 50 acres is situated in Bandera County, says Craig Glendenning, president of Post Oak. All of the land is within the San Antonio extra-territorial jurisdiction (ETJ).
The land is presently owned by a group of private individuals, says Glendenning, who adds that the deal is expected to close in early 2006.
With this much land, the development could have "a little bit of everything," he says. "It will be a multi-use project; we expect to be in the planning stages for the next six to seven months.
"It's three times bigger than my home town," quips Glendenning, who is a native of Celina, a North Texas town in Collin County. Asked about the name of the community, Glendenning says that he's playing with the name Rancho Chaparral -- a sort of tribute to the El Chaparral Mexican Restaurant just off of Highway 16, one of his favorite restaurants. Of course, he plans to get approval from the owners to use the name before any brochures go out, he notes.
The Post Oak/Baruch partnership plans to put a significant amount of money into this project. Glendenning has put development costs for the project at over $100 million.
Indeed, it is a project that the Post Oak/Baruch venture plans to be in for quite a while.
"We're in this for a long time," says Glendenning, "and hopefully a good time." Build-out is expected to take about 10 years, he says.
Over time, Glendenning expects that the community will include a mix of retail, and residential development, as well as some school sites. Down the road, the project might even be ideal for an office campus.
The rooftops, however, must come first, Glendenning says.
Initial plans for the residential portion of the development call for about 3,500 homes that would range in size from the mid $100,000s to about half a million dollars -- in other words, a little bit of everything. Homes will sit on about a half acre of land, says Glendenning, who adds that he's in the process of applying for a municipal utility district that would supply water and sewer for the community.
Based on current statistics, Glendenning may not be waiting too long for the housing portion of Rancho Chaparral to come to fruition.
According to statistics provided by STDB (Site To Do Business) Online, the city of Helotes boasted a population of 2,401 people in 1990. By 2000, the city had 4,285 people -- a population increase of 78.4 percent.
The number of households in Helotes jumped from 825 in 1990 to 1,471 by 2000. Between 2004 and 2009, the number of households is expected to jump another 22.7 percent -- for a total of 2,209 homes.
And looking at home values over the past decade, the product that Glendenning and Baruch are planning to bring to this area will likely do well. In 1990, the median home value in Helotes stood at $108,937. By 2000, the median home value had jumped 35 percent to $147,024, according to STDB Online figures. Meanwhile, in 1990 55 homes in Helotes ranged in price from $200,000 to $300,000; by the year 2000, there were 234 homes in that range.
Glendenning is also banking on the fact that all of the homes will be located in prime school districts. About 1,250 acres of the tract are located in the Northside Independent School District; with the balance being shared between Medina ISD (500 acres) and Bandera ISD (50 acres).
"Everything built out Highway 16 has been successful," says local developer Norm Dugas, owner of Dugas Diversified Developments LC.
But Glendenning's project is a few miles away from that present growth, Dugas notes. So the question may be whether or not people want to drive that extra 15 minutes in order to live in the Hill Country.
Then again, that is what developers do, Dugas says: They try to work ahead of the curve.
Adds Glendenning: "If (the development) is already there, it's too late for us."