San Antonio Business Journal - February 10, 2006 by Tricia Lynn Silva
The partnership behind several large land plays in the San Antonio area has closed on the purchase of property for its latest residential development project.
Dallas businessman Shaul Baruch, in partnership with locally based developer Craig Glendenning, recently acquired 200 acres of land in the Medina Valley Independent School District.
The tract is located at U.S. Highway 90 and Grosenbacher Road - about one mile west of Hwy. 90 and Loop 1604, says Glendenning, who is the president of Post Oak Development of Texas Inc.
The duo also has inked a contract to purchase an adjoining tract of 124 acres, he adds.
The master plan for the 324 acres calls for a residential development of roughly 1,150 homes. Infrastructure work on phase one is set to begin in about eight months, Glendenning adds. Plans call for developing about 300 home lots per each phase of the neighborhood.
As for builders, Glendenning says that he and partner Baruch are presently in talks with a national builder that will construct homes on the initial 800 lots. That same group likely will have right of first refusal for the balance of the community - some 350 homes.
Glendenning declined to divulge the builder, citing pending negotiations.
Development costs for the entire project are slated to be in excess of $15 million, he adds.
In the past, Glendenning has put a colorful touch to his and Baruch's projects. To date, they are developing communities in the San Antonio area such as Dancing Bear Ranch - a play on Glendenning's nickname from his days back at Texas A&M University. The Baruch/Glendenning duo are also in the midst of a project called Rancho Chaparral - a sort of tribute to the El Chaparral Mexican Restaurant off of Highway 16, and one of Glendenning's favorite haunts.
Glendenning says that the builder he and Baruch are presently in talks with for the current project will be given poetic license on the naming rights this time around.
With this latest deal, Baruch and Glendenning are now the proud owners of roughly 4,000 acres of land in the greater San Antonio area.
Make that 4,000 acres and counting.
"I'm looking for more land," says Baruch, who is the owner of Dallas-based Baruch Properties.
Of late, much of the buying frenzy has been along the Loop 1604/Interstate Highway 10 corridor in Northwest San Antonio. This past December, for example, the venture purchased 382 acres of land at the northwest corner of IH 10 and Camp Bullis Road.
"Everything from about Highway 90 to the I-10 corridor is our home," says Glendenning. "I love it out here."
But this latest land play is a departure of sorts for the venture in one way: The price of the homes.
In the past, Glendenning and Baruch have devoted much of their energy toward higher-end communities. For example, the homes in Dancing Bear, located on the far Northwest Side, range in price from $200,000 up to $1 million.
With the Highway 90/Grosenbacher tract, the focus will be on mid-range homes. Glendenning expects the homes here will range in price from about the $140,000s to the $200,000s.
"We see this as a family community - one with a lot of children," Glendenning says.
And one thing that children need is a school.
Glendenning and Baruch are presently in talks with the Medina Valley Independent School District. The focus of those discussions, Glendenning says, is about 24 acres of land that he and Baruch want to donate to the school district for a future facility.
Asked about the decision to jump from higher-end projects to mid-level communities, Glendenning says that it simply comes down to the economics.
"The price of the homes doesn't really matter to us," he says. "The deal just has to work - at least we hope it does."
The Highway 90/Grosenbacher tract is clearly located in a growing sector of the area's housing market.
At present, there are some 70,000 single-family lots in the planning stages on the far Northwest Side. Most of those homes are concentrated in an area between Bandera Road, Highway 90 and Loop 1604.
That 70,000-lot figure, however, may be a bit off, according to Jack Inselmann, who is the vice president of the U.S. Central Division of Metrostudy, a leading provider of housing information.
He points out that as many as 80,000 housing lots could come online in that area over the next two decades.
That would suit Glendenning just fine.
"We hope and pray this is where the housing is," he adds. "What's the old saying, 'Go west, young man?'?"