HICKORY CREEK, Texas — A hotel and restaurant are coming to a lavish Denton County mansion that’s been converted into a wedding venue.
Champ d’Or, a 40-acre French chateau-style mansion in Hickory Creek, has been rebranded as The Olana, a wedding and event venue from Walters Hospitality. The first wedding was held on the property last month.
The bridal suite inside the mansion includes an indoor pool. The groomsmen suite includes a bowling alley and basketball court.
“I think it’ll put Hickory Creek on the map in a very unique way,” Mayor Lynn Clark said.
The town previously held public meetings to discuss the possibility of building on the property.
Last month, Town Council voted in favor of bringing a two-story hotel and a restaurant to the estate.
“It’s only going to be 60 rooms,” said Clark said. “It’s intended mainly for people who come over for a wedding.”
Clark says the restaurant will mark the third sit-down restaurant in the town of Hickory Creek.
The hotel will be built facing a pond on the property. In between the hotel and the houses on nearby Saratoga Drive, Clark says there will be a six-foot wall, 15-foot trees and a fire lane.
Residents who live on Saratoga Drive aren’t thrilled about the plans.
“Our [backyard] view will probably be the side of the hotel and then the side of the restaurant,” resident Chip Atchison said. “When you start building a hotel, and start bringing everything right up behind our fence, it’s going to be a little bit different.”
Residents say they haven’t had problems with the wedding venue. Some have noticed the parking lot at The Olana is full during some weekend nights.
They do, however, have issues with the hotel and restaurant, which they say will block their view.
“That’s why we limited them to a two-story structure,” Clark said. “I wouldn’t want to look at a four-story structure behind my house either.”
“We never in our wildest dreams thought they would turn it into commercial property,” Atchison said.
There is no set date yet on when construction on the hotel and restaurant will begin.
Champ d’Or, once priced at $72 million, is appraised at $7.35 million, according to Denton Central Appraisal District, which lists the property’s total improved area at 50,740 square feet.
The property on Turbeville Road was purchased by KSW Holding Hickory Creek last year for a sales price listed as “unavailable,” according to appraisal district records. The last time it sold for a listed price was in 2012, for $6 million, appraisal district records show.
Champ d’Or, which translates to "Fields of Gold,” was originally built starting in 2000 by CellStar Corp. founder Alan Goldfield and his wife, Shirley, as an homage to Chateau de Vaux-le-Vicomte near Paris. It is one of the largest houses in Texas and is one of the grandest residences in the country.
The Goldfields lived in the chateau for only about two years following the completion of the project in 2006.
Since the Goldfields left the chateau, it remained vacant until it was acquired by the Tabani family in 2012.
The estate was once the lone structure in the vicinity, but now has homes nearby, including a community of houses across the street selling in the $500,000 range.