Champ d’Or, a lavish, 50,000-square-foot French chateau-style mansion in Denton County, is being marketed as a wedding and event center, and some homeowners who live near it are none too happy about the new plans.
The roughly 40-acre estate in Hickory Creek near Lewisville has been rebranded as The Olana, a wedding and event venue from Walters Hospitality.
Officials with Walters Hospitality did not return a phone call requesting comment about the plans for the property.
To take a photo tour of the property, click here.
Developers with the owners, KSW Holding Hickory Creek LP, are seeking a zoning change from the town of Hickory Creek for the new use. The plan calls for construction of two hotels, a restaurant, a bar and a salon and spa on the property, which was first reported on Candy's Dirt.
The zoning change is up for a vote of the Town Council on June 18 after multiple public hearings in which owners of surrounding homes have protested that they don’t want the commercial development in their neighborhood. Most of the concerns center around noise and traffic.
Plans presented at a June 5 public hearing show two hotel buildings designed to look like large private residences, keeping with the mansion's architectural style, and a new glass enclosure built at the back of the mansion as a reception space. The enclosure and two chateaus will keep sound and light from affecting the neighborhood of Steeplechase North, which sits directly west of the property, according to the plans submitted to the town.
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.
