CELINA, Texas — This article was originally published by our content partners at the Dallas Business Journal. You can read the original article here.
As residents continue to flock to the burgeoning city of Celina, new housing developments are quickly coming online.
That includes Legacy Hills, a master-planned community on more than 3,000 acres spearheaded by Centurion American Development Group. In the latest development, Dallas-based homebuilder UnionMain Homes opened its model home in September at 2425 Saint George Dr. and has already sold two homes to future residents, said Brian Joyce, sales counselor for the company.
Current residences in the neighborhood range from 1,861 to 3,272 square feet and are priced between $475,000 and $589,000. In addition to UnionMain, other builders in the neighborhood are Ashton Woods, Beazer Homes and D.R. Horton.
Once complete, the community is expected to feature seven amenity centers, a 27-acre sports park, an 18-hole golf course, a police station, two fire stations and two Celina Independent School District campuses. The extension of the Dallas North Tollway will run right past the neighborhood.
Homebuilding is still in early phases but Legacy Hills is one of the biggest neighborhoods on the drawing board in Celina, part of a wave of development that is reshaping the city in northwest Collin County.
Other big projects under construction or planned for Celina include the Topaz at Light Farms apartments, The Depot apartments, the North Sky neighborhood and Parks at Wilson Creek. Once complete, these new communities are expected to draw more than 10,000 people to the area.
Rex Glendenning of Rex Real Estate represented Centurion in the land deal for Legacy Hills.
Earlier this year, Celina was recognized as the fastest-growing city in the nation, with an estimated population increase of 26.6% from July 2022 to July 2023. Contributing to the rapid growth is infrastructure like the anticipated arrival of the Collin County Outer Loop, which will be a major east-west thoroughfare connecting the Dallas North Tollway to U.S. Route 75 in the northern part of the county.
The loop will provide easy access to freeways and is situated near good school districts — features residents look for when moving to a new area, said Larry Corson, co-founder and co-president of Corson Cramer Development.
Once fully constructed, the Collin County Outer Loop will connect several growing cities including Celina, Weston, Anna, Farmersville and Josephine. The corridor is considered a “game changer" in terms of improving access within North Texas, said Ted Wilson, principal of consulting firm Residential Strategies Inc.
Since 1990, Centurion has developed more than 100,000 single-family lots in dozens of communities throughout North Texas. The firm has a track record of developing large master-planned communities across the region, including Frisco Hills in Little Elm, Mercer Crossing in Farmers Branch and Prairie Commons in Plano. The company is also spearheading the billion-dollar redevelopment of Collin Creek Mall in Plano.