DALWORTHINGTON GARDENS, Texas — Editor's note: This story originally appeared in the Dallas Business Journal here.
New luxury homes are going up in Dalworthington Gardens, marking the first residential development the municipality has seen in years.
Located at 2611 Pleasant Ridge Road, the forthcoming development will feature 11 lots with custom home prices starting at $1.5 million. Dalworthington Gardens lies within Arlington, and the small municipality hasn’t seen much residential development despite escalating home values.
The roughly 14-acre property lingered on the market for several years prior to the acquisition by Highwater Development. The site was a tough sell, with several acres of flood plain.
“If you look at the map and you look at the MLS, you’d think I was nuts when I told you what we’re selling lots for,” said Cannon Clark, president of Highwater Development. “But then you look at the neighboring properties and DWG as a whole. The submarket here is very unique, the buyer is unique and so we wanted to develop a very unique product.”
The firm will develop six of the 14 acres. The northern side features dense trees that the company will morph into an amenity. Other developers likely saw the property and decided they couldn’t make it work.
“I’ve driven by that property since I was born, and I’m pretty sure it’s been for sale since I was born,” Clark said. “It was way overpriced and it took us about six months to negotiate with the seller to a price we still thought was outrageous… It’s adequately positioned (and) we dug further into the concept of going super high-end, with really expensive lots and really nice homes.”
Highwater Development focuses on infill sites that often go overlooked by other firms. The company has additional ongoing developments, including residential projects in south Arlington and Weatherford.
Initially, the company was planning on doing production-style development and squeezing significantly more lots onto the property. After input from city officials, Highwater Development decided to go for higher-end development.