Plans for a mixed-use development in southern Dallas are taking more definite shape, and two of the nation’s largest homebuilders have signed on to the project.
Dallas real estate investment firm Hoque Global announced that it sold approximately 580 lots to D.R. Horton and Lennar at its roughly 280-acre University Hills development near the University of North Texas at Dallas campus.
The lots will be used for single-family homes and townhomes. The homes are expected to range in price from $300,000 to $500,000, said Mike Hoque, the firm’s CEO. Further pricing information will be available at a later date.
Hoque Global will begin infrastructure work such as road, sewage and pipelines in early 2025. The development could welcome its first residents in mid-2026, Hoque said.
“We are thrilled to be part of this groundbreaking new development in the city of Dallas,” Caleb Lee, Division President of D.R. Horton’s D-FW Central Division, said in a statement. “With our product and positioning, we are confident that D.R. Horton will offer desirable new homes in an area lacking new housing options at an affordable price.”
With builders attached to the project, Hoque is now looking to attract a much-needed grocery store. He told The Dallas Morning News that he’s got H-E-B in mind.
“Southern Dallas has been underserved. This is a mission for us,” he said. “[H-E-B] is very aggressive. Look, they are going everywhere.”
The University Hills development has been in the works for years. Dallas City Council approved $31.4 million in tax increment financing for the project’s first phase in 2022.
At full build-out, the development may hold hundreds of single-family homes, 1,500 apartments, 1.5 million square feet of commercial space and more than 50 acres of open green space on undeveloped land near the intersection of Interstate 20 and Lancaster Road.
The Dallas City Planning and Zoning Commission approved plans for nearly 600 home lots, two commercial lots totaling nearly 39 acres, and 33 common areas earlier this year.
The property is immediately adjacent to the planned Dallas Police Academy and close to Dallas Area Rapid Transit’s Blue Line.
The project is part of Hoque’s continued mission to spur economic activity in the city’s southern sector.
“People think I’m nuts,” he said. “But we just have to do one or two good deals and people will follow.”
Hoque has several other Dallas projects in the works. He’s working on a deal to purchase 711 S. Saint Paul St. from the city to build apartments in his planned Newpark district.
Hoque and Mike Ablon of PegasusAblon previously said they intend to purchase the 72-story Bank of America Plaza from current owner Metropolis Investment Holdings, a Chicago-based real estate firm that manages assets for a German family investment group. The duo said the deal is expected to close by March 2025.