With more than 10,000 homes and apartments, the Legacy Hills community along the future extension of the Dallas North Tollway in northwest Celina is destined to be the largest new residential development in Dallas’ northern suburbs.

The massive development, spanning 3,200 acres, is expected to include 7,000 single-family homes and 4,100 apartment units. It will have 100 acres of commercial space, a 27-acre sports park, two Celina Independent School District schools, an extensive network of walking trails, seven amenity centers and a championship golf course.

Centurion American Development Group of Farmers Branch is developing the Legacy Hills project, financed by Trez Capital.

Real estate broker Rex Glendenning, who handled the land transaction, said the fact that Legacy Hills will have four miles of frontage on the path of the Dallas North Tollway makes the project unique.

The property was purchased from an investment partnership that had owned the land for almost 40 years, Glendenning, CEO of Frisco-based Rex Real Estate, said in an interview with the Dallas Business Journal.

He said he first sold the property in 1982 or 1983 for 10% down and a 10-year-note for $3,500 an acre. He’s not saying how much it sold for this time around, but suffice it to say it’s exponentially higher.

“Flash forward 40 years and we now have a toll road running alongside the property, which no one would have probably ever envisioned back 40 years ago,” said Glendenning, a native and resident of Celina. 

In addition, entitlements have been put in place with the city of Celina over the last several years to allow for a true mixed-use project with retail, commercial and urban residential uses at the property’s five intersections along the toll road extension, Glendenning said.

The lay of the land also sets it apart, he said.

“The property has so much topography and vistas that the 800 to 900 acres that lied within the west fork of the Trinity floodplain are now going to be utilized for Celina’s first 18-hole golf course,” Glendenning said.

“You have the location and the dynamics behind the toll road extension combined with a very conducive mix of land uses combined with a developer that has enough foresight and vision to create a new golf course project to run alongside this development and vertically integrate it to where you have that live, work and play environment,” he said. “You can live there, actually work from home, and walk out your back door and maybe play golf, or walk out of your apartment complex and have extensive hiking and biking trails and linear park systems and an 18-hole golf course.”

Homebuilders committed to the Legacy Hills development include Ashton Woods, Beazer Homes, DR Horton, First Texas Homes, Lennar Homes, M/I Homes and Mattamy Homes.

The project and others in the early development phase virtually ensure that Celina will remain among the hottest housing areas in North Texas and nationwide for years to come.

Last year, Celina was the top residential construction market in North Texas. The city issued 2,516 building permits, up 35% from the 1,862 issued in 2020, which was up 49% from the 1,862 permits in 2019.

Glendenning describes more about the property in the interview that follows. Read on to hear tell of woolly mammoths, cattle-drive trails and miles and miles of views.

Was this land once known as Cow Mountain?

All the old timers when I was growing up in the 1960s and 70s — I’m showing my age here — called it Cow Mountain … I kept 100 acres there and I kept the Cow Mountain name and trademarked it. I intend for my project to be called Cow Mountain because that’s what the old timers called it for years. Of course, Centurion came up with a much more marketable name with Legacy Hills, but I guess ol’ Rex is going to stay with Cow Mountain.  

What are the views like on the property?

There’s a ridgeline, an escarpment area, on the eastern portion of the property, and then it falls dramatically probably 200 feet. It falls to the west as you head toward the toll road extension. You’re at elevation of 350 to 375 feet above sea level, and then from that escarpment, it falls about 200 feet. The escarpment is from when glaciers came through this area and left this ridgeline along the east, and then it has a beautiful, dramatic fall to the west.

You can see about 35 miles to the west from that ridgeline, and the views look out across what is a lot of creeks. That’s where a lot of the west part of the Trinity all converge and flow into Lake Lewisville, Lake Dallas, and it’s just tree canopy looking west with sunsets and ridgelines.

You have views of 25 to 35 miles unobstructed to the west. You can see the twin towers of TWU (Texas Woman’s University) in Denton. You visibly see one of the UNT (University of North Texas) towers and TWU’s towers from there. It’s pretty unique. You’re sitting up high, like a bird’s nest, looking out west as it begins to fall west towards the creeks that flow through the area.

Did one of the major cattle-drive trails run through the property?

I’m kind of a history buff. I raise Longhorns because the Shawnee trail ran through Celina. Preston Road was the Shawnee trail. There were only three major trails: The Shawnee trail through Celina, the Chisholm trail through Fort Worth and Denton and Gainesville, and then the Goodnight trail out in Abilene. 

What’s the history of the land going even further back? 

Just to the west of this property, in the Mustang Creek area in between Celina and Aubrey, they actually located the furthest east existence of the Clovis people. They didn’t think that the prehistoric Clovis people ever made it past Clovis, New Mexico, or West Texas, and they ended up discovering a campsite just west of this property, about three miles, where they had camped and butchered a woolly mammoth right in this basin, right below this Dynavest or Legacy Hills project. It’s pretty intriguing to me to know that woolly mammoths and that much was going on in this vast expanse.

This interview was edited for brevity and clarity.

Key players: Rex Glendenning, REX Real Estate; Mehrdad Moayedi, Centurion American; Charlie Adams and Chase Adams, Stratford Group; Chris Bright, Bright Industries; Trez Capital

Finalists

BARRAZA CONSULTING GROUP, LLC

Las Lomas

REX Real Estate handled negotiations on behalf of Centurion American once again in the purchase of 1,100 acres in the burgeoning Terrell. Beyond thousands of residential lots, the master plan includes several hundred acres of industrial, in addition to commercial and retail sites. 

Key players: Rex Glendenning and Matthew Kiran, REX Real Estate; Mehrdad Moayedi, Centurion American; Craig Curry, Greater Texas Land Resources 

– Anna Butler

VEALE RANCH – REPUBLIC RANCHES

Veale Ranch 

REX Real Estate once again handled these negotiations – though this time this equation included the Veale family, who has held the land for over five generations, and PMB Capital Partners.  but this time on behalf of the Veale family. Located in both Tarrant and Parker counties, Veale Ranch spans 3,790 acres and is within the Aledo School District. 

Key players: Rex Glendenning, REX Real Estate; Taylor Baird, PMB Capital Partners

– Anna Butler