Land Tejas buys 1,000-acre Katy tract
Land Tejas has purchased 1,039 acres in Katy to make way for a residential community designed to include 3,000 homes.
The acreage is a few miles north of Interstate 10 and west of the Grand Parkway along Clay and Pitts roads. It is within both Harris and Waller counties.
Houston-based Land Tejas, a 23-year-old land development company whose recent projects include Balmoral in Humble and Harmony in Spring, closed on the property at the end of last year. It purchased the site with CBA Land Capital LP. Land Tejas declined to disclose the seller.
“This tract offers an excellent location close to major employment centers and it’s also within the Katy Independent School District,” James Henrie, Land Tejas’ chief operating officer, said in a press release Friday.
Lots are expected to be delivered to builders next year.
The land surrounds LakeHouse, a new community by Trendmaker Homes with homes priced from the $260,000s to more than $500,000, on the west and north sides.
Parcels as large as 1,000 acres have become more scarce as Katy rice farms have filled in with developments over the decades, said land broker Stan Creech with Stan Creech Properties. More often, developers find tracts in the range of 200 or 300 acres for residential developments.
“It’s a crown jewel of one of the very original rice farming families,” Creech said of the land. “There aren’t many of those left.”
Creech, who was not involved in the transaction, estimated that land values for parcels that size in the area could run from $45,000 to $55,000 an acre.
The deal is among the largest land purchases in the Houston area since late 2018, according to Lawrence Dean, the Houston regional director for Metrostudy, a housing information and research firm. Many of the larger deals, including other Land Tejas deals, were between 500 and 900 acres during that period.
“It is hard to find tracts of 1,000-plus acres in Houston without going well beyond the current path of growth,” Dean said.