This article was written by Florian Martin, Staff Writer of the Houston Business Journal.
Manvel’s newest master-planned community has its model homes — and first residents. Valencia, a 440-acre development by Dallas-based Hillwood Communities, began home sales last December. This past weekend, it celebrated a grand opening with seven new model homes.
The H. Ross Perot Jr.-owned company purchased the land and announced Valencia almost exactly three years ago, in October 2021. It broke ground on the community in January 2023 and has delivered 393 home sites thus far, said Russell Bynum, general manager for Hillwood’s Houston-area communities.
Valencia will have 948 one- and two-story homes from 1,500 to 5,000 square feet on 45- to 70-foot lots, currently priced from the $300,000s to the $700,000s. Homebuilders include Beazer Homes, Coventry Homes, Perry Homes and Pulte Homes.
They have sold 50 houses so far, and 20 families are currently living in the community, Bynum said.
“Being able to grand-open the model homes is a momentous milestone occasion for the community,” Bynum said. “We're just incredibly proud of what we've done thus far. (However,) we've still got more to do.”
Construction of the amenity center, Orchard House, is expected to start this week. It will include an infinity-edge pool, a clubhouse, event lawn and a playground. The community will have two additional parks, currently under design, and 8 miles of trails.
Valencia has about 28 acres reserved for future commercial space and 15 acres for an elementary school in the Alvin Independent School District. The timeline for building the school will depend on whether Alvin ISD's bond referendum is passed in the upcoming election, Hillwood said.
“Over the course of the next year or so, we'll likely start entertaining buyers for some of that commercial (property),” Bynum said. “And then we'll begin to work with them to develop that at a later date.”
Homeowners association fees are $1,100 per year, according to the community’s website. Meanwhile, the area around the intersection of state highways 288 and 6 is seeing quite bit of development.
On the northwestern corner of the intersection, Weitzman is developing the 273-acre Manvel Town Center, which is designed for more than 1 million square feet of retail, entertainment, hospitality, medical and office space. The H-E-B anchor opened a year ago, and the city has just approved a variance request package for a Lowe’s home improvement store.
Immediately to the north of Valencia, the city of Manvel has been planning a 160-acre development with a sports complex and municipal buildings, possibly including a new city hall. Hillwood has already built some roads for that development, including extensions of Del Bello Boulevard, Pollard Boulevard and Dogwood Avenue.
Hillwood is also developing the 1,100-acre community Pomona a few miles to the northwest across state Highway 288 from Valencia. That community is designed for 2,258 homes and has so far sold about 1,750, including 200 this year, Bynum said.
He expects to have completed home sales in Pomona over the next couple of years.
Elsewhere, Hillwood is developing Legacy, a 705-acre community in League City. The community celebrated itsgroundbreaking this past March.
While all three of its Houston-area communities are south of Houston, the company continues to look for more development opportunities across the region, Bynum said.
“Houston is growing in general. We love anywhere where there's great mobility but also good school districts,” he said. “You put those two in the mix, and really anywhere in Houston will be a great place to call home.”
