It’s fitting that the first homes for sale at Painted Tree are by locally based Normandy Homes. The award-winning homebuilder’s offering of stunning single-family homes in the Lakeside District are thoughtfully crafted for life in North Texas, with open designs, covered patios and a modern yet timeless aesthetic. And in this trailside community, a Normandy home is the perfect basecamp for the adventure called life.
The conventional ceremony would go something like: a dozen dignitaries and executives in hard hats, with gold shovels pressed halfway into the soil, posing for the cliché of all photo ops. However, Painted Tree is anything but conventional. This nature-first community calls for something more natural, introducing a 100-goat herd onto the property to begin clearing brush in the 200-acre greenbelt. A more environmentally sensitive way to preserve and protect the site’s signature amenity – the land itself.
Being local is incredibly important to Painted Tree developer, Tom Woliver. “We’re all in on McKinney,” says Woliver, who moved his business — and family! — to the beloved town. Many of the community consultants also live in the city. And why not? It’s a pretty big city that lives like a small town, complete with historic charm and creative spirit. A true gem nestled about 30 miles northeast of Dallas.
Check out this recent article from Checkout DFW to learn more about what makes McKinney special. (And why so many people want to call the area home.)
Written by: David Arkin, Checkout DFW
We don’t just like nature. We love it. And we try to weave it into our community in every way possible. Pools and parks? Yes. But also so much more. Like 25 miles of interwoven paths. A great big 20-acre lake. And community amenities and gathering spaces inspired by our nation’s national parks.
Our vision for a nature-focused community takes everyone into consideration. From work-from-home lunch break walkers to moms with toddlers in tow, there’s a greenway, community path, or nature trail for you. And when your front porch doubles as your trailhead, there’s no telling where the day may lead.
As people continue to seek creative alternatives to traditional home buying in a competitive market, build-to-lease programs are becoming more and more popular. Painted Tree was recently featured on NBC5 DFW as a forerunner of this innovative solution. Two build-to-lease projects have been announced here, offering potential residents all of the conveniences of renting but with the space, privacy and amenities afforded by a single-family home in a master-planned community.
To watch the segment and learn more – Demand for Rentals and Build-to-Rent Housing Grows in Texas, Developers Say (nbcdfw.com)
Tom Woliver, co-founder and president of Dallas-based Oxland Advisors, Painted Tree’s developer, recently sat down for a candid interview with The Dallas Business Journal (Bill Hethcock, March, 3 2022). In the interview, he gave a behind-the-scenes account of how the 1,100-acre development is going, along with his thoughts on the future of the north DFW market.
According to Woliver, the community is progressing nicely from purchaseing the land in 2020 to sales and the first model homes opening this summer (2022). “It takes a while to get these things off the ground … and as far as I know, this is still the largest phase one ever done in DFW.”
“We’ve got 1,100 lots under development right now. We’re about to start another 600 in the next couple years.”
“Before, if you bought 1,000 acres it might take you 10 years to get through it. Because of the supply and demand right now, by April of this year, we may have Painted Tree !00% sold or contracted for (by homebuilders),” Woliver explained. “And I do think our location helps. We’re not way out in Sherman, for example.”
In terms of scale, Painted Tree will feature 4,000 homes at build out. “We’re at about 3,200 for-sale homes. Then we have another 600 multi-family units and then another 300 cottage rentals and single-family rentals,” Woliver says.
Which is a new model for the market. “We’re segmenting (for-lease homes) like we do our single-family (for-sale homes), so anywhere from a townhome up to something larger, more sluxury, we’re trying to do the same on rental,” he says.
Finally, Woliver provides his thoughts on what’s next for Oxland Advisors and the future of the North Dallas market – which is quickly reaching capacity in A-rated locations like Painted Tree.
“We have a couple of other deals I can’t announce yet, but what makes it really hard in this world as a developer is: How do you follow up Painted Tree?”
He continued, “the challenge is, you have landowner expectations at a peak. Then you have a pricing peak and you’ve got supply chain peak, and if we’re not careful, we cant provide housing for the meat of the market.”
“How can you have reasonably price housing, particularly as interest rates are going up? We’ve always talked about attainability, but the last two years, you can build any box and it’s going to sell or lease. That’s going to start to change,” he says.
“Whether that means more density or getting more creative with some of our partnerships, that’s our focus right now on new acquisitions.”
