In October 2020, just as the housing market was heating up and interest rates were at all-time lows, Painted Tree was introduced as McKinney’s most exciting new community. 1,100 acres of trail-woven woodlands, rolling prairie and shimmering waters, featuring inspired amenity hubs and homes to fall in love with. Nothing has changed … except the market. Progress on the community continues at full speed (three miles of trails have already been created, for instance) even as home sales take a breather. However, Painted Tree is still outperforming other North Texas communities.
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.)
Big news for Painted Tree’s littlest residents: plans for a Montessori school have been announced! The 12,000-square-foot school will serve around 200 students aged 6 weeks to 6 years old. And the project already gets an A+ in the community’s eyes.
“Incoming residents and community partners have expressed a strong desire for a Montessori school at Painted Tree,” says Indu Pancharpula, owner and operator of Learning Tree Montessori. “We have found a great place for our future home at Painted Tree and look forward to raising up children and future generations for years to come.”
Students will enjoy a curriculum that carefully balances academics, creativity and the outdoors. (Three things that are very important to Painted Tree, too.) Developers will break ground on the new site in August 2022, enrollment will begin in January 2023 and the school is expected to open in the Summer of 2023.
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.
The Dallas Business Journal awarded Oxland Group’s Painted Tree community with the coveted Best Real Estate Deal for a Single-Family or Planned Community for 2021. The project was recognized for its broad range of housing product and nature-centric amenities, specifically its thoughtful approach to trails.
Oxland brought in national trail design-build experts Avid Trails to create diverse trail experiences at Painted Tree, resulting in plans for 25 miles of looped paths and trails and outdoor-centric amenities in the development. There will be roughly nine miles of nature trails, two miles of neighborhood pathways, eight miles of community paths and about five miles of greenbelt trails, said Jay Hoeschler, partner and design director at Avid Trails.
“We have a big, regional, multi-use path that goes north to south as a people mover,” Hoeschler said. “It will be a really great experience along the lake there. Then we have nature trails that will be narrower. The way we design trails, we look for the best views, we look for the tallest trees, we look for the most interesting parts of the creek.”
The Dallas Business Journal also noted that at buildout, the community will have approximately 3,200 for-sale homes, 600 apartment units and over 500 build-to-lease single-family homes taking the total to more than 4,000 units, making the project one of the biggest in progress in North Texas and also one of the most diverse when it comes to housing options.
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.”
Painted Tree Lake is as close to Zen as you’ll find in North Texas. Not just because of its shimmering silvery surface but because of what’s happening just below. It’s a place to both watch the sunset and watch the fish rise. So bring a picnic and your fishing rod for catch-and-release fun, because this lake is stirring with a variety of aquatic life.
Cast for Largemouth Bass, which will feed both on the surface or down deep, depending on the time of day.
Blue Gill, are fun to catch and can be found around sunken tree limbs, reeds, or other shallow bottom structures.
Crappie (or Calico Bass) can be caught with a minnow dropped about two feet below a bobber. They’ll also take small artificial lures like spinners and streamers.
In Texas, Channel Catfish will go for live bait like shad, worms, crickets and crayfish and they put up a good fight as you reel them in. But watch out for the four sets of barbells around their faces.
Happy fishing and remember to take pictures.
