Forney land sale will bring sites for more than 1,000 new homes

Another big land sale east of Dallas will bring sites for more than 1,000 new homes.

Atlanta-based Ashton Woods, one of the country’s biggest homebuilders, bought the 344-acre tract in Forney’s Gateway Parks community near U.S. Highway 80.

Gateway Parks is part of a 2,000-acre mixed-use development being built by a unit of Dallas-based Petro-Hunt.

Ashton Woods is a homebuilding subsidiary of Canada-based real estate giant Great Gulf. The builder’s Forney purchase included land for 1,030 single-family homes plus 88 completed home sites.

Dallas-based Vanguard Real Estate Advisors brokered the big Kaufman County land sale.

“Ashton Woods was a phenomenal buyer as this was a sizable and complex transaction that was not formally marketed; they were able to quickly assess the opportunity and closed the entire transaction within three months,” Vanguard Real Estate’s Jordan Cortez said in a statement. “For any builder in today’s competitive land market to be able to acquire over 1,100 planned and finished lots in one of the highest-growth submarkets of Dallas is a huge win.”

Cortez negotiated the sale along with Mason John, Chris Lussier and Justin Tidwell of Vanguard Real Estate Advisors.

Other builders including Highland Homes, David Weekley Homes and Tri Pointe Homes already have houses under construction in the Gateway development, which is about 20 miles east of downtown Dallas.

The Ashton Woods purchase is the latest major land sale in fast-growing areas east of Dallas.

Kaufman County was North Texas’ top homebuilding market during the past year.