Now, noticeable progress has been made on the all-in-one community, located at the corner of I-35 and Hwy. 29, where 164 acres of housing, retail, medical services and corporate campuses are being developed. Also the home of the newly opened Wolf Lakes Village H-E-B, the site has been designed to take care of all the needs of its future residents.
“We’re trying to create a self-sufficient village—a town within a town—so that it’s walkable and you have everything you need,” Donald McLachlan said. “You don’t have to get in your car and go anywhere.”
The Wolf Lakes developers have completed 60% of the infrastructure for the community, the final build-out of which aims to have 2,500 units of multifamily and townhome housing. Currently under construction, the property will be home to a 336-unit complex known as Varenna Lakeside, developed by Hines—one of the largest privately held real estate investors in the world. Next door is the location of a 301-unit, garden-style multifamily and townhome project, Rise510 by local development company Novak Brothers.
In addition to the new H-E-B, the village is also the location of a new Ascension Seton Health Center, which is set to open this summer, offering a range of specialty and outpatient health services. In between the two properties, Wolf Lakes Drive—adorned with a fountain encircled by Roman-like colonnades—leads traffic into the heart of the development. The sidewalks feature black lamp posts designed to match the ones found in downtown Georgetown, and benches, palo verde and live oak trees, and rose bushes dot the surroundings. The McLachlans have also designed for double the landscape than what was required by the city.
It’s part of the couple’s vision to bring a European-influenced village and community to life. They worked with design consultant Jeff Blackard to plot out the property, including plans to potentially build an outdoor amphitheater and wedding chapel.
“Where is your example this village concept is going to work? Thousands of years all over the world,” Iva Wolf McLachlan said. “In America, zoning laws prevented this over the years. It used to be you could only have retail over here, residential over here. Then we realized we’ve divided our communities instead of bringing them together. So this is the idea: one big community.”
Roughly 85 acres of the Wolf Lakes Village project is undeveloped. The plan, though, is clear, as the McLachlans are waiting for the right developer to come along and complete their vision, while complying with the planned unit development’s design standards.
“We’re not going to compromise,” Iva Wolf McLachlan said. “We’re in it for the long haul. If we just wanted a cookie-cutter development, we could have done this many times over and been done with it.”
The Wolf Lakes Village duo intend to find a developer willing to construct and manage the remaining land, adding retail stores, restaurants and hotels, while reserving around 14 acres for a corporate user. It’s a requirement that the developers meet a threshold for commercial property before more housing is introduced to the site—housing meant to one day serve roughly 5,000 residents in a quickly growing city.
“For my whole childhood growing up—from birth to high school—Georgetown was a town of 5,000 people,” Iva Wolf McLachlan said. “It’s kind of extraordinary to me that we’re creating a village that can accommodate 5,000 people.”
