Woodlands' last village experiencing rapid residential development

The Woodlands is once again one of the best-selling master-planned communities in the country, ranking in the top 10 in new home sales for the 18th consecutive year. The main driver behind the high number of home sales is the community's final village, Creekside Park. According to John Burns Real Estate Consultants, The Woodlands ranked third in 2012 in the U.S. in home sales among master-planned communities with 1,007 homes sold. The top-ranked selling community was The Villages, a retirement community in central Florida, and second was Irvine Ranch in Orange County, Calif.

Of the 1,007 homes sold in The Woodlands last year, 756 were sold in the Village of Creekside Park, representing 75 percent of all homes sales in The Woodlands last year.

"It is a seller's market for sure," said Realtor Kristy Villarreal of Realty Executive The Villages. "[Homes] are flying off the market. [Home construction] cannot keep up with buyer demand."

Distinctive design

Development of The Village of Creekside Park began in 2006, signaling the beginning of the end of large-scale residential development in The Woodlands.

Tim Welbes, co-president of The Woodlands Development Company, said the design concept of the village was conceived to encourage its residents to spend time outdoors and to take advantage of the trails, parks and water features.

"We have hike and bike trails; we have parks throughout The Woodlands," Welbes said. "But no village has the amount of linear connectivity. There is more of a park-like environment, more than any other village."

Creekside Park features more than 1,850 acres of parklands, including the 72-acre lake and linear park at Lake Paloma and eight neighborhood parks. The village also offers direct access to the 1,700-acre George Mitchell Nature Preserve, and one of the most popular family destinations in The Woodlands, the Rob Fleming Park and Aquatic Center.

"We saw an opportunity for the village to be developed and integrated into a massive park and offer a lifestyle feature to this village, which harkens back to a simpler time when you might actually take your children on a walk and enjoy nature," Welbes said.

Meanwhile, some of the home designs at Creekside Park also feature a look distinctive to The Woodlands, Welbes said, including Americana-style architecture.

"The design set the stage to a sort of throwback kind of mindset, like some old towns and townships in the northeast," he said.

Residential development

According to The Woodlands Development Company, the population of Creekside Park in 2007 was 72. As more homes have been built and infrastructure has improved, that number increased to 3,979 in 2011. The Development Company projects that by 2016, population in Creekside Park will top 12,000.

Nancy Decker Lent is the president of the Creekside Park Village Association. She and her husband moved to The Woodlands from Boston five years ago, having bought a home in the Wilde Creek neighborhood.

"Every four to six months we have The Woodlands Development Company give us an update," Decker Lent said. "[Creekside Park] is just exceeding sales left and right. They can't keep up with the demand. Every time you turn down a road, they're putting in a new neighborhood."

According to the Development Company, there are at least 10 neighborhoods within Creekside Park featuring new home construction. Welbes said that by the time construction in the village is completed, Creekside Park will have more than 5,700 homes.

Commercial development

Interest in Creekside Park has been high enough that the Development Company has broken away from its traditional blueprint in developing Woodlands villages. Typically, retail development, such as that seen at each village's shopping center, follows once the residential portion has been completed.

"This time we will have retail and residential [development occurring] during build out," Welbes said. "The retail will get there while residential is being built."

The Creekside Park Village Center will be along Kuykendahl Road in the middle of a divided section of the roadway. In January, the Development Company announced the village center's anchor grocery tenant would be H-E-B. Then in February, it was announced that other tenants would include a Walgreens pharmacy and Primrose School.

When completed, the Village Center will feature a town green-style design with a restaurant and other retail and service amenities. In addition to the village center, interest from retailers and commercial businesses operating in and around Creekside is growing.

Rob Banzhaf, managing principal for Bandier Realty Partners, said much of what is likely to be developed in the area will be of the service industry type, such as medical, dental and insurance agencies. He said Bandier recently sold a parcel of land to a church that would likely serve a portion of the Creekside Park area.

"Basically The Woodlands [Development Company] controls the supply right there, and they are just now getting to the point where they are offering retailers opportunities to lease space," Banzhaf said. "So there is a pent-up demand. [The interest] is just crazy."