With the construction of the major infrastructure components of Springwoods Village, including roads and utilities, near completion, the development's first residents are expected to soon be moving in to new homes.
"We will have people living there by the end of the year," said Keith Simon, senior vice president and development director for Springwoods Village.
The $10 billion mixed-use community is comprised of 1,800 acres and is located west of I-45 just south of the ExxonMobil campus, which is under construction. Once completed, Springwoods Village will feature about 5,000 homes and will accommodate a population of 15,000 residents.
According to Springwoods Village planners, the development is expected to serve 35,000 to 50,000 workers in the professional corporate sector.
Simon said the first phase of construction, which included installing the initial underground infrastructure and design details, has been completed and Phase II, which includes home construction is underway.
"The roads are not yet open to the public, but they will be later this year," he said.
In June of last year, Springwoods Village announced the community's first three homebuilders, Taylor Morrison for large, single-family luxury homes, Sullivan Brothers for mixed-lot residential and Martin Fein, which will develop the Belvedere at Springwoods Village multifamily apartment homes.
Karen Travelstead, sales and marketing director for Sullivan Brothers Builders, said 15 of their homes in Springwoods Village have been sold. Sullivan Brothers will construct 89 homes on the eastern portion of the development.
"Our homes [have a] southern coastal identity, a craftsman style that is not your traditional suburban home," she said. "It's classic architecture that is very timeless."
Travelstead said Sullivan Brothers is receiving inquiries about its Springwoods Villages homes everyday. Several of the early homebuyers are employees of ExxonMobil who will soon be working at the new campus.
Springwoods Village planners have said they expect many of the 12,000 workers who will eventually be working at the 385-acre ExxonMobil campus to live in the new community.
"[ExxonMobil has] certainly become a critical catalyst and an engine to drive the development of Springwoods Village, which will include residential, retail, hotels and other office space," Simon said. "This is the way we always start our master-planned communities—in other words, we wait until we have a jobs catalyst to drive the development."
In addition to the ExxonMobil campus, Southwestern Energy announced in November that it was building a 25-acre, 10-story office building in Springwoods Village for its new corporate office. According to Southwestern Energy, about 1,000 employees will relocate to the new facility when it is completed in 2014.
Simon said construction on the new Southwestern Energy building, which will be located along I-45, will begin soon.
Transportation has been an important foundation for Springwoods Village, through which a portion of the Grand Parkway will run when complete by 2015.
"We were blessed to be located next to I-45, which is a great transportation corridor," Simon said. "With the addition of the Grand Parkway, we're really at the corner of Main and Main, which is a great way to start."
CDC Houston, which is the parent company developing Springwoods Village, has also been working with the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County on the possibility of extending the North Line light rail north to Springwoods Village, due to the high concentration of future residents and employees.
"There may be 35,000 to 50,000 people working and living here," Simon said. "When you have that many people in a fairly concentrated area, bringing light rail to it makes a lot of sense."
