North Texas keeps rewriting the playbook for master-planned megaprojects, and a Hillwood venture is the latest of rarities: the 11-figure development.
Ross Perot Jr.’s firm unveiled plans this week for a 3,200-acre community along Interstate 35W and Robson Ranch Road in Denton that’s expected to bring thousands of residences and a $10 billion price tag, the Dallas Morning News reported.
The project, called Landmark, was previewed last year as Denton’s first true master-planned community, though its cost was not available at the time.
Perot called the project “the best product that we’ve done,” framing it as a blueprint for the region’s next generation of large-scale development.
The land — on the historic Hunter Ranch — has been held by the Perot family since 1987 and is being activated as Hillwood’s first combined residential and mixed-use development of this magnitude.
The numbers reflect the ambition.
Landmark is planned for 6,000 single-family homes and 3,000 apartments. About 900 acres will be reserved for commercial development, including Denton’s first H-E-B, which will anchor the initial retail phase.
The first 120 commercial acres are already being marketed for retail, dining and entertainment tenants.
The initial construction phase includes 747 single-family lots served by nine builders — American Legend, Coventry, David Weekley, Drees, Highland, M/I Homes, Perry, Toll Brothers and Tri Pointe — with model homes slated for next spring.
The grocery store and 600 apartments will rise in the same phase, and Hillwood expects the grocery-anchored retail to open in 2027.
The community’s outline also includes 1,100 acres of parkland, which Hillwood says will form one of Texas’ largest natural preserves. That space includes Pilot Knob, an 830-foot rock outcrop long used as a lookout and signal point, from Caddo tribes to Spanish explorers to outlaw Sam Bass.
Landmark’s civic layer is notable as well: three Denton ISD schools and a network of STEAM-focused learning parks are planned, part of Hillwood’s pitch that this is not merely housing but long-term community infrastructure.
Hillwood president Mike Berry called the site “a huge clean sheet of paper” that will become a “significant economic engine.” Denton Mayor Gerard Hudspeth said the project answers a high-end housing shortage identified in a recent study. Hillwood’s Andrew Pieper said the firm sees Denton’s growth trajectory paralleling Frisco’s — just a few years behind, but on the same arc.
Master-planned communities are popping up all over the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, but rarely do they reach such an expense.
One exception is Frisco’s $10 billion Fields development, which started construction in 2019. It offers more than 2,500 acres of development, including 8,500 multifamily units, 14,000 single-family homes and 1 million square feet of office space. Fields is home to PGA of America’s headquarters and the $520 million Omni PGA Resort, as well as a 97-acre Universal Kids Resort theme park opening next year.
— Eric Weilbacher
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