Celina becomes favorite submarket for big-name Texas developers

With the incoming Dallas North Tollway extension, Celina has become the hot ticket for big name real estate investors.

Since the pandemic, developers and investors have snapped up thousands of acres near the route of the new tollway extension between Collin and Denton counties, according to the Dallas Morning News.

DFW Land’s Vijay Borra (LoopNet)

Investor Vijay Borra is the newest big player in this far north Dallas submarket. In a partnership with DFW Land, Borra has picked up three tracts in the area. The latest is a 670-acre property northwest of Celina.

Dallas CoDFW Land has purchased more than 3,500 acres north of Dallas in the last year; Cowboys owner Jerry Jones’ Blue Star Land owns a 1,400-acre tract nearby.

Read more

Texas

Sherman, TX, still ‘juiced up’

Texas

Denton County homeowners association bans Section 8 tenants, sparking outrage

In January, the partnership between Borra and DFW Land picked up two substantial ranches in the area. Seven Springs Ranch and the Decherd Ranch total more than 750 acres— both are expected to be converted into single-family communities. Robert W. Decherd, whose family once owned the Decherd Ranch, is the chairman, president and chief executive of DallasNews Corporation, DMN’s publisher. The family acquired the land in the 1960s but sold it several years ago.

“This area is really heating up,” says broker Rex Glendenning of Frisco-based Rex Real Estate, who handled all three of Borra’s purchases in Celina. Glendenning cited the nearby planned Legacy Hills community, which is being developed by Centurion American. Centurion’s CEO Mehrdad Moayedi has also spent much of his time in the courts battling a class-action lawsuit and a citation for failure to pay school taxes. Hollis Greenlaw, who formerly owned a private jet with Moayedi, was recently sentenced to more than 20 years in prison for running an alleged ponzi scheme through her company, United Development Funding.

— Maddy Sperling