Johnson Development Lines up First Phase of $5B Cole Ranch

Johnson Development Services will soon break ground on the first phase of the more than 3,000-acre Cole Ranch development near Denton.

The $5 billion master-planned community will begin to take shape in either August or September, according to the Dallas Business Journal. Tommy Tucker, vice president of business development for Central and North Texas, told the outlet that the first phase will focus on infrastructure and model homes, with home sales anticipated to begin in late 2027. Members of the Cole family took part in a private groundbreaking with the development team on June 3.

Cole Ranch, a 3,169-acre parcel of land in the southwest side of Denton, is expected to bring 4,365 homes to the burgeoning community. The new single-family homes come right as the city’s population spiked, up 21 percent from 2020 to 2025, according to the outlet. Planning for the project stretched back more than a decade. Initial public hearings on the subject were held in the mid-2010s, and the Texas Legislature approved a municipal management district for the development in 2019.

Plans also include a 55-acre business park, roughly 156 acres of commercial developments and around 200 acres earmarked for new schools within the Denton Independent School District. The team spearheading the project is a combination of Johnson Development, Denton-based Cole Ranch Company and an affiliate of Houston-based Silvestri Investments. Partnership eligibility hinged on honoring the environment and history of the land, as the site has been in the Cole family since M.T. Cole ran it as a working ranch in the 1930s.

Houston-based Johnson Development is no stranger to the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Viridian, a 2,300-acre master-planned community in Arlington, was helmed by the firm. In Collin County, they spearheaded Trinity Falls, another 2,000 acre master-planned community just north of McKinney. When they joined the Cole Ranch development team, the developer increased open space and recreation features figures to 1,200 acres, around 40 percent of the development.

— Hunter Cooke