PMB Capital stands by its $3.5B rural development play

D.R. Horton starts work on 1,200 single-family homes for PMB’s Bluestem community in rural North Texas

 PMB Capital's Peter Pincoffs (Illustration by The Real Deal; Getty)
PMB Capital's Peter Pincoffs (Illustration by The Real Deal; Getty)

Despite diminished demand in North Texas spooking many homebuilders, PMB Capital Investment is sticking to its rural land development play as it starts work on another segment of Rolling V Ranch.

D.R. Horton has begun construction on Bluestem, which will include 1,200 single-family homes along FM 3433, the Dallas Morning News reports. The project, which spans 500 acres between Dallas-Fort Worth exurbs of Rhome and Newark, is part of PMB’s vast Rolling V Ranch, a 3,600-acre property in Wise County, 12 miles west of Texas Motor Speedway.

Rolling V Ranch was a long-term bet on demand for lower-priced homes on the outskirts of Fort Worth. When PMB bought the tract in 2019, the development was estimated at $3.5 billion. PMB’s 3,100-acre Reunion development is also part of this rural land play.

Meanwhile, its partner D.R. Horton has had to make concessions to unload its inventory in Texas by year-end. The company reportedly cut home prices in its Remington Ridge community by 6 to 8 percent — a discount of about $20,000 to $30,000. Its lending arm DHI Mortgage is offering buyers a 4.75 percent FHA mortgage rate and up to $10,000 in closing costs. The construction giant even increased real estate agent commissions from 3 to 4 percent in the hope of moving inventory.

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PMB Capital touted the mega-development’s road connections as a draw for new residents commuting to DFW’s booming ’burbs.

“This was just the next natural step if you look at 287, but this project is unique in that it’s at the intersection at 287 and 114,” said PMB Capital co-founder Peter Pincoffs. “You’ll have folks living here that are going to take 114 further to Southlake or Las Colinas, and so you get to take advantage of two major highways and the employment that happens along those.”

The expectation of pouring even more cars onto highways like 287 and 114, which connect DFW to its outlying hinterlands, have been a point of controversy for PMB’s developments in the region. This summer, the developer had to scale back another of its Fort Worth-area projects from 2,100 homes to 1,914 homes after backlash from the community over the impact of added traffic on the neighboring prairie and working ranchland. Its 700-acre Bond Ranch community — also on the outskirts of Fort Worth — is being developed on a historic cattle ranch which had been owned by the same family since 1935 until PMB bought it in 2017.

“We’re called Cowtown for a reason, and if you eliminate that culture by developing all the agricultural land in an area, you eliminate the identity of the city,” a resident told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram at the time.

Pincoffs is undeterred. Plans for Bluestem include a long list of outdoorsy amenities such as lakes, ponds, waterfalls, walking trails and plenty of parks. The homes themselves will be ranch-style houses from D.R. Horton’s Rio series, beginning in the mid-$300,000s.
“I think once folks see this site, they’ll really be drawn to sort of the outdoor amenities that are available that can’t be replicated in other locations,” he said.

— Maddy Sperling