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Stillwater, Forestar snag former StoryBuilt development site in Dallas
Bought Lake Highlands site out of bankruptcy with plans for single-family community
A photo illustration of Stillwater’s Robert Elliott along with renderings of Goose in Dallas’ Lake Highlands neighborhood (Getty, Stillwater, StoryBuilt)
Troubled Austin developer StoryBuilt’s former development sites are starting to sell out of bankruptcy.
Stillwater Capital and D.R. Horton subsidiary Forestar Group picked up one of them, a 4.5-acre property in Dallas’ Lake Highlands neighborhood, the Dallas Morning News reported. The venture paid $10.7 million for the property late last year. That’s almost $2.4 million per acre for the fully entitled property.
They plan to develop 36 homes on the prime site, at 9601 White Rock Trail.
The sale was part of StoryBuilt’s strategy to unload its $2 billion development portfolio to help remedy its messy financial situation.
StoryBuilt had been plotting a community at the site, which it called Goose at White Rock Valley, with home prices starting in the mid-$700,000s.
Stillwater and Forestar renamed it. Their project is called Havenwood Heights. Few details have been revealed for the community, but homes will start at 2,300 square feet and be constructed by Robert Elliott Custom Homes, a luxury builder owned by Stillwater. The first batch of home sites are expected to be completed this summer.
“Lake Highlands is an incredible neighborhood centered around great families and great schools, and we are delighted to have the opportunity to be building there,” Robert Elliott told the outlet.
The property is situated just south of DART’s Lake Highlands commuter rail station and across from the Lake Highlands Town Center mixed-use development. The site was previously occupied by an office campus.
Stillwater, a heavy hitter in Dallas real estate, is involved in several high-profile projects, including the PGA of America’s Frisco headquarters and a mixed-use development adjacent to it. In addition, the firm is collaborating with the Haggard family in Plano on a 142-acre mixed-use project by the Dallas North Tollway.
Forestar Group is a community development subsidiary of D.R. Horton, the nation’s largest homebuilding firm. Forestar has projects in more than two dozen states, the outlet said.
Meanwhile, StoryBuilt’s receiver is using forensic accounting to untangle the firm’s sloppy bookkeeping and “egregious mismanagement.” The receiver, Los Angeles-based Stapleton Group, is cooperating with federal agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
—Quinn Donoghue