Ersa Grae, Avanti Plan 2,000 Home Lots in Houston Suburbs

A Houston developer is doubling down on northwest Houston’s suburban boom, planting two large-scale communities near Magnolia expected to bring 2,000 homes.

Ersa Grae Corporation, in partnership with Florida-based Avanti Properties Group, acquired a pair of 300-acre tracts flanking a solar farm between FM 1488, FM 1774 and Riley Road, the Houston Business Journal reported.

The sites, in Waller County, were purchased from DDSMK and Rice University. The projects are still early, but Ersa Grae Principal Reza Ebrahimi said the firm hopes to deliver lots at the Riley Road tract within a year, with home construction on the FM 1488 parcel following within two years.

The communities are expected to feature 50- and 60-foot lots. No builders have been selected, though the firm will likely tap two or three familiar partners for each site, Ebrahimi told the outlet.

The plans add fuel to a submarket already seeing massive new supply. Nearby, Airia Development Company is underway on Colton, a 5,700-acre, 11,000-home master-planned community east of the Riley tract. The Texas market for homes in master-planned communities ranks second only to Florida.

Elsewhere on the edges of the metro, Signiorelli and D.R. Horton are planning a 1,000-home community in rural Fort Bend County.

Ersa Grae, founded by the late Ali Ebrahimi after fleeing Iran in the 1980s, has been a longtime player in Texas land development, delivering master-planned projects such as Silver Ranch, Falcon Ranch and StoneCreek Estates. The firm is also working on a community in Brookshire, west of Houston.

Waller County, which is adjacent to Montgomery County, has become a magnet for developers chasing demand from buyers priced out of closer-in Houston suburbs. Population growth and new infrastructure have fueled steady lot absorption. Ersa Grae said its projects will be positioned to catch that wave.

— Eric Weilbacher