All eyes are on the fiery hot North Texas real estate market, even from 7,000 miles away: A luxury new housing and commercial development in Corinth is underway, backed by an entrepreneur based in Beijing, China.
The Long Lake development is located about 34 miles from downtown Dallas, in Denton County. This 107-acre enclave will have 91 acres dedicated to 99 single-family homes, ranging from $1.1 million to $3 million and up. In its center is a 15-acre lake, and commercial development is planned for later phases.
The development is backed by Lelege USA, a corporation focused on real estate development and management in DFW. It is owned and chaired by entrepreneur Long Zhang, who also owns Lelege Group (Beijing Capital Group Investment, Ltd.), a multibillion-dollar corporation headquartered in Beijing. Lelege Group is a diversified investment firm with worldwide branches engaging in real estate, mining, wealth management, high-tech IC foundry, pharmaceuticals, and cultural art collections. It has total assets of over $3 billion under management and nearly $2 billion in services and management.
“There is a lot of Chinese investment money moving in the U.S. and [Zhang] has looked in the hot real estate markets,” said Scott Hogg, Vice President of Investor Advisory Services, Virginia Cook, Realtors. “He found this property in Corinth up on the lake and had a vision of developing something where they could invest in million-dollar residences in the U.S.”
Phase one is underway, with 11 lots for sale. The two builders currently working on the development are Ron Davis Custom Homes and Bella Vida Custom Homes. The project is slated for completion in early 2018.
“They will break ground on the property as soon as we get the first lot sold,” said Hogg. “We are marketing these homes and we have clients looking at Ron Davis and Bella Vita model homes that can be built in Corinth. Lelege has their own in-house builder, as well, with a group of architects and house renditions, and all of those come from Tsinghua University.”
Houses in the gated community will be offered in three ranges. At the top, with lot prices of $1.02 million and home prices of $3 million and up, the houses will be 9,200 square feet and larger on 3.93-acre lots. In the mid-range, lot prices will be $385,000 with houses priced $1.5 million and up, with 6,500 square feet of interior space on a 0.71-acre lot. The low-end of the range offers $230,000 lots and $1.1 million homes with 5,500 or more square feet sitting on half an acre.
The target demographic for these luxury lakeside homes is multinational individuals moving here from out of the country, as well as people who work in the city and want private lakeside living, Hogg said.
As for the look and feel, the Corinth development will be built among the rolling hills, with a variety of home styles.
“It has unusual topography on a private lake, as well as lots on Lewisville Lake among the cliffs and bluffs on the north side,” Hogg said. “They want a mix [of architectural styles] in there, Mediterranean with contemporary, and some of it will be modern, Greek Roman revival. There will also [houses with] walk-out basements with two stories above that.”
During phase one, streets, lampposts, and infrastructure have been placed in Long Lake. Additionally, they’ve incorporated an HOA and appointed board members; put in place a declaration of conditions, covenants, and restrictions; and are in the process of creating bylaws and getting guidelines from an architectural control committee.
The commercial developments will come in later phases of Long Lake, a plaza featuring 50,000 square feet of business space. Planned placements include a bank, wine store, retail shops, fine dining, spa, and a pet clinic.
“I met with the city [Wednesday], and they are extremely excited about the retail coming in and quite a few people are interested in higher-end restaurants going in,” Hogg said. “There will be a spa and a performing arts center.”
Phases two and three will begin as soon as they start selling the lots, which just went on MLS recently.
