Head north on U.S. 75, about 12 miles past McKinney and the Buc-ee’s and you’ll find the city of Weston, an odd-shaped exurb of 5.2 square miles. In this patch of Collin County, you’ll soon find a touch of Venice, Italy developed by a Dallas-based builder with Mediterranean roots.
Weston, Collin County’s oldest city, will be the site of the $450 million-plus Venetian Lagoon development, a 1,200-lot residential community built alongside a manmade lagoon. Megatel Homes announced last month that it has secured 204 lots for the community’s first development phase. Construction is expected to start on the lagoon within two months and be ready before the model homes go up.
Aaron and Zach Ipour, two brothers from Cyprus, co-founded Megatel Homes in 2006. They started in the housing industry by flipping and selling homes, going to the Collin County courthouse to buy foreclosed properties.
Megatel is now one of D-FW’s largest homebuilders with the Mercer Crossing development in Farmers Branch as its most prominent development. (In 2018, real-estate professionals might remember Megatel’s Mega Event at Mercer Crossing, bringing in Rudy Giuliani and Kevin O’Leary, Mr. Wonderful of Shark Tank.)
“The development of this lagoon community is a perfect illustration of Megatel Homes’ innovative thinking and out-of-the-box mentality,” Zach Ipour said in a statement. “By offering homes equipped with both the traditional top-of-the-market multifamily amenities and an idyllic, beachfront lifestyle, we are able to deliver unparalleled value to the community’s residents.”
Homes will range in size from 1,200 square feet to 3,500 square feet and be priced between $250,000 to $500,000. Plans call for more than 300 multifamily units and more than 1,200 single-family homes.
The development will feature 15 acres of community land planned for an entertainment center, a clubhouse, bowling alley, and lagoon amenities, including a pool, cabanas, sand beaches, and more. (Venetian gondolas in the lagoon? Just an idea.)
Of 100 developments in Megatel’s portfolio since 2006, Weston’s Venetian Lagoon is its first lagoon community.
Lagoons are a thing now, with developers building large beach-like structures as a key attraction for new residential communities. The Metroplex’s first Crystal Lagoon, the brand name and originator of this manmade structure, went up in Prosper’s Windsong Ranch.
In the news release, Ipour pointed to several factors that are driving demand to less dense areas like the far north city of Weston: Flexible work-from-home arrangements prompted by the pandemic and mortgage and interest rates at historic lows.
“These factors have led to an influx of urban dwellers and apartment renters searching for homes to purchase in suburban markets,” he said.
