When an international builder decided to expand to America, it picked the country's busiest housing market: Dallas-Fort Worth.
Risland Holdings builds housing all over the world, and it has quickly made a mark in the North Texas market with plans for two high-profile projects.
This week, the company formally opened a 600-home community in Prosper called Legacy Gardens.
"We wanted to be in an area with activity and where growth was coming," said Michael A. Hanschen, senior managing director of Risland U.S. Holdings. "We bought this land in January of 2018.
"We tried to push it forward as fast as we could and get homes on the ground."
Risland has built two custom model homes in the Prosper community and is finishing work on the community center. Two more model houses are in the works.
Legacy Gardens is just west of the extension route of the Dallas North Tollway and north of U.S. Highway 380. The popular Starwood Trails community is right across the street.
Hanschen said homes in Risland's project are aimed at move-up buyers. The two model houses are each about 4,000 square feet and are priced above $600,000.
Unlike in some nearby subdivisions, Risland plans to build all of the homes in Legacy Gardens.
"The plan is to establish our brand and show people who we are," Hanschen said. "We wanted to come out of the gates with a flagship project."
Risland, which is based in Hong Kong, has been in business for more than a decade.
"We have projects in multiple countries — India, Vietnam, New Zealand," Hanschen said. "A lot of it is mixed housing types — condo, single-family attached and detached.
"It was about 2.5 years of reconnaissance before it was decided Prosper would be our first location in the U.S."
Risland joins other global housing firms that have landed in the D-FW area. Japanese, Australian and European firms have all made plays in the market.
"D-FW is the number one market in the nation," said Ted Wilson of Dallas housing analyst Residential Strategies. "It's going to attract not only all the national builders but an international group as well.
"Most have been pretty successful here."
Wilson said Risland is moving fast to take advantage of the strong local home market. "They are really getting after it," he said.
Hanschen said the builder has taken reservations for about a dozen of the new homes planned in Legacy Gardens.
Farther north at the border between Collin and Grayson counties, Risland is working on another huge residential development that ultimately could have 6,000 houses.
Called Mantua, the 3,000-acre residential community on U.S. Highway 75 is between the towns of Anna and Van Alstyne.
Hanschen said another developer had planned a community on the land before the last recession but the plans fell through.
"I was poking around up there and saw signs for the property," he said. "It was not technically for sale, but we were able to strike a deal."
Construction has already started on Mantua, which will have a variety of housing, including starter homes.
There's also land set aside for commercial building.
"We are also doing planning with developer KDC for a potential corporate campus," Hanschen said. "We've got a massive six-lane highway at our doorstep."
Hanschen has a legacy in the North Texas real estate market. His grandfather was iconic developer Angus Wynne, who built Arlington's Six Flags Over Texas amusement park, Oak Cliff's Wynnewood shopping center and the Great Southwest Industrial Park along Interstate 30.
"I was with developer Matthews Southwest on the Tribute community on Lake Lewisville and the South Side on Lamar project in Dallas," Hanschen said. "Before that, I was in Australia for four years and China before that."
Hanschen said Risland is still scouting North Texas for development opportunities.
"The idea is toward the start of next year to go into a couple more communities or buy more land," he said.
Dallas Morning News | Steve Brown
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