Land Buyers Vie in Tarrant, Collin Counties

Seller International Capital Inc. of Dallas bought the land 1 1/2 years ago for a pool of European investors who have dabbled in Dallas-Fort Worth land speculation on and off for about a dozen years. The acreage, about a mile southwest of the Lockheed Martin plant, was under International Capital's watch long before the corporation got a multi-million-dollar defense contract that has turned the area into one of the hottest pockets in town, Christiane Hepfer, owner and president of International Capital, tells GlobeSt.com.

Land in the area is still priced by the acre, but it's now fetching in the neighborhood of $8,000 to $18,000 per acre. "We walked in at the right time when we bought it," Hepfer says, noting the balance could be under contract within a month.

The Chapel Creek property primarily is zoned for multifamily and single-family use, but also includes a portion earmarked for commercial development. The 50 acres, at the northeast corner of Chapel Creek Boulevard and Old Weatherford Road, have been bought by the Normandale Baptist Church of White Settlement.

Kent McKeever of Ellis & Tinsley represented the church while Hepfer handled talks for International Capital as she did with a 163-acre sale of agriculturally zoned land along County Road 946 in Collin County's community of Celina.

Rex Glendenning of REX Real Estate and Ed Verde, an independent, represented the buyer of the 163 acres, which are strategically positioned a half mile to a mile from a proposed extension of the George Bush Tollroad. Hepfer says acreage in the rural area is bringing $5,000 to $8,000 per acre from investors who are now assembling land for an area believed to be on the cusp of development.

International Capital acquired the acreage, along with another 269 acres in the Celina area, about three years ago. Hepfer also is negotiating with some would-be buyers for the remaining Celina acreage. The unsold land in Collin and Tarrant counties have been under contract before, she says.