Homebuilders are lining up begin building homes at the Walsh development, the 7,200-acre community in west Fort Worth.

Walsh announced four initial homebuilders for the neighborhood: David Weekley Homes, Drees Custom Homes, Highland Homes, and Village Homes were selected for the first phase, consisting of 580 homes, with model construction to begin this November.

Village Homes, based in Fort Worth, and Highland Homes, which builds exclusively in Texas, both have a long history in Fort Worth. Drees Custom Homes and Houston-based David Weekley Homes each build in numerous cities throughout the U.S. and Texas, with local offices in Dallas-Fort Worth.

The project, known simply as Walsh, is named after the family that owns the land near where Interstate 30 connects to Interstate 20.The Walsh Ranch served as the headquarters of the F. Howard Walsh Family ranching operations for over 70 years. Since its inception, Walsh Ranch has been a working cattle ranch and became one of the premier Charolais breeding operations in the country in the 1950s. It has also hosted the largest Charbray herd in North America.

Homebuilders at Walsh are producing new architectural designs and floor plans designed to honor the heritage of Fort Worth, according to Republic Property group, the master-planned community developer for Walsh. RPG has created a curated 130-page pattern book to guide the homebuilders. Homes will be set on a landscape designed to preserve natural elevation changes – some lots feature as much as a 10-foot grade change – and the property’s rolling Texas prairie landscape. A variety of product types will be offered and homesites will range from 3,800-square-foot lots to just shy of an acre. Model homes at Walsh will be completed in spring 2017, with presales beginning early next year.

“We studied the iconic neighborhoods of Fort Worth as inspiration for the home architectural style at Walsh and visited more than 35 communities across eight states to determine what works best in developing communities for today’s homebuyers,” said Jake Wagner, co-CEO of Republic Property Group in a news release.

“Our builders bring a unique mix of local, regional, and national character and expertise that will deliver on our vision to make Walsh the next great neighborhood of Fort Worth.”

-Jake WagnerCo-CEO, Republic Property Group

Walsh will eventually include more than 15,000 homes, with prices from the upper $200,000s in the initial phase. Residents in the area will be in the Aledo Independent School District, with a new AISD elementary school scheduled to open at Walsh for the 2017-2018 academic school year.

Among the community amenities planned for the first phase of development are a 10,000-square-foot gym, a family pool with cabanas, slides and kids’ areas, a separate Junior Olympic lap pool, a recreational lake and miles of hiking and walking trails, with more to be announced in the coming months.

Other current RPG projects include two of the top 25 best-selling master planned communities in the nation in Frisco’s Phillips Creek Ranch and Light Farms in Celina.

Fort Worth Business, by Robert Francis| October 19, 2016 | Original article here