Mansfield Church To Sell Huge Site Set For Master-Planned Community Amid Rapid Growth

A massive swath of vacant land near fast-growing downtown Mansfield could soon become a master-planned community, as a local church is looking to sell the more than 121-acre property.

The proposed Starlin Ranch development at 1109 West Broad St. could include up to 271 single-family homes, 156 townhomes, retail buildings, an amenity center, three retention lakes and an amphitheater, according to a site plan and zoning change approved by Mansfield City Council.

The owner, Bethlehem Baptist Church, has tapped Dallas-based Onyx Legacy Group to secure the buyer. The church, which is across the street from the land, was founded five years after the abolishment of slavery, and its pastor, Michael Evans, is the first Black mayor of Mansfield.

“I feel very fortunate and blessed to work with them and to be part of the history there,” Onyx Managing Partner Mark Allen said. 

The property is near the future Mansfield Super Studios, a $70M project set to kick off next year. The 72-acre development will include movie studios, hotels and retail, and is expected to create 2,000 new jobs, according to WFAA.

An 18-acre innovation corridor is also in the works in Mansfield, a rapidly expanding city south of Arlington in Tarrant and Johnson counties. That development will include 240K SF of Class-A office, retail and corporate residences. It is expected to break ground in the spring.

Mansfield's population has nearly tripled since 2000, rising from 28,000 to 74,000 today.

Starlin Ranch is within two tax increment reinvestment zones, Allen said. The city has expressed its desire to see the land developed as a master-planned community with a strong commercial element, which hopefully would make the project an easy sell for the buyer, Allen said.

“This is something the city would look favorably on,” he said. “They don’t really want to get too far outside of the scope of this site concept.”