Developer Buys 245 Acres For Master-Planned Community In Waller County
More growth is coming to Waller County after a Houston-based developer bought 245 acres for a master-planned community that could eventually include 2,500 homes.
Kareem Gamal, founder and president of Gamal Enterprises, told Houston Business Journal about his preliminary plans to develop the community near the northwest side of the intersection of FM 362 and Morrison Road. He bought the land from a subsidiary of Algola’s state oil company Sonangol.
Gamal hopes to develop 700 to 800 lots for single-family homes and commercial buildings along FM 362, but he could also combine the land with a 628-acre tract across FM 362 that he bought last year, HBJ reported. This could bring the development up to 2,500 single-family homes.
This development and others could significantly increase the number of students in Royal ISD, where the tracts would be zoned. The school district expects about 800 new students for every 1,000 homes built in the district, meaning new developments could easily double 2021’s 2,544 students.
Recent developments in the district include LGI Homes’ Freeman Ranch, which has 840 single-family homes, and Land Tejas’ 1,039-acre master-planned community, Sunterra.
The Woodlands-based The Signorelli Co. is also planning a 356-acre master-planned community in Waller County that will be zoned to Royal ISD. Bluestem will have 1,300 single-family homes.
All of the growth coming to Waller and Waller County could double its 2020 population of 56,794 in the next decade, HBJ reported.
Other planned developments noted by HBJ include Katy-based Rooted Development breaking ground last year on Lakeview, a 1,160-acre estate home community at FM 362 and Hebert Road, and The Woodlands-based Bold Fox Development last year acquiring 200 acres for a 700-home community on Gassner Lane near FM 362.
Gamal is still in the early phases of planning his development and has not yet picked a homebuilder.
“Right now, we’re just planning and figuring out what the best approach would be for the development, what formula we would use,” he said, according to the HBJ article. “We could be developing some, selling some, could be a mixture.”
