Thousands of homes planned west of Fort Worth after developer buys historic ranch
Nearly 3,800 acres of ranchland between Fort Worth and Weatherford has been sold to a developer with the goal of turning it into a master-planned community.
Dallas-based developer PMB Capital has big ideas for the Veale Ranch, an 11-mile drive from downtown Fort Worth, that sits on the border of Tarrant and Parker counties.
The family-owned cattle ranch was once listed for $95 million and could potentially support a population of more than 30,000 residents, The Dallas Morning News reported. Terms of the deal between the Veale family and PMB Capital were not released.
Buyers were particularly interested in the property due to its strategic location near Fort Worth’s business district, its access to Union Pacific rail and its proximity to the proposed $5 billion Rivian Automotive factory, according to Rex Glendenning, the real estate broker who represented the Veale family.
Earlier this month, Fort Worth officials approved a $440 million package of tax incentives to bring the Amazon-backed electric vehicle manufacturer to the Walsh development near Aledo. The city is considered a front-runner for the plant, which would create 7,500 jobs by 2027.
“The Veale Ranch represents one of the most unique investment development opportunities in the entire D-FW area,” Glendenning told the News. “A large portion of the ranch is located within the highly sought after Aledo School District. This property is keenly positioned for success.”
Beyond its location benefits, the ranch also contains more than three miles of the Dutch Branch Creek, which feeds into Benbrook Lake. White-tailed deer, Rio Grande turkeys, coyotes, and bobwhite quail have also thrived on the property, according to a 2017 brochure. Multiple natural gas wells are also located on-site.
PMB Capital is a familiar name to homebuyers in Tarrant and Wise counties. The developer is building out the Ventana neighborhood on the east side of Veale Ranch, and bought 3,600 acres of land in 2019 to transform the Rolling V Ranch into a 10,000-home community known as Reunion.
That $3.5 billion mixed-use development, located north of Fort Worth near the intersection of Highways 114 and 287, will bring massive change to the small city of Rhome and surrounding counties. Wise County’s population is set to increase by at least 55 percent by 2045, according to data from the North Central Texas Council of Governments.
Wise County officials have told the Star-Telegram that tens of millions of dollars will be necessary to widen highways and convert two-lane roads into streets that can handle heavy flows of residential traffic. County Judge J.D. Clark said in a 2019 interview that leaders are not surprised by the growth.
“We’re wasting our time if we’re going to argue whether growth is good or bad, because growth is going to happen,” Clark said. “Instead, the conversation we need to have is: what do we want that growth to look like? We would like to be proactive and shape that growth, rather than cross our arms and let it happen around us. That’s how you lose the shape of your community.”
