Huge development will bring resort, thousands of homes north of Dallas on Lake Texoma

The developer of McKinney’s huge Craig Ranch community is headed to Grayson County with an even bigger development.

Developer Craig International plans to build a more than 3,100-acre project on the south shore of Lake Texoma about an hour and a half north of Dallas.

The Preston Harbor community is planned to include more than 7,000 residential units, including single-family homes and multifamily, along with a resort hotel, restaurant and marina, according to filings with the city of Denison.

Denison’s city council just approved a development agreement with Craig International and partners for the sprawling project. The development is expected to total more than $4 billion in value.

The Preston Harbor project is one of several large residential developments planned in Grayson County, which is experiencing a boom with the recent construction starts of billions of dollars in new semiconductor plants and facilities for other high-tech manufacturers.

The building site that developer David Craig is targeting is located on the northwest edge of Denison next to the Grandpappy Point Resort & Marina.

The property on FM 84 has been owned for decades by Dallas’ Schuler Development, which originally proposed a large community on the land. Developer George Schuler died in April.

Preston Harbor, one of the largest undeveloped tracts on Lake Texoma, includes nine miles of lakefront. In 2013, the Corps of Engineers transferred ownership of an additional 600 acres for the project to the city of Denison.

Craig told the Denison council that his team has the capital for the purchase and a contract with the Schuler family to buy the land.

The community is planned for everything from estate homes overlooking the lake to townhomes and apartments. It’ll have a town center with retail and restaurants overlooking the lake. A 200-room resort hotel is planned at the north end of the property.

Preston Harbor will also include an active adult community for those 55 and older. A marina will have 400 to 600 boat slips.

“Right now Lake Texoma has a very tired product of marinas,” said Craig International chief operating officer Miles Prestemon. “This new marina will be state of the art. We believe Preston Harbor will become the premier community in North Texas.”

One of the partners in the development will be David Johnson, cofounder of McKinney-based real estate investor Horizon Capital Partners and former CEO of Aimbridge Hospitality.

“Dave will be a real asset to the hospitality plans for Preston Harbor,” Craig said. “We will announce a significant hospitality component in Preston Harbor. We are in final negotiations for a number of venues.”

If the property sale moves forward as expected, it would be one of the largest such recent transactions in Grayson County.

The location almost requires “a destination community,” said leading land broker Rex Glendenning. “It would be an exciting thing for Denison and that area. I hope they get it done.”

Denison mayor Janet Gott said the development has been more than 20 years in the making.

“We are going to fundamentally change the city of Denison as you begin to develop Preston Harbor,” Gott said. “Preston Harbor is going to be part of our future.”

Craig International is the developer of the highly successful Craig Ranch, a 2,200-acre McKinney community with more 4,500 single-family homes, retail space, offices and hotels. Its TPC Craig Ranch golf course hosted last weekend’s AT&T Byron Nelson tournament.

“I’m going on 43 years of doing this,” Craig said. “I founded my company in McKinney in 1981. I’ve owned or controlled or developed probably 10,000 or 15,000 acres in Collin and Grayson counties over the years. I’m very familiar with the landscape.”

Grayson County’s population and jobs are expected to boom in the coming years. Taiwanese company GlobalWafers is building a $5 billion silicon wafer plant in Sherman. Texas Instruments is investing $30 billion in another huge semiconductor manufacturing center. International tech firm Finisar is also proposing a major semiconductor plant in the county.

Earlier this year, Centurion American Development – one of North Texas’ largest community builders – bought land for a more than 1,500-acre residential development southwest of Sherman.

“Sherman-Denison has more synergy and velocity than it ever has,” Glendenning said.