HOUSTON – (Realty News Report) – Johnson Development has started Kresston, a new community with 3,700 homes that will be built in the Magnolia area northwest of Houston.
Kresston, to be built near Highway 249, is named as a tribute to the late Larry Johnson, the founder of Johnson Development, one of the nation’s most prolific creators of master planned communities.
The 1,400-acre Kresston adds to a long list of Johnson Development, which is currently working on 19 communities totaling 47,500 acres.
Mr. Johnson, who passed away last year, was born in Kress, a farming-oriented town of less that 1,000 people located in the Texas Panhandle, south of Amarillo.
Born in 1940, Johnson grew up on a 300-acre tenant farm in Kress, working alongside his family to raise crops and animals. He played quarterback for the Kress Kangaroos, earning a scholarship to play football at Texas Tech University. He then attended law school at the University of Texas Austin before moving to Houston in 1962 to start his career in residential real estate.
With Mr. Johnson’s character in mind, the Kresston community will reflect the small-town ambiance of Kress, Texas, the development company said.
“Naming a residential community is rarely easy,” said Virgil Yoakum, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Kresston. “There’s a lot to consider — is it unique, will it be memorable and what kind of tone does it set for the community? This time — with it being the first community we’ve named since Larry’s passing — we knew we wanted to do something to add to his legacy.”
Kresston will offer a mix of homes and townhomes. A commercial corridor along State Highway 249 will bring additional shopping, dining and conveniences to the area. Kresston’s site plan also includes an amenity complex, open space and land dedicated to a new school within the Magnolia Independent School District.
Johnson Development acquired the land in late 2022.
“Our vision for Kresston is for the community to have a small-town, everyone-knows-everyone sensibility,” Yoakum said. “With its location along the Aggie Expressway, Kresston can be an ideal location for people who work in either College Station or the Houston area. No matter where you work, however, coming home to Kresston will be like returning to your sanctuary.”
Kresston is Johnson Development’s third Montgomery County community. Woodforest is located in Montgomery north of FM 1488 and Grand Central Park is in Conroe at Interstate 45 and Loop 336 South.
Johnson Development has 19 active communities — 15 in the Houston area, two in Dallas-Fort Worth, one in the Austin area and one in Atlanta. These communities have entitlements to build more than 80,000 residential units and 16.7 million SF of commercial and retail space. For the past decade, Johnson Development has had more communities ranked among the nation’s top-selling master-planned communities than any other developer in the nation, according to rankings by RCLCO.
Houston-based Johnson Development, founded in 1975, has developed the Houston-area communities of Sienna, Woodforest, Cross Creek Ranch, Grand Central Park, Veranda, Harvest Green, Imperial, Edgewater, Riverstone, Cross Creek West, Jordan Ranch, and Tuscan Lakes. The company also is developing Viridian and Trinity Falls in the Dallas region, Lake Arrowhead north of Atlanta, and Bryson in the Austin area. An affiliate of Johnson Development — Johnson Development Services — manages development of boutique communities within the Johnson portfolio, including Amira and Candela in the Southwest Houston area, and Nolina in Georgetown.
Johnson is also credited with opening up development on the south side of Houston in Pearland, along the Highway 288 corridor where Johnson developed the Silverlake master planned community. In 1995, Johnson bought the unfinished Southwyck community in Pearland, and renamed it Silverlake. Prior to Silverlake, Pearland and the underutilized 288 Corridor did not have high-volume home sales. But Johnson, backed with investment dollars from Prudential, relaunched the project and focused Silverlake marketing on the easy commute offered by Highway 288 at that time. Homebuyers responded in droves. Pearland’s access to the Texas Medical Center, which has over 100,000 employees, was a winning selling point for homebuyers.
Aug. 1, 2023 Realty News Report Copyright 2023
THE RALPH BIVINS PROJECT PODCAST
LISTEN_ THE RALPH BIVINS PROJECT podcast with Gregg Logan of RCLCO.
LISTEN: THE RALPH BIVINS PROJECT with Tim Drone of J. Patrick Homes
LISTEN: THE RALPH BIVINS PROJECT podcast with Edward Griffin of Griffin Partners
LISTEN: THE RALPH BIVINS PROJECT podcast with Bill Odle of TBG Partners
LISTEN: THE RALPH BIVINS PROJECT podcast with Cathy Treviño, chair of HAR
LISTEN: THE RALPH BIVINS PROJECT podcast with Rusty Tamlyn of JLL Capital Markets
LISTEN: THE RALPH BIVINS PROJECT podcast with Carlos Bujosa of Transwestern
LISTEN: THE RALPH BIVINS PROJECT podcast with Mike Spears of Lee & Associates Houston
Photo: Courtesy Johnson Development. Caption: Members of the Kresston development team are, from left, Senior Vice President and General Manager Virgil Yoakum, Development, Senior Development Manager Stephen Barrera and Construction Manager Everett Coverdell.
File: 3700 Homes Planned for Kresston
nasr feb 27, 2024