Resmark and Grenadier Homes Team Up for Right-Size, Right-Price Digs in Prosper

Whether you’re looking at retirement and downsizing, or you’re a first-time buyer looking to get into a popular development in Prosper, a new partnership between Grenadier Homes and California-based The Resmark Companies has right-sized, right-priced options.

The two have partnered to develop 198 single-family attached townhomes in two neighborhoods at Windsong Ranch in Prosper. It will be the only remaining development planned in the master planned community.

Resmark and Grenadier will partner on the second phase of the successful Villas at Windsong Ranch community for the development of 88 single-family attached one-story villa townhomes. A new townhome line of 110 single-family attached two-story townhomes within Windsong Ranch will also be part of the investment.  Sales are expected to begin in summer 2019 with first occupancies in late 2019 and completion in summer 2023, a joint statement from the companies said.

Resmark is based in Los Angeles, but has offices in San Diego and Irvine, California, Austin, Texas, and McLean, Virginia. Grenadier is Dallas-based.

“This is our first investment in Dallas,” Michael Zarola, Senior Vice President of Investments for Resmark’s Land and Housing division, said in a phone interview. “And without it sounding like a sales pitch, what we really do kind of focus on partner first and real estate second.”

Zarola moved to Austin last summer, and hit the ground running to look for Texas developers to partner with.

“I started just put out feelers, meeting with anyone and everyone I could, and determining who would be a good fit for what Resmark is looking for and who built the kind of product and is in the kind of niches that we like to be in.”

The partnership between Grenadier and Resmark has been a year-long conversation, he said.

“Resmark has always been a long term player, we’re based in California but we managed pension fund money and have always had a very long term perspective,” he said. “We’ve been doing this since the mid-90s, so we’re at almost 25 years, with a great track record. When we came out here it wasn’t ‘the Texas housing market is hot let’s go put some money there’ —  it was that we think Texas is going to be a good place for many years.”

“I believe it’s gonna be a great place for our investors to put money and partner with home builders and developers, and earn a good return,” he said. “And it’s going to continue because people aren’t going to stop moving here.”

Grenadier has been building villas in Windsong for almost three years, and has sold 80 percent of its first 114-villa phase.

“We are pleased to partner with Resmark with this investment in Windsong Ranch,” said John Egnatis, CEO of Grenadier Homes. “We appreciate the common vision we share for both the marketplace and the way we approach business relations collaboratively. Beginning the relationship with an already-successful Windsong Ranch community is a great launching point.”

“Our Villa program has already met with success and we are excited to introduce our new Townhomes, as both offer a great value within the award-winning master plan.”

The Villas at Windsong Ranch will be single-story, two or three bedroom plans with small private yards and/or patios, built with the company’s Universal Design that has been popular with the fast-growing 55-and-older market, and will include touches that make the homes friendly for mobility-limited buyers — things like wider doorways and halls, easier-to-use faucets, showers, and other options.

Buyers can add an optional second story for another bedroom or bonus room. All told, the homes will range in size from 1,301 to 1,766 square feet.

“We call them a move down buyer, and a lot of those folks are typically empty nesters where they might have had four or five people in a house at one point, and now they’re down to two,” Zarola said. “So what we’re finding is that they don’t need as much space.”

But it can also be difficult for those downsizers or move-down buyers to find properties that they can live in for a few more decades, despite their usually great credit and previous homeownership.

“Sometimes it’s hard even though they’re very well-qualified buyers because they’ve owned a home for many many years,” Zarola said. “They typically have equity built up in their current homes, but the dynamics of what we’re finding is that some of those buyers take a while to come to the conclusion that they want to downsize, and they think they need to hold on to that big home because they want the kids to come and visit and grandkids to be there.”

Zarola feels that these right-sized townhomes will help retirees (or soon-to-be retirees) get out of a situation where they have a large home, but only use maybe a third of it.

“Here we can buy a house that’s right size has all the modern updated appliances and we’re not walking stairs, and so I think that’s the that’s the key here,” Zarola said.

And Zarola said they’ve found that retirees these days want to be close to family, which makes the suburbs a great choice.

“You don’t You don’t want to be far from the grandkids, and you actually want to be close to your children and your grandchildren,” he said. “And so what we’re finding is that there’s a lot of these buyers want to be in suburban markets. They don’t want to be out in the middle of nowhere – they want to go to the same church that they went to, or that their kids and grandkids go to, and they want to go to the same grocery store, and so on.”

In addition, 110 townhomes with a new design for Grenadier will target households in the 25-44 age demographic, often first time buyers with young families. These two-story townhomes will feature three bedrooms, two-car garages, and will range from 1,897 to 2,098 square feet.

Zarola said that the price point — which is in the $300,000 range — is ideal for a first-time buyer who wants to get into Windsong, but perhaps was scared off by other price points.

“It’s the folks that might be you know, ‘Gosh, I really want to be in Windsong, and I have a family and I wanted to buy a single family detached but I can’t afford $500,000 or $400,000, or whatever it is just to get in there,’” he said. “I can definitely afford $300,000 and I get 2,000 square feet. And then maybe as the kids mature and I start making more money, we can move into a single family home within Windsong.’”

The fact that his company has teamed with Grenadier to create an affordable entry-point into a desired development, and is offering a great option for seniors as well, is a point of pride for Zarola, too.

“We’re excited really excited about that,” he said.”It’s two very different demographics, but still very affordable.”

Prosper’s Windsong Ranch is popular in part because of the amenities it will offer, including amazing open spaces that center around a five-acre, state-of-the-art lagoon being built by Crystal Lagoons. The lagoon is part of 600 acres of planned open space, including lakes, parks, green spaces, and bike and hike trails, as well as pools, a fitness center, and children’s splash park.