Megatel Creates a Touch of Italy in far Northern Collin County With New Lagoon
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Head north on U.S. 75, about 12 miles past McKinney and the Buc-ee’s and you’ll find the city of Weston, an odd-shaped exurb of 5.2 square miles. In this patch of Collin County, you’ll soon find a touch of Venice, Italy developed by a Dallas-based builder with Mediterranean roots.
Weston, Collin County’s oldest city, will be the site of the $450 million-plus Venetian Lagoon development, a 1,200-lot residential community built alongside a manmade lagoon. Megatel Homes announced last month that it has secured 204 lots for the community’s first development phase. Construction is expected to start on the lagoon within two months and be ready before the model homes go up.
Aaron and Zach Ipour, two brothers from Cyprus, co-founded Megatel Homes in 2006. They started in the housing industry by flipping and selling homes, going to the Collin County courthouse to buy foreclosed properties.
Megatel is now one of D-FW’s largest homebuilders with the Mercer Crossing development in Farmers Branch as its most prominent development. (In 2018, real-estate professionals might remember Megatel’s Mega Event at Mercer Crossing, bringing in Rudy Giuliani and Kevin O’Leary, Mr. Wonderful of Shark Tank.)
“The development of this lagoon community is a perfect illustration of Megatel Homes’ innovative thinking and out-of-the-box mentality,” Zach Ipour said in a statement. “By offering homes equipped with both the traditional top-of-the-market multifamily amenities and an idyllic, beachfront lifestyle, we are able to deliver unparalleled value to the community’s residents.”
Homes will range in size from 1,200 square feet to 3,500 square feet and be priced between $250,000 to $500,000. Plans call for more than 300 multifamily units and more than 1,200 single-family homes.
The development will feature 15 acres of community land planned for an entertainment center, a clubhouse, bowling alley, and lagoon amenities, including a pool, cabanas, sand beaches, and more. (Venetian gondolas in the lagoon? Just an idea.)
Related: COLLIN COUNTY DEVELOPMENT
Of 100 developments in Megatel’s portfolio since 2006, Weston’s Venetian Lagoon is its first lagoon community.
Lagoons are a thing now, with developers building large beach-like structures as a key attraction for new residential communities. The Metroplex’s first Crystal Lagoon, the brand name and originator of this manmade structure, went up in Prosper’s Windsong Ranch.
In the news release, Ipour pointed to several factors that are driving demand to less dense areas like the far north city of Weston: Flexible work-from-home arrangements prompted by the pandemic and mortgage and interest rates at historic lows.
“These factors have led to an influx of urban dwellers and apartment renters searching for homes to purchase in suburban markets,” he said.
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Megatel requires unmeetable restrictions from Tx Licensed Inspectors to keep buyers from having a non-biased, third party inspection done by a Tx licensed inspector on their construction. I would never buy a Megatel built home. If I’m buying a home I have the right to have whomever I want to look at and inspect that home. It’s my home and my money building it.
I agree entirely Ms. Foster. They have no business telling a buyer who may inspect their purchase! It’s a damn shame they are building such a monstrosity in a quaint little city. This is just the beginning of driving up the tax base and driving out the longtime locals for yuppie scumbags!
Good luck with the 2021 Crash coming…
Italy? rofl. The development is nothing like Italy.
What a tragedy for Weston.
It is a huge tragedy for Weston and the surrounding community. I have over 40 years of living across the road from the beautiful farm land , now they are taking away even that. Try telling all the real estate people you don’t want to sell and give them your estimate for what you will sell for and they say not wort that! Well it is to me! GO AWAY WE DONT WANT IT, NEVER GOT TO VOTE TO SAY NO.
Is megatel a good developer? Quality of home wise and resale perspective
We have been in our Megatel home for 8 months, and have no issues, and as a matter of fact during the freeze, we felt very comfortable as the home seems very well insulated. I drove out everyday and actually swept out debris during multiple phases, the contractors are pretty messy, but we feel the home was built well. We will be having our own inspector before our 1 year, as is everyone’s option. The price on our home has gone up almost $100K in the 18 months since we first signed, so they must be doing something right! Their homes come with nice upgrades, and the price is what it is, not another $50K plus to get the upgrades!
Zack S. was our sales guy, he’s awesome!!!
I quit working for Megatel when one of their top executives told me “all we do here is put lipstick on a pig” I warned the executives that their construction was poor and showed them pictures taken from a townhome development in Farmers Branch. They did nothing to correct the issues. Not a good company to buy a house from.
I have a megatel home for a little over 5 years and I had built from ground up and picked my own inspector definitely before my year 1 was up and they corrected everything the inspector found in the report…I can not recall if I picked my own inspector when I had it built but I belive I did because I wanted a phase inspector and I didnt have any issues with bringing in an inspector….for me the home quality seems good…there is some good and some bad but dont find this home to be of poor quality.
The sales person says this is a MUD. Can’t say if it will be MUD, PID or Water District. So, they want you to sign a contract with a $15K non-refundable earnest money deposit. Let them sit on it for 12-18 months. Then Once they determine the fee if you think it is too high…they keep your earnest money. PID fees can be upwards of 25K and Water District taxes begin at no less than 1%. Completely insane gamble on your 15K
Where did you go to speak to a sales person? Is this already in development?