Jason Castro Invites You to Get Away From Dallas This Summer With Castro Stays

You’ve probably seen Jason Castro and Castro Property Group featured here on CandysDirt.com. Castro made a big splash in Dallas-Fort Worth real estate, especially in East Dallas early in his career, eventually starting Castro Property Group at Coldwell Banker Realty in 2019.

Since then, Castro’s creative roots are showing as he continues to expand his business in ever more exciting and innovative endeavors.

We recently featured one of his renovations in Richardson, designed and built by a new extension of Castro Property Group called Castro Casa. This part of the team focuses on turning run-of-the-mill houses into drop-dead-gorgeous head turners like this one, and rumor has it, will be offering client-facing services soon! You can follow the progress on Instagram.

Castro Stays in Strawn

But we’re here to talk about a new project called Castro Stays. The group has been dabbling in short-term rentals locally for a while, which have been quite successful, but a few months ago Jason had a chance meeting with a builder who was developing some land near a little town called Strawn, Texas. One thing led to another, and the very next week he was spending the day riding in a side-by-side, checking out the land.

Strawn is a small town of about 650 in Palo Pinto County, just under two hours west of Dallas on Interstate 20. It’s home to the world-famous Mary’s Cafe, known for its Texas-sized chicken fried steak and fried chicken, on many a travel bucket list. Why Strawn — apart from easy access to Mary’s?

“It was such a beautiful place,” Castro said. “I grew up in Dallas. I didn’t realize we had such beautiful topography and terrain so close to home. So when I saw — mountain is a stretch — I guess it’s a mountain for Texas, but there are definitely rolling hills. We’ve got a 400-foot elevation change on the property.”

And Castro is not the only one who has noticed. Palo Pinto State Park is set to open in late 2023 just down the road from Castro’s development. When it opens, Palo Pinto will be the first new state park in Texas in 25 years. The park will offer about 5,000 acres of camping, fishing, horseback riding, and trails for hikers and mountain bikers, and promises to be a major draw to the area.

Castro and his team have 125 acres of a larger 3,000-acre gated development of ranchettes.

“The theory is, if we can snag even 1 percent of the people going to Broken Bow who want a shorter drive, we’ll be in business,” he said. Looking at the pictures of construction so far, and that view, I think they’re going to be beating them away with sticks.

Castro has three cabins currently under construction, each about 900 square feet. Two of them will share an outdoor patio with a fireplace, which could be rented separately or as a double for friends and family to vacation together, or a larger group could rent all three cabins.

If you’ve seen any of Castro Property Group’s renovations, you’ll be familiar with their style — sleek, modern luxury — and Jason says the finish out of the cabins will be similar. They are planning for a July opening for these first three cabins, and plan to add amenities as they go: “hot tubs and all the fun stuff.” The price point is not final, but Castro expects it to be around $450/night.

Here’s a video tour during construction:

Castro Stays would like to offer CandysDirt.com readers a special introductory rate at Big Bear Ranch available by signing up this week only (June 4-June 10, 2023)! Click the link, fill out the form, and be sure to type CANDYSDIRT in the message line to be put on the list to receive your special rate.

Every time I leave, I want to go right back, it’s so peaceful. There’s no noise, big open skies. We are excited to get it up and running.

Jason Castro, Castro Stays