Olerio Homes Developer Has a Shady Past, But is Building Cookie-Cutter Homes a Crime?
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One of the premier developers in a Dallas neighborhood fighting displacement and gentrification was recently involved in a hot chicken scandal and did federal prison time for his role in a hydroponic marijuana growing operation.
That’s not particularly relevant to his credibility as a home builder, but it’s often raised by legacy residents in the Elm Thicket/Northpark neighborhood who don’t like his propensity for cutting down trees, leaving huge Dumpsters in the right-of-way, and threats to gentrify their Freedman’s community.
Olerio Homes developer Louis Michael Olerio Jr. has been building homes in Dallas for 14 years and no doubt has helped some people find their dream home. He’s quick to say he gets along just fine with the Elm Thicket/Northpark residents, but some neighbors tell a different story.
“That’s not just a lie, that’s a damn lie,” said Elm Thicket/Northpark Neighborhood Association president Jonathan Maples. “Nobody cares for Lou Olerio. He’s the same SOB that said he’s going to gentrify the whole neighborhood when he lost the first zoning case.”
Another neighbor who asked to remain anonymous offered her personal experience with the builder.
“The complaint ETNP has with Olerio is that he does not make an effort to preserve our old-growth trees. He is more than willing to pay whatever fines the city levels when he gets reported,” she said. “He has people work on Sundays when there is supposed to be no construction at all. He was trying to push spot zoning so he could build duplexes on residential lots, completely disfiguring how a neighborhood street looks.”
Over in Devonshire, residents are blowing up the Nextdoor neighborhood social media app about the proliferation of Olerio’s cookie-cutter “white box” homes.
“It’s not just our neighborhood; it’s the whole damn city, north of the Trinity River,” Maples said.
Lou Olerio’s Past
Olerio was sentenced in December 2013 to two years in prison for conspiracy to commit money laundering, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office Northern District of Texas. He was reportedly released to a halfway house in January 2016. Since then, he’s been building homes and investing in Lucky’s Hot Chicken franchises.
Sort of.
Earlier this month, a settlement was reached in a claim that Olerio and other investors raised $1.8 million to open Lucky’s franchises in Oak Lawn, Pleasant Grove, Richardson, and Arlington, but the stores never opened — or in the case of Oak Lawn, opened and closed within four months, according to a People Newspapers report.
Olerio Homes in Elm Thicket/Northpark
Olerio agreed to an interview with CandysDirt.com but refused to answer questions about his legal history.
Fair enough; we’re a housing publication. We wanted to know about his dealings with neighborhoods like Elm Thicket/Northpark, where neighbors battled last fall for a “downzoning” overlay that restricted lot coverage and roof styles, among other things.
Residents have made it clear that Olerio isn’t violating the new zoning regulations and he wasn’t doing so prior to the October vote that put the restrictions in place. But some think he’s trying to tear down legacy homes and drive minorities out of the neighborhood.
He didn’t make a lot of new friends when Olerio told CandysDirt.com in January 2021 about his plans to build 64 single-family attached units on March Avenue.
“We’ll totally regentrify that area,” he said at the time.
In response to the criticism around building huge, expensive homes next to smaller, legacy cottages, Olerio said he’s adding value to the neighborhood.
“When I first started buying over there 20 years ago, we were paying $40,000 to $50,000 a lot,” he said. “Now we’re paying $500,000, plus a lot. My answer to that is we’re creating generational wealth for families [for whom] that is their biggest financial asset. I mean, when prices have increased tenfold on dirt, that’s creating value for the homeowners.”
Maples disagrees.
“You don’t build generational wealth when the person that is buying your home is low-balling you,” he said. “Building generational wealth would be getting 80 percent of what he’s going to sell the home for when he’s ready to sell. What he’s buying the homes for in this neighborhood, they’re getting about an eighth or less of what he’s going to end up selling it for.”
Maples said he encourages homeowners who want to sell to tear down their own homes, scrape their own property, build new, and ask for the same amount that builders are asking for.
“If you go to any bank that loans for real estate and give them the ZIP code of 75209 and your street address, there’s a great chance they will loan you the money to rebuild your own home, simply because they understand the value of the dirt,” he said.
Homeowners are not being forced out, Olerio explained.
“If they want to stay, they’re welcome to stay,” he said. “If they want to stay there, that’s great. If they don’t, then they’ll get a sales price that is much more than they ever thought about when they purchased their homes.”
Downzoning in Elm Thicket/Northpark
The Dallas City Council approved in October 2022 a “downzoning” that requires single-story and two-story structures to have 40 percent lot coverage. Ninety percent of the roof of the main structure must be hip and gable when greater than 20 feet from the grade. Maximum structure height is 25 feet.
Developers who pulled permits prior to the council action last year were cleared to continue construction, some of which is underway now, even though it doesn’t meet the approved criteria.
Olerio said he helped negotiate the changes with council members and made concessions.
“I really have no issue building within the new zoning,” he said. “The ones I’m doing [meet the new criteria].”
We reached out to another builder, Reagan Anderes with RAM Properties, who said our previous reporting on Elm Thicket/Northpark was one-sided.
“Dallas council members did nothing to help with displacement, which all of us fought hard to try to point out,” she said. “We fought hard to make the zoning case worthwhile, all while pointing out how it would make things more difficult for the original owners. Every single thing we tried to communicate to City Council has now come true. Everyone lost. Especially original homeowners.”
Olerio Homes in Devonshire
Residents of Devonshire, where there is no overlay zoning district, say they simply don’t like how all Olerio’s houses look alike and appear to be built quickly and cheaply, undercutting other developers who want to do business in their neighborhood.
Residents have shared stories about Olerio on Nextdoor that don’t paint a great picture of the developer.
Olerio’s portfolio shows a variety of home styles, and he says he started building in Elm Thicket in 2010 and Devonshire in 2012.
The builder said he likes the area because of its close proximity to downtown, Love Field, and the Dallas North Tollway.
“We build north of 50 homes a year and those are two of the neighborhoods we focus on,” he said. “We’ve seen increasing prices consistently year over year in those neighborhoods. There’s a lot of demand. Devonshire now is getting to the point where lot values are pushing close to $1 million. In Elm Thicket, lot values are between $400,000 and $500,000 on the smaller side and over $1 million on the bigger lots.”
Although some of these Nextdoor posts are a couple of years old, they display a disdain for cookie-cutter houses.
“This is much more than a white box trend,” one Elm Thicket/Northpark resident wrote on Nextdoor. “When three to four are going up on the same street at the same time as a spec, it’s pure greed and laziness. Consider the source. If you know LO, then you know there is an issue.”
Olerio said he has to build homes in that style.
“I think we do a good job of making them look different,” he said. “One of the things the overlay did is we’re going to have to all build boxes with low-pitched roofs. The overlay, the downzone, reduced the height and the footprint size. Instead of building homes that are more architecturally different, we’re now going to be forced to build boxes with low roofs. You can only build a hip or a gable and you can only max at 30 feet with 40 percent coverage. It takes away a lot of the ability to do creative things that you can do in other neighborhoods.”
The residents opposed to Olerio’s style say he could pay someone for a more creative design.
“The legacy homes are all different,” one neighbor said. “[Olerio] is lazy and does not care what the neighborhood looks like. He builds rectangle houses with hip and gable roofs because they’re the cheapest.”
We reached out to the Devonshire Neighborhood Association and got this response:
“Olerio has built many homes in Devonshire so I’m sure you could get some input. However, the Devonshire Neighborhood Association is a crime watch organization and only represents the neighborhood from that aspect. The best way for you to identify issues or solicit participation for your story would be through a post to all Devonshire via Nextdoor.”
Displacement And Gentrification
Elm Thicket/Northpark is plagued by investors who want to buy them out at less than market value just to tear down their homes and send them packing, many residents told us at the time of the downzoning last year. In an original Freedman’s neighborhood where many residents live within walking distance of their relatives, the threat of displacement is unsettling.
“My neighborhood is definitely in transition and I am hoping for more builders who want to keep cottages alive,” one Elm Thicket/Northpark resident wrote on Nextdoor.
Olerio currently has about a dozen homes under construction in Elm Thicket/Northpark, including a $3.75 million home at 6710 Robin Road in Shannon Estates, and three in Devonshire. Olerio also builds in several other Dallas neighborhoods and in Waco, Fort Worth, and on Cedar Creek Lake.
Maples, a resident of ElmThicket/Northpark for 58 years, said his neighborhood is in the top three of the things he’s most passionate about. When he hears the word “gentrification,” he interprets that to be an effort to run Black people out of the neighborhood, he said.
“I warn all my neighbors about the predatory tactics developers use to colonize our neighborhood,” Maples said.
Olerio told CandysDirt.com he has a good working relationship with the residents of Elm Thicket/Northpark and while he doesn’t live there anymore, he did for 15 years.
“Everyone gets along very well,” he said. “There’s very little animosity. I find it to be a very safe and very friendly neighborhood.”
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A very good article on the Community. The duplexes up there on Cowan in March or just high priced Housing Projects. That they are calling Duplexes or Condos. Just wondering what Olero’s record normally the feds take everybody else’s stuff and wouldn’t even be allowed to do business in Dallas. And he continue to get caught up and illegal activities Dallas Wow. All about the money
The attempted gentrification of NP/ET is despicable! Mr. Olerio’s Sponge Bob Square Pants looking structures are even more despicable! I guess you can’t expect better from someone with his shady history though! Keep up the fight NP/ET! I’m rooting for you!
I personally do not care for Olerio or his homes whatsoever. However, please stop writing articles about ETNP and citing it as a Freedman’s town. It never was and the historian, Dr. Keating, who was brought in by the ETNP neighborhood association confirmed it never was. ETNP being a historically black neighborhood at one point in time, does not automatically make it a Freedman’s town. Stop being a lazy writer and do some research. Re-writing the facts to fit an agenda, over and over, does not change them.
Dear MK: Our writers are anything but lazy and do a ton of research in the very short time we have for turn-around. This is not Texas Monthly. We welcome ALL information. If you have knowledge, the best thing you can do is share it with us via email so we can flesh it out. April is the hardest working reporter in Texas.
Gosh, this ETNP article and topic has become so redundant. Blaming displacement/gentrification on the “villain” builders, giving Jonathon Maples a platform to spew his hate and twist truths…. when will these “reporters” actually dig into the real issues rather than picking at low hanging fruit?
How about digging into the botched zoning case where there were over 700+ votes against the changes and mere 200+ for? How about looking into why Dallas City Council (specifically Jesse Moreno and Omar Narvez) approved these changes (ignoring the vast majority home owner voters) even though all the facts and information provided to them showed that the zoning changes would do nothing to help ease the ETNP displacement issue? Rising taxes and desire/ability to maintain homes cause displacement. Any rational, clear-thinking person/elected official/reporter should be able to realize that changing roof requirements on new construction does nothing to help people afford in their homes.
But here we are, with the zoning changes approved – the same zoning changes that Jonathon Maples fought dirty for and touted as a “huge win” for the 200+ voters. And still, those who “won” the zoning changes are STILL whining and complaining. Go figure. (insert eye roll)
And what did the changes get ETNP?
Lower taxes? Nope – actually much higher.
People being able to stay in their homes? Slowing down the “change”? Nope. Actually, homes are being sold and torn down at a faster rate as taxes rise etc.
The only result is uglier new homes built by cheaper builders finding work- arounds to build exactly what they want including “flat roof” looking homes. Many of these homes were in-fact permitted AFTER the zoning changes. But those against the zoning changes warned about all of this.
Lou Olerio, builders, developers etc are not the problem.
Taxes are!
A lazy Dallas City Council who vote on emotion rather than facts and information is the problem!
Maybe April is a great reporter. However, there is a story here in ETNP….. but this certainly isn’t it.
Stop giving Jonathan Maples a platform. The guy is spewing the same tired arguments. He doesn’t even own a home in this neighborhood. Just check DCAD. It’s all right there. He’s going to inherit his parent’s house but owns a home in Glenn Heights. Even the tax bill for the ETNP home goes to his brother, not him. The only reason he’s the prez of the neighborhood association is because he’s broken every bi-law and his term was supposed to end a year ago. He’s used his platform to further no one’s agenda but his own. If the NA had actual elections you’d see a massive increase in membership just to vote him out. He’s unethical, untrustworthy and a bully. He just happens to be cozied up to our lazy politicians like Omar & Jesse who don’t give AF about anything except helping their friends. If they listened to actual residents and wanted the best for us the zoning changes would have never passed. We said “no” by almost 3-1.
What we’re seeing right now is a direct correlation between his failed attempt to “save ETNP” and builders scooping homes at a faster clip. Jonathan is getting exactly what he asked for and homes are going to be torn down quicker thanks to him having to be right instead of working with neighbors for an actual solution.
Dear Candy: I appreciate you are a small organization and if the turn around time is too short for important details to be researched, then those details should not be included in an article. ETNP neighborhood was built between the mid 1920s to 1960s. Freedmen’s towns were established late 1800s-1910.
Given much of the zoning debate in ETNP revolved around the history of the neighborhood, this is a very important fact that a small group of people repeated often enough that it has eventually just become accepted as the truth, or shall we say an illusion of truth. Mr. Maples, et al. should get an award for putting Joseph Goebbels words in action…”Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth”. However, it is not the reader’s job to do research for the writer.
Does April also know that several of the pictures of homes used in this article are not even Olerio’s homes? Why would an article about Olerio and ETNP, have pictures of another builder’s homes?
The currently corrupt City Council is to blame for the cheaply built big box homes that will continue to go up in the neighborhood. No actual thought was put into the actual consequences of these zoning changes…they never even brought in an architect to explain how these changes will just create more big boxes (in order to max out the new decreased square footage requirement) with hip and gable roofs. I agree with the comment from “ETNP Neighbor”… there is most definitely a story here, this isn’t it.
Wow, there’s a lot to comment on here. I’ll start first with thanking Candy for hiring a great writer, like April Towery, who actually listens and reports accurately from all perspectives – not just from the loud, obnoxious voices.
Next, I’ll address the heart of MK’s comments about the freedmen history of the ETNP neighborhood. She is just plain wrong. According to the Texas State Historical Association Handbook of Texas, “In and near the Dallas city limits, a number of freedmen communities arose, including Upper White Rock, Lower White Rock, Fields, The Prairie, Egypt (or Little Egypt), Elm Thicket, Tenth Street, and Joppa.” https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/freedmantownnorth-dallas
Additional evidence of the establishment of the Elm Thicket freedmen’s community is well documented by the City of Dallas Office of Historic Preservation when they recognized the nearby Civil War veteran’s cemetery, Garvin Cemetery, in the Cochran Chapel area less than a mile away.
“The second tract, created in the early 1900s, was an African American cemetery that was established in 1894 when John Cochran, a Confederate Army veteran, donated the land to the black community for use as a burial ground. Little is known about those interred here or the exact locations of their graves, although it is thought to be associated with the early African American freedman’s town of Elm Thicket and possibly Mathis Town, Meadows Town, and Farmers Branch. Based on oral history given by a descendant of the Elm Thicket freedman’s town, members of the Green, Turner, and Shepards family is thought to be buried here.” https://dallascityhall.com/departments/sustainabledevelopment/historicpreservation/Pages/Garvin-Cemetery.aspx
Regardless of how many times MK lies about the history of ETNP, there are many people who know the truth. Unfortunately, there is still several “neighbors” who prefer to listen to those lies instead of researching it for themselves like April did for her story. I will assume ignorance of the facts is to blame, but won’t be surprised to learn that they know the truth and yet still spread the lie. That’s worse.
In the novel 1984, George Orwell wrote that, “the most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.” I believe those who are trying to erase the ETNP black history are simply trying to erase the black people from the neighborhood. Goebbels would be proud.
As for the ETNP Neighbor who takes the opportunity to spew vitriol toward Jonathan Maples, I can only say that they are the only ones “whining” about the zoning case loss that was handed to them by a unanimous vote by the Dallas City Council last October. Jonathan is simply speaking his mind about the neighborhood and defending it from those developers and builders who don’t care about the people who live here and are only interested in the easy buck. That is more than I can say for the loud and obnoxious few who want to change the neighborhood’s name, see it destroyed and rebuilt/rebranded in the image they prefer, an image that does not include people of color.
I have more I can say, but I’ll end it here. I fully expect a “whining” response to this post, but I’ve been in this neighborhood long enough to know I can ignore them. And I’m a better person for it. Thank you again to Candy Evans and April Towery for this story.
Isn’t it funny how MK and ETNP neighbor are to cowardly to say who they are but want to try and tarnish my name, I grew up in ElmThicket North Park and will always defend those who live here, grew up here and call ETNP home so to those who have an opinion about me come and find me and express it and if your not man or woman enough to do that then FUCK OFF!!
Oh, wait. Jonathon Maples and his followers aren’t content with the results of their “big win”? Still complaining to media outlets or whoever will listen without questioning what really happened and why. Shocking.
Taxes still skyrocketed? Older homes are still deteriorating without assistance to maintain the home? Wholesalers still buying homes? Builders still buying homes? New, “big box” homes still being built? New neighbors still moving in? Yes. Shocking.
How about placing blame where it belongs? Something positive could have been accomplished here, but those “in charge”, those “leading” did nothing but further hurt this neighborhood and community. And as of yesterday, they still are.
After City Council’s vote yesterday, property taxes will yet again increase to unaffordable heights – driving more owners to have to sell their homes – and you can thank your “loyal” Moreno and Narvaez for that.
Isn’t it interesting that someone who is trying to smear a person’s name is to cowardly to say who they are
(MK, ElmThicket neighbor) however, we’ve been done this road before so in our research we pretty much know exactly who you are.
You would have thought by now that those who feel the way that MK and ElmThicket neighbor does would understand Jonathan Maples Isn’t going anywhere, so ask yourself how many stones can we throw at him to break him, infinity is your answer because you see being president of the ETNP neighborhood association is not more important to me than ElmThicket North Park and the next time you feel the need to run a background check on someone you might want to get their permission so that you don’t end up in legal turmoil.
I’ve also come to the realization that many of our new neighbors don’t like it here, well this is America and there are plenty of other neighborhoods you can live in.
One thing I can say for certain is that I’m glad you had the unmitigated Gaul to put hate in writing this proves your I’ll intentions for the residents of the neighborhood from the start.
Lastly, if you two have the courage to have this conversation in-person the way grown-up’s resolve issues, I’ll be at the K B Polk recreation center next Tuesday September 26th 6pm for our monthly ETNP crime watch meeting and don’t worry DPD will be present so you’ll be safe.
Hope to see you then and bring the rest of the Klan they are invited also!!
Dear G Williams: Residents in ETNP who may question the freedman’s town narrative fully recognize and celebrate ETNP’s black history. To suggest otherwise is harmful and a way to try and silence anyone who questions or digs deeper.
George Orwell wrote, “”Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped.”
As hard as you and others may try to rewrite historical facts, some people still value truth and facts. Of which, I will stick to:
FACT #1:
Jonathon Maples, with Adam Medrano, organized a community meeting to review the true history of ETNP. This meeting took place on March 22, 2021 and even Rep. Rafael Anchia was in attendance. Maples had Dr. George Keaton lead the review of ETNP’s history. Dr. Keaton is Dallas’ leading African American historian, founded Remembering Black Dallas, organizes and leads annual tours of Dallas’ Freedmen’s towns, and was one of two editors of Our Stories: Black Families in Early Dallas. During this meeting in 2021, Dr. Keaton explained to attendees that ETNP was NOT a Freedmen’s town. In Dr. Keaton’s words…“While the area became a majority Black neighborhood, it was never a Freedman’s town.” At that point, the Freedman’s town issue was laid to rest. Not even the those in-favor of zoning brought it up again (for awhile).
FACT #2:
Mike King, City of Dallas’ leader of our zoning case, wrote in an email to all interested parties/neighbors that when Elm Thicket is referenced in the City documents, they are in fact NOT in reference to our area. This was his quote, “Elm Thicket is not the Freedman town mentioned in the article (it was near Lemmon and Central Expressway)”.
Additionally, here is a quote from:
Lolita Buckner Inniss & Skyler Arbuckle, Slavery and the Postbellum University: The Case of SMU, 74 SMU
L. REV 723 (2021).
(I have the paper if you are interested).
“LBI: Where in Dallas did your family live after slavery? Where do they now live?
SNA: After slavery, my ancestors lived on land in the northeastern por- tion of Dallas. They lived in an area called Elm Thicket, which is now present-day Lake Highlands and White Rock. The area, at the time, was home to a lot of Black families who lived in the area on farms and was referred to as “Freedman’s Town.”
FACT #3:
The true history of this neighborhood does not support your claims:
1841 – Spearheaded by William S Peters, an Englishman by birth, 20 English and American investors petitioned the Fifth Congress of the Republic of Texas to pass the law of February 4, 1841, that authorized the president of the Republic of Texas to enter into an empresario contract with Peters and his associates.
Info on Peter’s Colony:
1850 – 200 acres (specifically in our area) was granted to Calvin Cole by virtue of the Peter’s Colony.
1881 – F.A. Brown Farmstead was established (Dairy farm that currently has a historical marker on it)
1922 – Upon the death of F.A. Brown, Ernest Brown, son, began to sell their land for residential development. This area was first called “The Bottoms”
Now, after presenting these facts…the question is…what is the definition of a Freedman’s town? Wikipedia’s definition is…. “A freedmen’s town was an African American municipality or community built by freedmen, former slaves who were emancipated during and after the American Civil War”. If you are classifying a Freedman’s town as any community that housed anyone enslaved, then we can agree ETNP very likely qualifies. However under the actual definition, ETNP does not.
ETNP has deep and important African American roots and history. No one is disputing that. This historically black neighborhood is undergoing change which can be challenging. But to rewrite history to manipulate emotions and outcomes that you desire is wrong.
Klan?! Eek..
Y’all.. someone mentioned this not being Texas Monthly. It’s not. It’s a rinky dink website that tries to be relevant. We could all go back and forth all day sharing our opinions on the neighborhood in the comments section but it’s not going to change the location of this neighborhood and the homes being built. Council voted and it did nothing to slow things down, it is what it is and let’s move on. What I’m curious about is why our neighborhood president is prejudice against Jewish people by using hurtful terms like Klan – calling the residents (black and white) KKK members.
Thank you for engaging with rinky-dink!
My word! I am just taken aback by the untoward comments regarding the truth about the historical relevance of this neighborhood and the continued attempts to diminish its significance. I am equally disgusted by the constant, unwarranted attacks on Jonathan followed by the barrage of misaligned untruths (e.g. Jonathan dislikes Jews) when the trouble makers get fact checked. You poke the bear but can’t take the truth or the heat. How cowardly not to use your names but it matters not. We know who you are based on the all too familiar verbiage and vitriol you have spewed prior to and after the zoning. Your bigotry shines as bright as the noonday sun! Nonetheless, the wonderful residents of the ETNP community will carry on. We will continue to support one another and continue the innate tradition of being neighborly to EVERYONE. I highly recommend being kind. Kindness really does make a difference and it takes much less effort to attempt to plot the ruin of people who have done you no harm..