New homes to join elementary school in Lantana

As preliminary work continues at the site of Lantana’s third elementary school, plans have been announced for new rooftops to join the school.

Republic Property Group recently announced that LionsGate Homes has purchased 86 fifty-foot wide lots adjacent to the school for a new residential development.

LionsGate currently builds in Lantana’s Isabel and Kendall neighborhoods, with home prices starting around $300,000.

Jake Wagner, Co-President of Republic Property Group, said the first phase of construction will start on the west side of the yet-to-be-named subdivision currently known as Parcel 56.

There will be a small buffer of about 50 sixty-foot wide lots reserved for future development between the Fairlin neighborhood and the new homes.

“The existing homeowners in Fairlin that sit on 80-foot wide lots would rather back up to 60’s. It will be a good buffer between the two,” said Wagner.

The homes and school will sit behind Lantana’s growing FM 407 commercial corridor that consists of a Sonic restaurant and Kwik Kar Auto Care Center. Kwik Kar Wash is under construction and will open soon, and a Pizza Hut, CVS Pharmacy and Dry Clean Supercenter are in the works.

Wagner said that prices of newly built homes in Lantana are up 10 to 12 percent this year, with the average new home selling for $408,000.

A couple of years ago, Parcel 56 was earmarked for high-end apartment homes for senior citizens, but the developer Republic brought in was unable to secure financing for the project and it has since been taken off the table.

The Denton Independent School District purchased 12 acres in Parcel 56 earlier this year and recently approved a $17.8 million contract for Balfour Beatty Construction to begin construction on the elementary school, which is targeted to open for the 2014-15 school year.

“We looked at a whole bunch of different uses for the land,” said Wagner. “We have probably considered 15 different options as to what would go down there but now with the school going in and us putting in the infrastructure, there was interest from homebuilders.”