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Margaritaville Resort to Anchor $6 Billion Lake Texoma Development in North Texas

admin  /   January 2024

Dallas Developer Closes Land Deal for Thousands of Acres With Plans To Transform Area

Lake Texoma, one of the largest U.S. reservoirs, has a $6 billion master-planned development between the Texas and Oklahoma border anchored by a Margaritaville resort coming its way as part of a deal that’s been in the works for 20 years.

Craig International and other investors formed Waterfall Development to acquire 3,114 acres in Denison, Texas, a city about 75 miles north of Dallas, in what is being called one of the largest land purchases in Grayson County’s history.

Plans for the acreage include creating a master-planned development called Preston Harbor that would eventually have 7,500 homes, including single-family, active-adult and apartments, a $100 million Margaritaville resort, as well as retail, restaurants and an upscale marina.

Financial terms of the land deal were not disclosed. The acreage includes 9.5 miles of shoreline on Lake Texoma as well as 27 internal lakes — four of which are more than 25 acres. Preston Harbor is expected to transform Denison, opening the west side of the city to Lake Texoma. It would double the area’s population, said David Craig, founder, chairman and CEO of Craig International which is based in McKinney, Texas, a suburb of Dallas.

The 90,000-acre Lake Texoma is owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and private property ownership that fronts the lake is rare.

“We are thrilled about this opportunity, I wish my buddy George was here to see this,” Craig told CoStar News, referencing his friend George Schuler, who died eight months ago after spending years cobbling together the acreage for the development. Schuler was instrumental in buying 600 acres from the Corps of Engineers to own to the water’s edge of Lake Texoma for the Preston Harbor project.

“We will not only complete his vision but expand on it,” Craig said. “The growth of the Metroplex is pushing north, with it going all the way to the Red River, and this is right in the way of that growth.”

Preston Harbor’s development team is finalizing the land planning and engineering of the project. Construction is scheduled to start on the acreage’s infrastructure in late 2024.