Dallas Group has Houston Project on Tap
By: Allison Wollam

HOUSTON BUSINESS JOURNAL
Published September 15-21, 2006

A fledgling Dallas-based development company is hammering out plans for what will be the second major development along the west shore of Lake Houston.

WY Atlantis has acquired 322 acres on the west side of the lake, just south of Kingwood, from a group of private investors. The sale price was not disclosed.

The company will develop a 900-home community called The Bridges at Lake Houston.

The project comes on the heels of a 1,500-home community called Lakeshore that is being developed in phases by Perry Homes off West Lake Houston Parkway.

The Bridges at Lake Houston and Lakeshore are coming to fruition more than two decades after the most recent west-side lake community, Walden on Lake Houston, was launched in the early 1980s.

Real estate agents say tight deed restrictions along the west shore may have prompted developers to build along other waterfront areas, but increasing demand has made development more feasible.

"Water obviously sells," says Wyatt Henderson, a partner in WY Atlantis. "The lakefront home sites will set The Bridges at Lake Houston apart."

WY Atlantis, which was formed in January, is owned by Wyatt Henderson and Allen Jones, former principals and co-founders of Dallas-based Marlin Atlantis, Dallas-based Westmount Realty Capital, LLC, and The Yucaipa Cos., a Los Angeles-based private equity investment firm.

The Bridges at Lake Houston is planned as a move-up community, with the average home priced just above $300,000.

Construction is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2007.

The Bridges at Lake Houston represents the second in a set of back-to-back deals for WY Atlantis. Last month, the group purchased 736 acres for a residential development in Fort Worth named The Ranch at Mary's Creek.

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