GAINESVILLE, Texas — A prominent North Texas land broker has purchased more than 800 acres along Interstate 35 near Gainesville, signaling what could become one of the largest mixed-use developments in Cooke County history.
Rex Glendenning, founder of Frisco-based REX Real Estate, and his wife Sherese Glendenning closed on the 815-acre Pace Ranch on Jan. 31 through their entity Old Chisholm Trail Partners. The property sits along I-35, approximately 70 miles north of downtown Dallas. The purchase price was not disclosed.
The Pace family had owned the ranch for more than 75 years before the sale, which was brokered by Caleb Lavey of REX Real Estate.
Glendenning said he envisions a large-scale, mixed-use project on the property. The northern 400 acres would be developed for residential use, potentially including 800 to 1,000 single-family homes and 2,000 to 3,000 apartments. The southern portion of the property is earmarked for a logistics or industrial park, and Glendenning said talks are underway with grocery operators.
"The I-35 corridor is experiencing significant growth in the logistics sector from the Fort Worth Alliance area through Denton and Sanger," Glendenning said. "We feel the Gainesville area is next in line for the right development and project. The area is awakening. I'd rather be early to the party than late."
Gainesville City Manager Barry Sullivan described the planned development as "a mixture of industrial, commercial, and residential uses."
Glendenning, widely known in North Texas real estate circles as the "King of Dirt," has brokered some of the region's most significant land deals over a career spanning nearly four decades. His past transactions include the land sale for the Dallas Cowboys' $1.5 billion Star mixed-use development in Frisco, the 3,800-acre Veale Ranch west of Fort Worth, and 3,200 acres for the Legacy Hills community in Celina.
The Pace Ranch acquisition comes amid a surge of major land deals along the I-35 corridor in Cooke County. BNSF Railway has proposed a 1,000-acre logistics park between Sanger and Valley View, just south of the Pace Ranch site. In January, H-E-B closed on more than 600 acres near Valley View for a master-planned supply chain campus.
The project is in its earliest stages, and completion is expected to take several years. No construction timeline has been announced.
Related: H-E-B purchases 600 acres in Valley View for a supply chain campus along the same I-35 corridor. See also: The I-35 corridor development boom reshaping Cooke County.