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Dallas Business Journal - Best Residential Deal

Providence: affordable homes with high-end amenities

Sandra Zaragoza
Dallas Business Journal Staff Writer
March 3, 2003

DENTON COUNTY — With Providence, Huffines Communities™ continues to raise the bar on affordable-home development. The 550-acre project off State Highway 380 in Denton County features amenities typically found in a higher-end community, but its homes sell for $89,000 to $165,000.

Providence harkens back to the early 1900s, a pedestrian-friendly development with short-block streets and small setbacks. Homes are designed in a neotraditional, Cape Cod style. Eight different models are available, with some featuring wrap-around porches.

Dallas-based Huffines Communities™, owned by twin brothers Donald and Phillip Huffines, deliberately develops in unincorporated areas and freshwater districts, even though it often puts the developer in charge of delivering services typically provided by a city, such as water and sewer services.

"It would be impossible to build a community like Providence within a Metroplex city," Donald Huffines said. "Cities want all-brick houses with larger lots and big front-yard setbacks. But we have always felt there is a demand for something besides the standard North Dallas home in a standard North Dallas subdivision."

Huffines said the biggest challenge in developing Providence was delivering affordable homes and still providing upscale amenities and architectural controls.

"In order for it to work, you must have a high velocity of sales," he said.

Choice Homes and Continental Homes sold more than 340 homes between August and January, making Providence one of the top-three selling communities in the Metroplex. The builders are projecting to sell more than 600 homes in 2003. Overall, the development should contain 2,300 homes by the end of 2005.

"Providence is having a dramatic impact on the housing market in North Dallas," said Huffines said. "How well it's been accepted by buyers has caught builders and developers by surprise."

Huffines Communities™ recently donated 15 acres to Denton Independent School District, which plans to open Providence Elementary School by August 2004. The developer also is putting in the infrastructure, including gas, water, sewer and high-speed Internet lines.

Amenities at Providence include an 8,200-square-foot, two-story clubhouse with 24-hour fitness facility, a waterpark with two water slides, three swimming pools, gardens, irrigated soccer and baseball fields, hike and bike trails and three stocked lakes. The active homeowners association plans events, such as fishing competitions and barbecues, nearly every weekend of the year.

"The idea is to make it fun," Huffines said. "Life's too short."

Contact DBJ writer Sandra Zaragoza at szaragoza@bizjournals.com or (214) 706-7113.

© 2003 American City Business Journals Inc.