Site work for a water / sewer project in Boerne, Texas. Completed plans call for site work for a water / sewer project.

As of June 27, 2024, this project has not yet been awarded. A timeline for award has not yet been established. https://www.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/news/2024/06/13/georges-ranch.html "Almost every day I see the new faces of strangers seeking homes in this section, and I presume it is the same all over the State. ... But if a person wishes to enjoy the finest climate in the Union, to possess the best of health, to find cheap lands which must rapidly increase in value, to engage in a business which, if properly attended to, will bring in a yearly profit of from 40 to 70 per cent. on an investment - I mean stock-raising - and is willing to put up with a few of the inconveniences ever attendant upon life on the frontier, let such person come to Texas." Georges Ranch 2expand An aerial view shows Leander-based Lookout Group's George's Ranch development. LOOKOUT GROUP About a century ago, George Wilkins Kendall wrote those words in an edition of the Picayune, a newspaper he founded in New Orleans, after moving to the Texas Hill Country, and settling on a large parcel of land northwest of San Antonio. There, he pioneered the sheep ranching industry in the area around his homestead in the county now bearing his name: Kendall County. Kendall's legacy is now being stewarded by the Lookout Group, a Leander-based developer who bought the property in 2017. At the time, it was called Post Oak Springs Ranch, but after extensive research and careful consideration, the decision was made to name the historic ranch after the man himself. The developer, which has experience with master-planned neighborhoods in Kendall County, is planning an 1,100-acre community that will deliver 800 1-acre home lots. "We heard about the property from a broker we've done business with in the past who let us know it might be coming for sale, and we immediately told him that we might be interested," Lookout Group President Mike Siefert said. "We ended up acquiring the property at a very fair price." Georges Ranch Lookout Group -04expand Mike Siefert, president of the Lookout Group, which is developing George's Ranch in front of Kendall's historic homestead. RAMZI ABOU GHALIOUM | SABJ Certainly, the developer -- who is also behind Esperanza, another large community in the area -- garnered plenty of interest from production builders who wanted to put higher density neighborhoods in the community. Over the years, the developer fielded offers from homebuilders D.R. Horton (NYSE: DHI) and Lennar (NYSE: LEN), which planned to put 3-4 lots per acre on the property. But the Lookout Group, which was accustomed to developing large acre lots in the Austin area, like Crystal Falls and ClearWater Ranch, had a different vision. "As a company, we've got 30 years of history developing 1-acre lots and have a niche being successful delivering these communities and felt like it was a perfect fit for this historic ranch," Siefert said. After all, it isn't every day that you acquire a property owned by a county's namesake, Siefert said. "We take a lot of pride in every development, every detail, and with this ranch and its history we wanted to make sure that George's story -- which is a true Texas story -- is genuinely honored," he said. "I find it so interesting that in written publications in 1858 George is telling everybody who will listen, 'Texas is the greatest place, move to Texas, you'll never be happier,' and here we are with the opportunity to share his beautiful ranch with others." Kendall's original family homestead still exists on George's Ranch and will be repurposed for future use of the homeowners -- though the developer still isn't certain what that will look like in its final form. Different parts of the development display monikers that reflect various elements of Kendall's life, like the Adeline section for custom homes -- named after his wife. Keep up with the latest San Antonio headlines by signing up here for SABJ newsletters. The project promises to be a substantial addition to the Boerne area, delivering homes to one of the most highly sought-after markets in the San Antonio metro. But it wasn't smooth sailing right from the get-go. Developing land around Boerne is notoriously difficult, and the developer spent years meeting with community members and city and county officials just getting the project to the starting line. "Kendall County was very concerned with the detention and drainage calculations, and we worked for over a year with our engineers getting their staff comfortable that everything was going to be done correctly," Siefert said. Because the development is outside Boerne proper, Kendall County was the governing authority for the project's entitlements. But the city of Boerne exercised its right of first refusal to cement itself as the water provider for the project. "Boerne put additional water restrictions on us to ensure lower use," Siefert said. "The same water restrictions as if we were in the city." The developer has had to take a longer view of the product it plans to deliver, carefully navigating a development cycle that would span nearly two decades. From start to finish, the project is estimated to take 15 years and sport a $100 million development price tag -- but the projected value of the property upon completion will be just shy of $1 billion. The first phase of the project is already underway and will see the delivery of about 100 custom and semi-custom home lots. All 63 semi-custom homesites that are being developed in the first phase have been contracted to San Antonio-based Monticello Homes, Ft. Washington, Pennsylvania's Toll Brothers (NYSE: TOL) and Houston-based Perry Homes. "When we purchased Esperanza out of bankruptcy in 2013, no one in Boerne knew us or our reputation for delivering on promises made or delivering high-quality, master-planned communities. What we've learned working in Boerne is truly about building relationships and developing a trust with all the various stakeholders involved from the city of Boerne, Kendall County and Boerne ISD among many more," Siefert said. "We absolutely love the area and went 'all-in' on Boerne with the acquisition of George's Ranch and will continue to develop these invaluable relationships so that we can deliver another award-winning, master-planned community in the Hill Country that honors George Kendall's great Texas story in a way that we can all be proud of." __________________ Contractor to purchase and install the Pulsair compressed air mixer system on the Esperanze Site A potable water ground storage tank as specified in the attached project documents. The installation shall be completed without draining the tank. Question Deadline 05/20/2024 at 5:00 PM CT All technical questions shall be submitted online.