New Eastridge Development to Add Over 2,400 Homes to Princeton, Texas’ Residential Offering

PRINCETON, Texas, Jan. 05, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Green Brick Partners Inc. in partnership with Meritage Homes, has closed on the purchase of approximately 2,400 homesites with a total build-out value of circa $640 million for the development of Eastridge, Princeton, Texas’ newest residential community. The community will be a 50/50 partnership between Meritage Homes and Trophy Signature Homes, a subsidiary of Green Brick Partners. The 547-acre community will feature a mixture of 40’, 50’, and 60’ single-family homesites.

Eastridge will be located at the corner of Longneck Road and New Hope Road East in Princeton, about 40 minutes northeast of Dallas. The community will be in close proximity to several area highways including Highway 121, U.S. 380, and Highway 75, allowing residents to benefit from both a short commute and a small-town atmosphere.

"The Eastridge development is going to be a great addition to the City of Princeton. The developer has a clear understanding on what it takes to bring in a quality development. With the amenities, parks, hike and bike trails, property for emergency services, and good quality builders, I am confident that Eastridge will be a success, and a place where the citizens of Princeton can raise their families and experience enjoyment for a lifetime," said Princeton City Manager Derek Borg.

Upon completion of the multi-phase community, Eastridge will include an amenity center and nearly 90 acres of parks and open spaces for residents to enjoy.

“Demand for homes in north DFW has continued to grow exponentially, and Princeton is no exception,” said Jed Dolson, chief operating officer and executive vice president of Green Brick Partners. “We have seen remarkable interest from buyers in our neighboring Brookside community, and knew that growing our presence in Princeton was the next step in meeting the market’s growing need for quality homes.”

Trophy Signature Homes will be offering their Trophy and Texas Tree Series of homes with 3-5 bed and 2-4 bath plans averaging 2,000 square feet. As with every Trophy Signature Homes community, all upgrades including engineered wood floors, cooktops with built in ranges and café hoods, will be included as standard features. The homes will be priced competitively, starting in the mid $200’s to the $300’s. Each home constructed by Trophy Signature Homes is built following the company’s tried and true values of effort, commitment, and respect, translating into supreme attention to detail and unparalleled focus on every home buyer.

“We view this as a tremendous opportunity to expand our footprint of energy-efficient, thoughtfully designed, affordable homes in Princeton,” said Austin Woffinden, Dallas division president at Meritage Homes. “An exciting opportunity for future homeowners, Meritage homes at Eastridge are projected to start in the low $200,000s, with access to exclusive onsite amenities and sought-after McKinney schools.”

Meritage Homes plans to build approximately 1,200 single-family LiVE.NOW.^® homes in Princeton, offering buyers a wide variety of floorplans that will be built on homesites ranging from 40’ - 60’. With demand for new homes increasing among first-time buyers who want to escape escalating rents, Meritage offers a streamlined homebuying experience for first-time buyers by providing a one-stop shop for sales and design at the community. With Meritage Homes’ LiVE.NOW.^® offerings, buyers can select quick move-in options featuring the latest design trends. Designed to appeal to families or empty nesters, homes are expected to start in the low $200,000s. Every home Meritage builds in its 25 DFW-area communities showcases the company’s commitment to providing incredibly energy-efficient homes that help customers save on utility bills.

The land for Eastridge was sold by an affiliate of Astra Development. Davey Davis represented the seller as broker, and Kimley-Horn & Associates serves as the land planner and civil engineer on the project.

In July 2019, Astra Development purchased the property, a portion of which was located in unincorporated Collin County and the remainder in the City of Princeton’s extraterritorial jurisdiction. Over the next 18 months, the City of Princeton worked with Astra to solve jurisdictional issues and extend utilities approximately two miles to serve the project. A development agreement was approved by Princeton in October 2020, allowing Astra to obtain approval of a favorable concept plan for the project, along with a Public Improvement District and Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone, creating substantial value for Green Brick Partners and Meritage.

“We believe these entitlements will make this the most competitive project in Princeton for these builders, while allowing for a high-quality, master-planned community within the expanded city limits of the City of Princeton,” noted Justin Bono, founder and president of Astra Development. Astra Development currently controls approximately 2,500 acres for future residential development in various locations across Collin and Denton counties which are expected to yield more than 7,500 future lots.

Eastridge is anticipated to open for presales in late 2022. For additional information please visit www.trophysignaturehomes.com and www.meritagehomes.com.

About Astra Development

Astra Development acquires land and develops residential projects in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex and other select markets.  Astra Development is committed to investing in and developing only quality projects that achieve targeted returns for the company and its investors. To contact Astra Development, please visit the company’s website.

About Meritage Homes Corporation
Meritage Homes is the seventh-largest public homebuilder in the United States, based on homes closed in 2019. Meritage offers a variety of homes that are designed with a focus on first-time and first move-up buyers in Arizona, California, Colorado, Texas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. The Company has designed and built over 135,000 homes in its 35-year history, and has a reputation for its distinctive style, quality construction, and award-winning customer experience. Meritage is the industry leader in energy-efficient homebuilding and a seven-year recipient of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year for Sustained Excellence Award since 2013 for innovation and industry leadership in energy efficient homebuilding. For more information, visit www.meritagehomes.com.

About Green Brick Partners
Green Brick Partners, Inc. (Nasdaq: GRBK) is a diversified homebuilding and land development company. Green Brick owns five homebuilders in Dallas, Texas (CB JENI Homes, Normandy Homes, Southgate Homes, Trophy Signature Homes), as well as a controlling interest in homebuilders in Atlanta, Georgia (The Providence Group), Port St. Lucie, Florida (GHO Homes), and Dallas, Texas (Centre Living Homes). Green Brick also owns a noncontrolling interest in Challenger Homes in Colorado Springs, Colorado and retains interests in related financial services platforms, including Green Brick Title, Providence Group Title, BHome Mortgage, and Green Brick Mortgage. The Company is engaged in all aspects of the homebuilding process, including land acquisition and development, entitlements, design, construction, marketing, and sales for its residential neighborhoods and master planned communities. For more information about Green Brick Partners Inc.’s homebuilding partners, please visit https://greenbrickpartners.com/team-builders/.

Forward-Looking and Cautionary Statements        
Any statements in this press release about Green Brick’s expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, prospects, financial condition, assumptions or future events or performance that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. These statements are often, but not always, made through the use of words or phrases such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “predicts,” “potential,” “expects,” “future,” “positioned,” “believes,” “projects,” “estimates” and similar expressions, as well as statements in the future tense. Forward-looking statements in this press release include statements regarding (i) the Company’s strategies for development of new and existing communities, (ii) the number of new homes that will be provided from the land acquisition and (iii) that this land acquisition will position the Company to deliver value oriented homes. These forward-looking statements involve estimates and assumptions which may be affected by risks and uncertainties in the Company’s business, as well as other external factors, which could cause future results to materially differ from those expressed or implied in any of these forward-looking statements. These risks include, but are not limited to: (1) adverse impacts from general economic conditions, including as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the responsive actions taken by federal, state and local public health and governmental authorities, (2) competition in the homebuilding industry; (3) changes in consumer price sensitivity or or decreased demand for the Company’s homes or finished lots; (4) availability and cost of labor and raw materials; (5) a failure to recruit, retain or develop highly skilled and competent employees; (6) an inability to develop or sell communities; (7) government regulation risks, including zoning and density regulations; (8) a lack of availability or volatility of mortgage financing; (9) severe weather events or natural disasters; (10) difficulty in obtaining sufficient capital to fund the development of these communities at commercial rates or at all; and (11) poor relations with community residents.;. For a more detailed discussion of these and other risks and uncertainties applicable to the Company please see the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K and the Company’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended September 30, 2020 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Green Brick Partners Media Contact: Shalott Cecchini, Director of Marketing scecchini@greenbrickpartners.com www.greenbrickpartners.com

Meritage Homes Media Contact: Kelsey Covey Marketing Manager Kelsey.Covey@meritagehomes.com www.meritagehomes.com

Astra Development Media Contact: Suzanne Gentry Flodin (214) 500-4289 (cell) suzanne@thegentryagency.com www.astradevelopment.com