HARLINGEN — The growl of heavy machinery and the pungent smell of asphalt yesterday marked the end of the beginning for one of the biggest new housing developments in Harlingen.
Oak Ranch Estates, a 76-home subdivision, was putting the end touches on Phase I. New home construction for the $260,000 to $270,000 homes on nearly one-acre lots will begin within 30 to 45 days.
Developers have bulldozed, shaped and massaged the cotton field the housing development is replacing. Yesterday, a new road to be known as Thacker Lane ended the first development phase.
“It’s been two years working on the project, and in the construction phase we are at one year,” real estate broker Gilbert Galvan of Rocking K Realty said yesterday. “The city, water works, both worked with us extremely well, they really bent over backwards to help us make this happen.”
The housing development is the latest addition to the explosive development in the western part of Harlingen. It isn’t far from the intersection of Stuart Place Road and I-2/Expressway 83, where major retail developments and a new headquarters for Texas Regional Bank are either under way or about to start.
“Everything went smooth except we had some hiccups with the contractor, but that’s always the norm with construction,” said Galvan, a builder himself.
Thacker Lane is named in recognition of Claude Thacker, Galvan said, who served as a liaison between Rocking K and those who financed the project. All the development funding was raised privately, he said, with the first phase costing about $600,000 without land purchase costs.
“I think it’s a very, very desirable area,” Galvan added. “One, it’s been desirable for the last 20 years, but we haven’t had any new subdivision in the area after 2008.
“But the fact of the matter is with the location we’re around other existing subdivisions that are built out, and a couple that are west of here, the lots are more expensive, and they’re still selling,” Galvan said. “We’re going to be a little bit under what they are.”
Galvan said being close, but not too close, to the expressway is a positive. Also, he said he feels buyers with children will be attracted by nearby Moises Vela Middle School and Stuart Place Elementary School.
“All those things put together I think really gives us — I’m not going to say this is a higher-end subdivision, but by no means is it lower-end,” Galvan said.
Galvan said that, given the large lot size, the development may even attract a half-million-dollar home or two.
“These lots lend themselves to having a three-car garage, a big house, big pool, small pool, and we’ll have natural gas, we have Magic Valley Electric, and we’ll have sidewalks,” he said. “Instead of people having to walk on the street, you can walk on the sidewalk.”
As the road crew gave birth to the newly asphalted Thacker Lane, Galvan had to speak up as he looked out over the construction workers, whose paving machines were belching smoke.
“We’re at one year and really this should have been about a six-month project but different things happened,” Galvan said. “And you know, a lot of times we complain about rules and regulations, but they’re there for a reason.
“And the idea is to do things right the first time, and that way, everybody’s happy.”
