CONROE, TX-By year's end, work will start on infrastructure for the first phase of the 2,800-acre, master-planned Woodforest. The Magnolia, TX-based developer has earmarked 70 acres for commercial space.

Virgil Yoakum, general manager of Woodforest Development Inc., says the commercial trade area extends five miles west of Interstate 45, stretching along Fish Creek Thoroughfare and surrounding the 27-hole Woodforest Golf Course at Fish Creek. “We haven't advanced the planning for the various building center components right now, but we are working on it,” he tells GlobeSt.com. “Hopefully before this time next year, we'll have some concepts and an idea of what kind of retail component we want there.”

Yoakum says Woodforest's parent, Johnson Development Corp. of Houston, won't be directly involved in the construction of the single-family homes, but it could end up building the commercial side. “We're laying all the ground work right now for it. We could end up joint venturing, building it ourselves or selling the land for others to develop,” he says. The entire first phase will be single-family construction.