StoryBuilt Homes had big plans in 2017 when they announced they’d build 36 luxury homes at the corner of White Rock Trail and Walnut Hill. The Austin-based developer indicated they felt deeply attached to the project. They named the development “Goose” after a stray dog one of the principals found behind Alamo Drafthouse and adopted for his family.
This summer, Storybuilt, formerly known as PSW Real Estate, discontinued operations, laid off employees and sought receivership after 30 years in business. They had successfully completed housing projects in locations across Texas, but the value of their development sites and partially built projects had reached $2 billion, and they were overextended. According to Steve Brown of the Dallas Morning News, that receiver has now sold the 4.5-acre Goose site to Dallas’ Stillwater Capital and Forestar Group of Arlington for $10.7 million. Stillwater owns Robert Elliott Custom Homes, currently developing White Rock Bluffs next door.
“Our custom homes group, Robert Elliott Custom Homes, will be purchasing the finished lots and building the homes,” Stillwater Capital’s development manager Logan O’Neal told Brown. “We’re very bullish on the neighborhood.”
White Rock Bluffs, on the previous site of Hollywood Overhead Door Company, is expected to host 34 luxury four- and five-bedroom homes of around 5,000 square feet. Homes on the Goose site were projected to be three- and four-bedroom and closer to 2,500 square feet, but it’s unclear whether those plans will change with a new owner.
Long before it was purchased by StoryBuilt, a pair of office buildings sat at White Rock Trail and Walnut Hill. Owners sold to Richardson ISD in 2016 when the school district was seeking a solution to overcrowding at White Rock Elementary. Parents balked at the idea, and WRE was expanded instead. RISD sold to the housing developer in 2017.