The following is an excerpt from the DFW Real Estate Review‘s “A Corporate Home on the Range,” the first of three articles highlighting the history and development of the Circle T Ranch. Check back next Wednesday for the next installment: “A History of the Circle T Ranch.”
The Charles Schwab Corp. has called the hills of San Francisco home for decades. But when the financial giant began looking for a place to expand, it found the perfect home on the range, a working cattle ranch where Brangus cattle roam and corporate citizens are welcome — The Circle T Ranch in Westlake.
Schwab’s new North Texas campus will join Fidelity Investments and Deloitte University as major corporate residents in Westlake.
Ross Perot Jr. and his Hillwood real estate development company acquired the 2,500-acre Circle T Ranch in 1993. The big-picture vision has always been one of high-end corporate campuses nestled into and respecting the property’s natural beauty.
“That land doesn’t look like anything else, literally, in North Texas,” says Mike Berry, president of Hillwood Properties and Hillwood Urban. “It’s so unique. It was kept up over the years, beautifully, by the Hunts who ran it as a very upscale horse operation.” Over time, the land was cleared but big, beautiful post oaks were showcased and allowed to flourish, enhancing the ranch’s natural beauty, which includes a lake and rolling hills.
Hillwood believed Circle T Ranch would develop slowly as a quality master-planned corporate campus environment. They were willing to be patient. With Las Colinas just down Texas 114 to the east and Legacy booming in Plano, Hillwood knew it would take time for development to head west. Eventually, growth did come west, and, as a result, the Circle T Ranch has entered the mix as a sought-after corporate campus site.
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