From Hollywood to Spicewood

Former Hollywood heartthrob settles down in the Texas Hill Country

James Van Der Beek and fam are settling down near Austin.

Willie Nelson has some new neighbors in the Hill Country town of Spicewood — Dawson’s Creek and Varsity Blues star James Van Der Beek and his family.

The Van Der Beeks recently relocated from a Mediterranean-style home in Beverly Hills to a 36-acre, 5,149-square-foot spread along the Pedernales River. The property is about six miles southwest of Nelson’s Luck Ranch.

The Van Der Beek family — James, wife Kimberly, and their five children — are leasing the five-bedroom, three-bathroom property for an unknown amount. The ranchette features a main house, as well as cabins, a barn, a swimming pool, and a trail to the river. Several years ago, the compound was advertised as a venue for weddings, corporate retreats, and reunions.

“This rustic country property is the perfect blend of Willie Nelson and Liz Lambert! Channel your ‘hippie cowboy’ and experience all this riverfront property has to offer,” according to an old listing for the property.

In a recent post on Instagram Live, Kimberly said her family plans to live in Spicewood for about a year before deciding where to put down roots, according to People.com.

“We’re going to try Texas out for a year and really give a lot of love to this property,” Kimberly said.

“We have incredible landlords, they’re magical, so they’re really letting us dip into it and really steward the land as if it’s our own and go wild with it, which is really cool,” she added.

On October 13, after arriving in Spicewood, James revealed why he and his family chose to leave Southern California. On Instagram, James explained that within the previous 10 months, Kimberly had lost two late-term pregnancies, a doctor mistakenly diagnosed her with a tumor, a business colleague “hijacked” a project and “stabbed me in the back,” he was “prematurely booted off” Dancing With the Stars, and his mother died. Coupled with the ongoing pandemic, those events prompted the Van Der Beeks to re-examine their lifestyle and head to Texas.

After a road trip through the Southwest that they chronicled on Instagram, the Van Der Beeks landed in the pastoral confines of the Hill Country.

“The space available in Texas ... where we’re at, it’s expansive and there’s a lot of space and I feel that for a big family ... it was just really, really necessary for us,” Kimberly wrote.

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GP News

Grand Prairie expands to the south with new master-planned community

Rendering courtesy of Provident

Goodland Grand Prairie

The City of Grand Prairie is growing fast and expanding to make way for a new master-planned development south of US Highway 287 and along Tollway 360, in Ellis and Johnson counties.

The community development, called Goodland, is the result of Grand Prairie’s recent 1,500-acre annexation extending its southern border toward Mansfield. Overall, with the added land, Goodland will be a 5,000-acre site featuring 15,000 residences including townhomes, custom homes, and gated communities for 50,000 residents.

According to a release, it will be a “city within a city” and a 45-minute drive from Dallas-Fort Worth. Beyond housing, there will be shops, restaurants, schools, public and private event venues, regional sports fields and complexes, dance halls, churches, trail systems, city parks, ponds, and preserved green spaces.

“This is a significant step in our city’s development,” says Grand Prairie Mayor Ron Jensen in a statement. “Unlike many of our neighboring cities, we have the unique advantage of new development opportunities to our south that will drive the growth and prosperity of our city. We recognized the opportunity and took decisive action.”

Leading the development is Provident, a Dallas-based real estate firm that has created other master-planned communities across Dallas-Fort Worth, such as Preston Hollow Village and Hillstead in Collin County. Provident has plans to work nature into the space design with more than 1,600 acres of creek corridors and floodplain land.

Plans are ongoing for a centralized mixed-use walkable Town Center, complete with civic buildings and other commercial development. Further south on the property near Highway 67, light industrial uses and other private employment campuses are already underway, projects that will contribute vital tax dollars for city growth and future expansions.

“This level of placemaking is quite rare, and certainly not easy to execute, especially in a brand-new community," says Provident Managing Director Rylan Yowell in a statement. "We are committed to a long-term vision with a desire to be good stewards of the land."

A new four-lane road called Goodland Parkway will link Goodland to Grand Prairie at Tollway 360 and US Highway 287. It's set to open by December 2025.

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