Where the Royce Land Went

WHERE THE ROYCE LAND WENT The Bryan farm-lending coop that ended up with 618 acres near Tomball after the collapse of Royce Builders has finally sold the property — to the Caldwell Companies, a land development and investment firm. Royce had planned 1,261 home lots in Cypress Lake Crossing, which is northeast of the intersection of Telge Rd. and Boudreaux and only a couple miles north of the sprawling Cypress home of former Royce president John Speer. (Speer’s Royce-built compound off Telge Rd., pictured above, now serves as the home address of one of his new ventures, Vestalia Homes.) “Bill Heavin, a land broker at Grubb & Ellis Co., says Royce Homes had completed quite a bit of development work on the tract, such as soil and water testing and the establishment of Harris County Municipal Utility District #416. Royce Homes began seeking an investor or joint venture partner on the large tract in late 2006 or early 2007. . . . the asking price was $30,000 an acre, or $18.5 million.” [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot]

7 Comment

  • Ugh leave Cypress alone, have friends and family in the area, and one more add water and stir neighborhood, complete with it’s clear cutting of what little of the pine forest is left, and associated ugly overly generic homes is the last thing Cypress needs more of. Build the wally world on yale, fine but leave what little of nature is left in Klein/Cypress — makes me sick used to be a gorgeous area…

  • The Speer family including John, Shawn and Shonna make me sick. Check out their pics on Facebook enjoying exotic locales on the money they fleeced out of their buyers and former employees. And know that the Realtor office Romoco Properties, headed by one of Shawn and Shonna’s former “pet” employees, exclusively handles listings for Vestalia Homes, should you want to put more money in their pockets and keep Shonna in $15,000 handbags.

  • They’ll be displacing and or buying out some of the original families of Cypress, the ones who settled there 100+ years ago.

  • I was at the Speer’s compound during the 4th of July party, fireworks and all. It’s actually quite nice but more of a collection of several buildings around a pool than a one large house. Everyone was having a blast but John was visibly stressed and depressed. (Don’t know him personally just saw him there)

  • ^^^probably because he’s obviously still pissing off other peoples money.

  • Royce has many spinoffs. Of course, John Speer is using multiple aliases such as Vestalia Homes, Travis Homes, WG homes, etc. But let’s also keep an eye out for George Kopecky, DBA GreenECO Builders, and James Hunter, DBA Anglia Homes.

  • I see a warning to keep an eye on George Kopecky. But, I don’t see anything specific that he has done or is suspected of doing. I am considering buy a home from GreenECO and would like to know if I should reconsider.