Amherst announces development of new community for Texas homebuyers

The Amherst Group

Texas-based real estate investment, development, and operating platform The Amherst Group (“Amherst”) today announced it is constructing a new community in Lockhart, which will have 145 homes for sale.

Named “Firefly,” the community is built entirely leveraging Amherst’s modular construction capability StudioBuilt™ and offers local homebuyers an opportunity to own a high-quality, precision-built and sustainable home that features the latest in homebuilding technology. Firefly is the team’s first major project and represents a milestone moment in efforts to solve the housing shortage facing Texas residents.

“The opening of our new Firefly community generates much needed housing supply for homebuyers in the growing and vibrant city of Lockhart,” said David Schwarz, Head of Commercial Real Estate at Amherst, who leads the firm’s Community Development initiatives. “Our StudioBuilt modular building process coupled with our relationship-based sourcing strategy across Texas allows us to reduce significant barriers presented by traditional homebuilding practices, and meaningfully contribute to boosting supply in the state,” added Schwarz.

According to recent analysis by Up for Growth, a national, cross-sector member network committed to solving the housing shortage and affordability crisis, Texas is second only to California in housing underproduction, falling 306,000 homes short of needed production in 2023. In direct response to for-sale and rental housing demand in the state, Amherst’s Community Development team is focusing on methodically increasing housing supply in key metropolitan areas across Texas, such as Lockhart, through new development of full communities of 25-200 homes and the purchasing of individual land lots that can be developed into new resident homes. These projects will all exclusively leverage Amherst’s StudioBuilt business.

“As Lockhart continues to experience expansive job and population growth, it’s crucial that we have innovative building partners that are able to generate housing supply for new and existing Lockhart residents,” said Lew White, Mayor of Lockhart. “We are thrilled to welcome StudioBuilt homes into our community.”

StudioBuilt homes, including those in the Firefly community, are installed on a permanent foundation and meet the same building requirements as traditional site-built homes, with an even more rigorous 140-point inspection process. By removing barriers like weather, trade delays, and supply chain issues, these homes can be built about 50% faster than traditional homes with stronger quality controls during the construction process, in addition to being more sustainable.

Firefly will feature three and four-bedroom homes, three unique floorplans, and ten different elevations. In addition, Firefly residents will be able to choose from various finishing packages to ensure that their home is tailored to their specific functional and design needs.

Firefly homes will be available to interested buyers as soon as November 2024. To learn more about Firefly, visit fireflylockhart.com.