Highland Village Texas Construction: Lakeside Roots and Retail Renewal

Highland Village began with an unusual reversal of the suburban story: people first came to the shores of Lewisville Lake to escape Dallas, then decided to stay. Roughly 100 lakeside residents incorporated the community on Valentine’s Day in 1963. Early homes clustered near the water, while much of the remaining land belonged to rancher Robert DuVall, the city’s first mayor. Doubletree Ranch Park now occupies part of that former ranch. The legacy matters for construction today because the city’s appeal was built around a lakeside setting and wooded residential character, not an industrial or downtown employment center.

Farm Road 407 traces an older transportation story. Denton County historians identify its predecessor as a wagon route that helped bring settlers into the area in the nineteenth century, when farms and ranches occupied land that is now suburban neighborhoods. The community’s population then climbed sharply in the 1970s and 1980s as the Dallas–Fort Worth region expanded northward. Highland Village’s comparatively small footprint—about 5.5 square miles—means that growth now depends less on opening enormous new subdivisions and more on how established sites, streets and commercial properties are used.

Retail has its own distinct geography here. The Shops at Highland Village opened in 2007 as a major lifestyle shopping destination, bringing stores, restaurants and entertainment into a community historically dominated by homes. Nearby FM 407 and FM 2499 connect those commercial areas with Flower Mound, Lewisville and other Denton County communities. That makes tenant turnover, restaurant construction, shopping-center reinvestment and traffic access meaningful local development stories even when the projects are modest compared with large metropolitan construction sites.

The city’s adopted 2023 Our Village Our Vision comprehensive plan provides a useful lens for evaluating what comes next. Its work spans parks, open space, trails, roadways and specific opportunity areas, including the FM 407 corridor. For Texas Construction Media, a proposed project in Highland Village is therefore not simply another Metroplex permit: the relevant questions include whether it fits an established commercial corridor, how it relates to nearby neighborhoods, and what the city’s planning process says about access and land use. Filing a permit signals a proposed project, not a confirmed groundbreaking or opening.

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