The Forest Building Plan, Courtesy of Gracepoint Homes

Magnolia, Texas-based Gracepoint Homes will begin construction on a large residential project near interstate 45 in Conroe to fill a high demand for single-family homes near the Exxon Mobile campus, reports the Houston Business Journal.

Development of Phase 1 of The Forest, a 156-acre community in Montgomery County near I-45 and just south of FM 1488, will begin next month. It includes 136 homes priced from $600,000 to the millions, with the entire project including 350 new homes to be built over a four-year period.

As we reported last week, new residential construction in Houston dropped considerably down to 34 percent in January. The development of the Exxon Mobile Campus is giving new construction a much needed boost, with many communities such as The Woodlands and Tomball seeing future gains in new single-family homes.

Montgomery County is also seeing a surge in commercial development, with three million square feet of office space under construction in The Woodlands that equats to 10,000 employees, said Davis Jarvis with Metrostudy in the Houston Business Journal.

The property used for the Gracepoint Homes development is currently used as farm land, and is bordered on two sides by W.G. Jones State Forest, a 1,722-acre forest owned by Texas A&M. Several lakes, parks, trails and open space are included in the new development.