EDINBURG — The city’s largest master-planned community continues to expand north, with developers planning more than 230 new homes along Edinburg’s fast-growing corridor.

For more than two decades, Edinburg farmer-turned-developer Kent Burns has watched his vision for La Sienna take shape.

“Everything is finally growing in this direction,” Burns said Wednesday at a groundbreaking ceremony celebrating two new subdivisions within the 726-acre tract. “I think our time has come, and so we’re excited about it.”

La Sienna stretches along Interstate 2 and Monte Cristo Road and features a resaca-style waterway meant to attract commercial investment to its steadily growing residential core. 

The community already includes about 600 single-family homes and 288 apartments — and now it’s poised to welcome hundreds more families.

Shared amenities

On Wednesday, Esperanza Homes — the homebuilding arm of McAllen-based Rhodes Enterprises — announced plans for two new neighborhoods within La Sienna: Sapphire at La Sienna and Villas at La Sienna.

The event marked a milestone — the first time Esperanza Homes has broken ground on two neighborhoods at once. 

Both gated communities will share a slate of amenities, including a community center, gym, pool, pickleball courts, dog park and walking trails.

“[We’re] really bringing a good mix of different types of families and individuals into the La Sienna community,” Shant Samtani, executive vice president of sales for Esperanza Homes, said Wednesday.

Sapphire will feature 194 quarter-acre lots for large or growing families, with homes priced from $350,000 to $550,000. Villas at La Sienna will add 39 smaller lots aimed at downsizers, young professionals and first-time buyers seeking low-maintenance but upscale living.

Northward momentum

Esperanza Homes — the largest homebuilder in the Rio Grande Valley — has made Edinburg a key focus.

With six divisions stretching from Laredo to Brownsville, the company opened its Edinburg branch in 2019 and quickly became a major player in the city’s housing boom.

“We’ve built close to 600 houses here in the last five and a half years,” said Nick Rhodes, president and CEO of Rhodes Enterprises. “We’re building about 20 percent of the homes in Edinburg.”

Rhodes estimated the two new La Sienna communities will add about $90 million to Edinburg’s tax base once fully built out, which he estimates will take about 4.5 years. 

Burns and city officials say that growth along Edinburg’s northern corridor is only beginning.

In 2018, Burns offered to donate 20 acres — valued at about $4.3 million — for Hidalgo County’s new courthouse, envisioning it as an anchor for north Edinburg’s expansion. At the time, he said the location would have provided convenient access for taxpayers and fueled development.

County commissioners ultimately declined, opting to build downtown — a project later plagued by drainage and parking challenges. (Last week, Edinburg broke ground on a $6.2 million garage to help relieve the strain.)

“They should’ve taken [the offer],” Burns said, chuckling.

‘What we’re looking for’

Henry Cleveland and his wife, who declined to give her name, are among the first homebuyers in the new neighborhoods. They attended Wednesday’s ceremony to get a feel for their future community.

The couple lived in Edinburg two decades ago, left the Valley, and recently returned — settling near McAllen Miller International Airport.

“When we came back, we were debating between here and there, but the housing market was so tight,” Henry’s wife said. “So we ended up buying a place in McAllen.”

Their son now attends an IDEA Academy campus near La Sienna, prompting them to start looking closer to his school.

“We started looking around and liked the look of the Esperanza homes,” she said. “We like the upkeep, the neighborhoods, the styles. So when they opened this section, we decided to buy a lot and build.”

The Clevelands expect construction on their new home to begin in November and finish by May 2026 — timing that lets them move once the school year ends.

“We pretty much got what we were looking for,” she said. “We settled for what we have now, but what we’re building is what we really wanted.”