The Colony's retail and entertainment district development has raised the bar for commercial landscape presentation in this fast-growing Denton County market. Greenly Landscapes supports The Colony property managers with maintenance and enhancement programs built for high-visibility retail and mixed-use properties.
The Colony, Texas Local History
The Colony can look like one of North Texas's newer cities. In many ways, it is. The first families moved into the modern Fox & Jacobs development in 1974. Residents voted to incorporate in 1977. The Colony became a home-rule city two years later. But that is only the newest version of the story.
More than 130 years before those first modern homes were built, people were already coming to this part of North Texas with an idea: see what a place can become — and build it. That idea has repeated itself here for nearly two centuries.
In 1841, the Republic of Texas authorized an empresario contract with William S. Peters and his associates to encourage settlement across a vast portion of North Texas. The undertaking became known as Peters Colony. Its territory included all or portions of 26 North Texas counties and much of what would eventually become the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Settlers could receive land in exchange for meeting requirements that included building a cabin, cultivating acreage, and pledging allegiance to the Republic of Texas. One of the earliest communities created through that movement was right here.
In 1843, the Bridges family helped establish Bridges Settlement, identified by the City of The Colony as the first settlement in Denton County. The following year, Peters Colony's headquarters was moved to the settlement. The surrounding community became known as Stewartsville and included the area's first general store and post office. Members of the Bridges family and other early residents are buried at Bridges Cemetery, on land that was originally part of a Peters Colony grant — today, the cemetery carries a Texas Historical Commission marker.
In 1852, a dispute over Peters Colony land and surveying erupted into what became known as the Hedgecoxe War. A group of land speculators led by John J. Good — who would later become mayor of Dallas — raided the Peters Colony headquarters. The building was burned, although company agent Henry O. Hedgecoxe and his clerk escaped with many of the company's records.
It seems almost impossible when compared with the city occupying the land today. But there is a thread connecting the two. People have been coming to this land with big plans for nearly two centuries.
The area continued changing. Small communities appeared, including Stewarts Creek, Rector, and Camey. Camey developed around the arrival of the St. Louis-San Francisco railroad in 1902, eventually gaining a school, grocery store, blacksmith shop, restaurant, and cotton gin. Then it faded — by the early 1940s, Camey had largely disappeared and the surrounding land returned to agriculture. For a time, land that would eventually become one of North Texas's most recognizable suburban communities became quiet again. Then water changed everything.
The Lewisville Lake dam began collecting water in 1954. A new shoreline transformed the geography of this part of Denton County. In the early 1960s, the small community of Eastvale began developing along the eastern shore of the lake. But the transformation that created the modern city didn't begin until the next decade.
In 1973, Dallas developer Fox & Jacobs purchased approximately 2,500 acres along the eastern shore of Lewisville Lake. The plan was ambitious: build an entirely new residential community. And they needed a name. They chose one deliberately connected to the people who had arrived more than a century earlier — The Colony. According to the city's history, Fox & Jacobs saw a kinship between their development and the original Peters Colony. Both represented the possibility of creating a new place and offering people a new way of life.
That's where the old story and the new story meet. The original Peters Colony recruited settlers to North Texas. More than 130 years later, Fox & Jacobs was attracting families to a new North Texas community. Different century. Different kind of development. Same fundamental idea: see what a place can become.
Streets were poured in 1974. The first families moved in that October. Fox & Jacobs donated a fire station in 1975. The first business, a Stop 'n Go convenience store, opened in 1976. Camey Elementary opened in 1977. And by January 1977, the community already had more than 3,500 residents. They voted to incorporate. The development had become a city. Eastvale eventually consolidated with The Colony in 1987. But the community was still primarily known as a residential city beside Lewisville Lake. Another transformation was coming.
Transportation has repeatedly reshaped North Texas. For The Colony, the State Highway 121/Sam Rayburn Tollway corridor opened an entirely different kind of opportunity. The city no longer had to be primarily somewhere people lived. It could become somewhere people came. That transformation is now impossible to miss.
Today, the 121 corridor looks nothing like the young residential community that started beside Lewisville Lake in the 1970s. Grandscape changed the scale of what was possible — the development is anchored by Nebraska Furniture Mart, while the surrounding district has attracted major shopping, dining, and entertainment concepts, including SCHEELS, Andretti Indoor Karting & Games, Galaxy Theatres, Cosm, PopStroke, WorldSprings, and Fritz's Adventure.
Some of them are hard to miss. Inside SCHEELS, there's a 65-foot Ferris wheel, along with a large saltwater aquarium and wildlife display. Outside, the Grandscape Wheel rises 180 feet above the development, carrying passengers in climate-controlled gondolas with views across the North Texas skyline. At Fritz's Adventure, visitors can climb, tunnel, jump, rappel, and zip through an indoor and outdoor adventure environment, while Andretti Indoor Karting & Games adds multi-level karting, laser tag, an indoor ropes course, arcade games, and virtual-reality experiences.
A place once used for agriculture became a residential development. The residential development became a city. And the city became a regional destination. The Colony didn't just grow. It gave people reasons to come.
As the city grew, people who came through The Colony began reaching bigger stages of their own. Deron Williams attended The Colony High School before playing basketball at the University of Illinois and becoming the third overall selection in the 2005 NBA Draft, going on to become a three-time NBA All-Star and a member of two U.S. Olympic gold-medal teams. Dominic Rains also attended The Colony High School before building a professional acting career that included film and television roles, including Dr. Crockett Marcel on Chicago Med and Kasius on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
One went into professional sports. One went into acting. Different careers. Different stages. But both are reminders of something easy to overlook: The Colony has now been here long enough to have generations of its own stories.
All that commercial development could make it easy to forget what helped shape the modern community in the first place. The lake. The Colony calls itself the "City by the Lake," and the city extends approximately 23 miles along the eastern shoreline of Lewisville Lake. That gives The Colony two very different-looking identities — one faces the lake, the other faces 121. One is defined by water, neighborhoods, and established communities. The other by destination retail, entertainment, and continued development. But they are really two versions of the same story. The Colony has repeatedly looked at what its location offered — and built around it.
Settled with vision.
Built with purpose.
Cared for with intention.
There's another part of The Colony's story that matters to anyone responsible for a commercial property. Nothing stays new. Not a house. Not a shopping center. Not an entertainment district. Not a landscape. The neighborhoods built during The Colony's early growth are now established communities. Commercial properties mature. And even the newest developments along 121 began changing the day construction ended.
Trees get larger. Shrubs outgrow their original locations. Irrigation systems age. Shade patterns change. Turf that once performed well begins struggling. Traffic increases. Pedestrian patterns change. Plant material that made sense when a property opened may not make sense twenty years later. Because every new development eventually becomes something else: an established property.
The Colony's history is full of people building things. Settlers built cabins. Communities formed. A lake reshaped the land. Fox & Jacobs built streets and houses. Residents built a city. Developers built destinations along 121. But building something and taking care of it are two different jobs. That's particularly important with commercial landscaping. A beautiful landscape can help communicate that a property is professionally managed. A neglected one can communicate the opposite — and the deterioration usually doesn't happen all at once. It happens one small problem at a time: a broken irrigation head, a declining shrub, a tree canopy that has changed the conditions underneath it, a weed growing through a sidewalk crack, a bed that slowly loses its definition.
Opening day isn't the finish line. It's the beginning of stewardship.
The Colony now contains very different kinds of commercial properties — retail, multifamily, hospitality, entertainment, mixed-use, established properties, new developments, and destination properties that may receive enormous numbers of visitors. But the property manager's problem is remarkably similar. Tenants need attention. Budgets need attention. Ownership needs information. Buildings need maintenance. Vendors need coordination. The landscape shouldn't become another job the property manager has to perform. See how Greenly's Four Layers work in practice.
Your property manager shouldn't have to manage the landscaper. We manage the landscape.
That means noticing the irrigation problem before the turf tells everyone it's there. Seeing the declining plant before it becomes an eyesore. Understanding when mature landscaping should be preserved and when changing conditions require something different. And maintaining the property with the same intention that went into creating it. The Colony has been doing some version of that for generations. Peters Colony brought settlers. Bridges Settlement created a community. The lake changed the land. Fox & Jacobs created a new development. Residents turned that development into a city. And the 121 corridor helped turn the city into a destination. The names changed. The landscape changed. The opportunity changed.
But one idea keeps appearing: see what a place can become — and take care of what you build.
People who notice things, communicate, and take responsibility for the work — without waiting for the property manager to discover problems first.
A dependable system for inspecting, communicating, maintaining, and following through — for destination properties, established neighborhoods, and everything in between.
Healthy turf, managed trees and shrubs, functioning irrigation, and commercial landscapes that continue looking cared for — week after week, season after season.
That's how Greenly helps commercial properties in The Colony protect what they've built while staying ready for what comes next.
Property managers and owners in The Colony can request a complimentary property assessment from Greenly Landscapes — no obligation, just a professional conversation about your property's landscape program.
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