With less than three weeks to go, time to purchase early bird tickets is running out to win the St. Jude Dream Home house built by Southern Land Company in the Westhaven community.

Almost 5,000 tickets have already been sold and those who reserve their ticket before April 15 will be entered to win the early bird prize of $2,500 worth of groceries courtesy of Stites & Harbison.

On the city's wealthy fringes, developers have started to incorporate some of the same techniques that have made Green Hills popular again.

In the McEwen development, for instance, Southern Land Co. is building a neighborhood on the south end of Cool Springs that will combine offices and shops with 1,000 residential units. Whole Foods has already signed a deal to anchor McEwen's town center when it opens in the fall of 2009.

"Green Hills is a great area that attracts a lot of national and regional tenants," said Paul Neuroth, Southern Land's senior vice president of leasing. "We have not had a cohesive project like that where retailers can go to."

The Southern Land Co., which is developing the former Imperial Sugar refinery in conjunction with Cherokee Investment Partners, held another public meeting Wednesday night to gather public comment on the commercial portion of the project.

The meeting focused on the historic buildings located on the property such as the Char House and water towers. Previous public meetings have centered on an estimated 800 to 1,000 new homes the developer plans to put on the more than 650 acres. The Imperial Sugar Co., one of Texas' first companies, closed in 2003. By 2009, the developer expects to begin the transformation of the property into an old-fashioned walkable neighborhood with a regional commercial attraction.

The Southern Land Co. and Cherokee developers have again asked Sugar Land residents how they want the Imperial Sugar Refinery property to be developed.

"You can have suburbs that function as urban cores," Cheney said. "That creates community pride and when people leave for college they want to come back."

The elaborate McEwen Drive interchange has been open since the fall, standing as a gateway to destinations not yet built.

But plans abound for a slew of retail, restaurant and commercial developments west of the interchange, where Mallory Lane and McEwen Drive intersect. Each of the four corners at this junction will eventually be home to projects that will likely transform the area that until recently was little more than pastoral landscape beyond Cool Springs.

Save for new traffic lights, asphalt and striping, the McEwen Drive extension from Mallory Lane to Cool Springs Boulevard might already be open to Franklin commuters.

You won’t want to miss this first time event at Windstone, Brentwood’s premier new community by award-winning developer Southern Land Company on Sunday, April 13th from 1:00-4:00pm. Tucked away in a gorgeous valley, you will have the opportunity to tour several of the most beautiful new homes in Williamson County built by the areas most prestigious builders! Tudor, French Eclectic, English Classic, Queen Anne, Italianate and English Picturesque are the inspiration for homes in Windstone. There is a decorated Showcase home, several homes that are available now and others in final stages of construction.

There will be container gardening demonstrations, food and live music.

Home prices range from the $800s to $4 million.

The extremely popular Westhaven Courtyard Garden Tour is gearing up for a 3rd straight year! Hold the dates of May 16th - 18th, on your calendar as you won’t want to miss this opportunity to peak inside some fabulous courtyards – Westhaven’s best kept secrets!

Shay Shafie has been named vice president of development for the Houston operations of Southern Land Co. The company, in conjunction with Cherokee Investment Partners, is developing 650 acres previously owned by Imperial Sugar Co. in Sugar Land.