Johnson Development closes on former Boy Scout camp site

Houston-based Johnson Development Corp. this week inked the deal to acquire the Camp Strake property near Conroe for future development.

The master-planned community developer purchased the 2,046-acre site from Sam Houston Area Council Boy Scouts of America for an undisclosed price.

Johnson will create a comprehensive land plan to identify the parcels within the property that can be developed. The land planning process is expected to conclude in the summer of 2014.

One of the largest available land parcels within the greater Houston area, Camp Strake is the longtime site of a flagship campground for Houston-area Boy Scouts.

It sits on the southwest corner of Interstate 45 North and Loop 336, south of Conroe, with frontage on both I-45 and Loop 336.

It also is less than 10 miles north of the new Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) corporate campus currently under construction.

The BSA will continue to host scouts and their leaders at the Conroe location until December 2014, then it will move to a rural site between New Waverly and Coldspring.

The organization announced it will “use the proceeds from the sale to fund its relocation, build a state-of-the-art high adventure camp and endow the operations and maintenance of the new Camp Strake in perpetuity.”

Johnson announced the land was under contract in July.

The company currently manages the development of 10 Houston-area master-planned communities, including two in north Houston — Woodforest and Harmony. It also is the developer of Cross Creek Ranch, Imperial, Riverstone, Sienna Plantation, Edgewater, Fall Creek, Tuscan Lakes and Willow Creek Farms.

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