A buyer touring Spanish Oaks in 2026 sees the same thing every portal shows: 1,200 gated acres, a Bobby Weed golf course, live oaks, and eight-figure estates behind two staffed gatehouses. What the portals do not show is that the community's developer is currently building an 80-acre hotel-anchored village at the only way in and out. That single fact reorders how a serious buyer should read every list price in the neighborhood.
The Number the Median Doesn't Show
Trailing twelve-month medians in Spanish Oaks are being reported between roughly $3.28M and $3.5M depending on the dataset, with days on market clustered around 109 to 168. Those numbers are anchored to a very specific story the neighborhood has told for two decades: low-density preserve, controlled access, quiet street scene. The story is still true. It is also being amended in real time.
The Village at Spanish Oaks is the final phase of development in the Spanish Oaks master-planned community, comprising approximately 80 acres between State Highway 71 and Little Barton Creek, and is planned to include boutique retail, restaurants, service-oriented retail, recreational trails, Class A office space, and the Inn & Spa at Spanish Oaks. That is not a distant rumor. Site work started years ago, and the site plan has been actively rewritten inside the last eight months.
| What the listing shows | What the site plan shows |
|---|---|
| Guard-gated, low-density preserve | 80-acre mixed-use village on the community's Hwy. 71 frontage |
| One quiet entry sequence | A new roundabout and a protected left-turn onto Hwy. 71 |
| Neighbors are estate homes | Approved neighbors include a five-story senior living building, 310 multifamily units, and a hotel |
A buyer who reads only the top row is buying a different property than the one that will exist at full build-out.
What Was Approved, and When
The plan has moved in three distinct steps that a diligent buyer should be able to name.
On December 16, 2025, the Bee Cave Planning and Zoning Commission voted to forward an amendment package to City Council. Developer Jack Creveling told commission members his group envisions a best-in-class senior living facility at The Village with five levels instead of three while still remaining under the existing 50-foot height limitation, that the 2018 approval allowed a maximum of 600 residential units total, and that the amendment would allow developers to move 310 multifamily units to a different location within the 80-acre parcel, with a well-known but unannounced hotel brand working on luxury rental units.
On February 24, 2026, City Council approved the amendments. The max building area for the site is unchanged at 1.96 million square feet, but the amendments alter how many senior living, multifamily and hotel units are permitted, and adjust roadway plans to include a roundabout and left-hand turn lanes. Notable changes included increasing total multifamily units from 250 as approved in the plan's 2020 amendment to 310, decreasing Parcel D by 50,000 square feet, and increasing Parcel E by 205,000 square feet. 50 fewer senior living units were approved across two parcels, Parcel A moved 50 feet closer to Hwy. 71, and Parcel M, zoned for a hotel, gained 40,000 square feet and 20 more keys.
On June 23, 2026, Council approved the architectural pre-design package for Parcel E. The submission includes a five-story multifamily residential building, and renderings show a dog park, fitness center, plunge pool, swim-up bar and other outdoor amenities. The plan for Parcel E also includes a parking structure that would be partially visible from Hwy. 71 if the land next to it remains undeveloped, and city staff are on record as "concerned" that the exposed parking garage levels could be "unscreened indefinitely" if the adjacent parcel stays vacant.
Three council actions, three material shifts. None of them show up in the comps.
The Left-Turn Problem Is the Real Story
The number a buyer should actually pull out of the record is not the multifamily count. It is the traffic geometry.
Spanish Oaks residents currently have a single practical gate onto Hwy. 71, and that geometry has been the source of daily friction for years. Multiple residents spoke in support of a protected left-hand turn at the Spanish Oaks entrance, noting that residents only have one way in and out of the neighborhood, with Spanish Oaks resident and HOA Director Josh Budwin telling council, "Turning left onto Hwy. 71 has long been a concern."
The Village negotiation is what put that fix on paper. In addition to the roundabout, the project will include two dedicated left-hand turn lanes to address concerns about mobility in the area, and a protected left-hand turn could be online as early as December or January.
For a buyer, that is a two-sided asset. During construction, expect construction traffic, lane work, and a moving target on the entry sequence. After delivery, the community gets a protected left-turn and roundabout that arguably remove the single most cited daily friction inside the gates. Both facts belong in an offer conversation. Neither is in the median.
Reading The Village Against Current Pricing
Spanish Oaks trades at a wide range. Recent activity around the community includes listings from just under $2M to nearly $15M, with a trailing 12-month median in the low-to-mid $3M range and days on market running roughly three to five times the national figure. Local broker commentary on the broader Bee Cave luxury tier notes that inventory above $2.5M is sitting longer than it has in several years, giving buyers more room to be selective.
Read against The Village timeline, that pricing environment argues for two moves.
First, price the adjacency honestly. A homesite whose long views terminate over the Village parcels is not the same asset as one facing deep into the 1,200-acre preserve or backing the golf course. Spanish Oaks is a 1,200-acre guard-gated community with hundreds of custom estate homesites, and functions less like a neighborhood than like a private club that happens to have some of the most expensive homes in Central Texas. Within that envelope, the Hillside and interior golf frontage lots are insulated from The Village in a way that lots closer to the Hwy. 71 edge are not. Comps should be pulled with that adjacency in mind, not by street name alone.
Second, treat the buildout horizon as part of the underwriting. The original agreement contemplated a seven to ten year buildout from 2020. That means a buyer signing in 2026 is likely to close, move in, and live through active vertical construction on hotel, senior living, and multifamily parcels for a meaningful portion of their early ownership. Sellers whose homes are furthest from that activity have a story to tell. Buyers on the exposed edge have a negotiating lever.
Due Diligence Items That Change Because of The Village
The standard Spanish Oaks checklist still applies. The Village adds a few line items a buyer should insist on before removing option.
- Confirm the current construction schedule for Parcels A, B, D, E, and M with the city of Bee Cave, and request the most recent site plan revision date rather than relying on the developer's marketing site.
- Ask the club and HOA whether any Village amenities (the Inn & Spa, trails, retail) will be accessible to residents on a member basis, on a preferred basis, or on the same footing as the public. That answer is not obvious and it materially affects the "adjacency premium" story.
- Pull the specific parcel exposure for the lot you are considering. A five-story senior living building at 50 feet, a hotel with added keys, and a parking structure that may sit "unscreened indefinitely" per city staff are all now on the record. Sightlines from the second story of your prospective home are the relevant test.
- Time your drive twice: once during morning peak, once after the roundabout and protected left-turn are in service if construction sequencing allows. The commute you underwrite should be the one that will exist, not the one that exists today.
- Verify club membership terms in writing. Ownership does not automatically convey membership at Spanish Oaks Golf Club, and the club's future programming may be affected by Village hospitality operations. The membership packet is a separate document from the HOA resale packet.
A Note on What Is Not Changing
Two things worth stating plainly. The maximum building area of the site is unchanged at 1.96 million square feet. The 1,200-acre master plan and the private-club character behind the gates are not being amended. The Village is finishing a plan first drawn in 1998, not opening a new front. The question for a buyer is not whether Spanish Oaks stays Spanish Oaks. It does. The question is whether the price on a specific home already reflects the front door it will actually have in three years.
FAQ
Will The Village be inside the Spanish Oaks gates? No. The Village occupies roughly 80 acres between Hwy. 71 and Little Barton Creek at the neighborhood's edge and is designed as a mixed-use district open to the broader Bee Cave area, distinct from the guarded residential enclaves.
Who is the hotel operator? As of the December 2025 hearing, the developer described working with a "well-known but unannounced hotel brand and operator" for what would be luxury rental units. The brand has not been publicly confirmed. Ask for the most current status when you tour.
Does the roundabout and protected left-turn help every Spanish Oaks resident equally? Effectively yes for the primary entry, and this was one of the concessions residents pressed for during the amendment hearings. Neighbors from a nearby equestrian community, The Homestead, raised separate concerns because their community has only one way in and out and could be forced to route through the development. That is a Homestead issue, not a Spanish Oaks issue, but a buyer touring both should understand the distinction.
If you are weighing a home in Spanish Oaks and want a lot-specific read on Village adjacency, comp positioning, and the questions to put in writing before you remove option, Ivy Residential Group can walk the parcels with you and open a confidential consultation.
