A new rental townhome community with 146 units has opened off U.S. 75 and Melissa Road, about 40 miles north of downtown Dallas, bringing three- and four-bedroom homes with attached two-car garages to one of the region's fastest-growing suburbs. Crescent Communities announced the official opening of HARMON Melissa on Monday, positioning the project as part of a broader build-to-rent wave reshaping how renters live north of the city.
Crescent Communities said it officially opened the community in Melissa, Texas, describing the town as one of North Dallas' fastest-growing, according to a company press release. The townhomes range from 1,798 to 2,168 square feet and come with front porches, according to reporting from Realty News Report. Tony Chen, senior managing director of build-to-rent at Crescent Communities, said the project was designed for renters whose lives have outgrown traditional apartments but who still value rental flexibility, per the same outlet's account.
Residents actually began moving in months before the formal opening. A sponsored report from Community Impact said HARMON Melissa welcomed its very first residents in early July, well ahead of the November announcement. That sponsored account, based on information from the business itself, also reported nine floor plans with three- and four-bedroom options and base rents starting around $2,540 a month.
Garages, Parks And A Chilled Pool
Every unit includes an attached two-car garage equipped with a 220-volt electric vehicle outlet, the sponsored Community Impact report said. The community also includes several linear parks with walking trails, according to Realty News Report, while the same sponsored account described three landscaped linear parks and a pool fitted with a chiller to keep swimming comfortable through the Texas heat.
Beyond the parks and pool, amenities include a clubhouse with an open-air pavilion, a resort-style saltwater pool, a dog park, a game lawn, and outdoor grilling and dining stations, Realty News Report reported. Crescent Communities developed the project in a joint venture with an account managed by Heitman LLC, a partnership that is developing build-to-rent projects across Arizona, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas, according to the same report.
The project drew on a roster of outside partners. Cooper Carry served as clubhouse architect, Kimley-Horn worked as civil engineer and landscape architect, Vinyet served as townhome architect, NRP Group acted as general contractor, and Southern Energy Management ran the sustainable energy program, per Realty News Report's reporting.
A Crowded Build-To-Rent Market Around Dallas-Fort Worth
HARMON Melissa lands in a Dallas-Fort Worth build-to-rent sector that market analysts describe as one of the largest in the country, though they disagree on exactly how large. Northmarq reported the region's build-to-rent inventory now exceeds 29,000 units as of the second quarter of 2026, according to its Q2 2026 market insights. Bisnow, meanwhile, has described Dallas-Fort Worth as nearly 25,000 units and the No. 2 build-to-rent market in the nation, according to its coverage of the sector's recovery.
Northmarq's report also found that the Anna/Melissa, Denton, and Prosper/Celina submarkets together account for more than 9,700 units of build-to-rent inventory, underscoring how concentrated this type of development has become in the northern suburbs. The firm noted that roughly 3,000 build-to-rent units are scheduled for completion across Dallas-Fort Worth in 2026, well below the roughly 5,500 units delivered annually from 2022 through 2025, and said rents have increased in back-to-back quarters for the first time in nearly three years.
Bisnow's reporting pointed to similar momentum: absorption across the region's build-to-rent sector rose 30% year over year in 2025 while vacancy dropped 70 basis points, with net absorption topping 4,000 units and the year-end vacancy rate falling to 6.3%. The outlet put the average Dallas-Fort Worth build-to-rent rent at $2,130 a month, more than $600 above the region's average apartment rent.
Other Melissa Projects In The Pipeline
Melissa has drawn additional build-to-rent investment beyond HARMON. Bisnow's coverage of the region's recovery described Welker Properties as having recently completed a 343-unit build-to-rent project in Melissa called Everbloom, where company CEO Andrew Welker said renters were choosing to pay 20% to 30% higher than competitors' rents. In separate Bisnow coverage, a 343-unit Welker Properties project in Melissa was described under the name Wolf Creek Farms and reported as still under construction, under budget and ahead of schedule after breaking ground earlier this year; the discrepancy between the two accounts has not been independently reconciled.
Crescent Communities brings a long track record to the Melissa project. Founded in 1963 and headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, the company's portfolio includes more than 104 multifamily communities, over 60 master-planned communities and 26 million square feet of commercial space, according to its press release. Its other Dallas-area multifamily projects include Novel Turtle Creek, Novel Deep Ellum (now Indie Deep Ellum), and Novel Bishop Arts (now Vance at Bishop Union), as reported by Realty News Report.
