Show up at Ferguson Courts on a Tuesday morning and you'll find the same thing you always find: retirees working the challenge court, a couple of teenagers killing time before school, someone's dog tied to the fence post by court six. Ten asphalt courts, a restroom pavilion, free play from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. It has been the quiet good-news story of Lantana since it opened in late 2024, the kind of amenity that shows up in conversation before it shows up in a listing.
This year, that parking lot gets a second tenant. Construction crews building Lantana's first-ever permanent water district headquarters have only one way onto their site: through the Ferguson Courts lot. And the man whose signature has been on every set of building plans in this community since before the streets existed is the one who signed off on it.
The Same Office That Approved Everything Is Finally Building Its Own
Kevin Mercer became general manager of Denton County Fresh Water Supply Districts No. 6 and No. 7 in May 2000, when Lantana was 1,800 acres of undeveloped land with no roads and no water lines. He moved his own family into the community in August 2001, becoming its fourth homeowner. Every water main, every wastewater line, every inspection tied to a building permit in Lantana has run through his office since. For 25 years, that office has operated out of leased space in Bartonville Town Center.
That changes this year. In June, the boards of both water districts voted to award a $6.05 million construction contract to Fort Worth-based Reeder Construction for a permanent administrative and operations facility, an 8,000-square-foot building funded entirely from existing cash reserves rather than new debt. The site sits on district-owned land just north of the pickleball complex on Rayzor Road, near FM 407.
The detail that matters to anyone with a standing Tuesday-morning reservation: contractors can only reach that site by driving through the Ferguson Courts parking lot. Part of that lot will be used for staging throughout construction. District officials have said each contractor submitted a logistics plan to limit disruption, but they've also acknowledged that pickleball players and families dropping off at nearby E.P. Rayzor Elementary should expect some inconvenience while the building goes up.
What Actually Changes at the Courts
The courts themselves aren't going anywhere. But the logistics of getting to them, at least for a stretch of this year, will look different than they did in 2025.
| What you're used to | What changes during construction |
|---|---|
| Free walk-on play, courts 5 through 10 | No change to court access |
| $10/hour reservations, courts 2 through 4, via the Court Reserve app | No change to reservation system |
| Full lot available for parking | Portion of lot used for contractor staging |
| Single access road shared with school drop-off | Same road now also carries construction traffic |
None of this is a reason to skip a session. It's a reason to build in a few extra minutes if you're coming for a reserved slot during peak drop-off times, and to expect some construction vehicle traffic sharing the same stretch of Rayzor Road that gets busy every morning anyway.
The Rest of the Growth Is Happening Down FM 407, in Bartonville
The district office isn't the only construction story tied to this corridor. Lantana Town Center, at the northwest corner of FM 407 and Blanco Drive, technically sits across the line in neighboring Bartonville, even though the name and the daily foot traffic both belong to Lantana. It's a separate property from Bartonville Town Center, where the water district has leased its office space for the past 25 years, but it's the same shopping center most Lantana residents already treat as their default grocery run, coffee stop, and now dinner option. It has spent the past several months filling in spaces that sat empty or turned over.
- Chipotle's build-out, a 2,385-square-foot, $725,000 project, was on track to start construction in August, with completion targeted for December.
- Papa John's is confirmed for the same new building, though no construction timeline has been announced yet.
- My Dr Now, an Arizona-based primary care chain known for extended hours, is taking space in that same development.
- Mavis Discount Tire is still on the way, according to the shopping center's administration.
- The former Fat Burger and Round Table Pizza space is splitting between Froyo Cafe, a self-serve frozen yogurt shop opening this fall next to Dutch Bros, and a new location of Urban Vybe Yoga, an expansion of the Flower Mound studio founded by Jo Stokes.
Two different projects, two different parts of Lantana, but the same underlying pattern. A community that has looked essentially finished for years is suddenly visible under scaffolding again, on the retail side and on the government side at the same time.
Why the Timing Is the Real Story
None of this would mean much on its own. Shopping centers add tenants constantly, and water districts eventually build offices. What makes this year different is the coincidence of timing. Lantana is marking 25 years since its first residents moved in during July 2001, the same year Mercer moved his own family into the community. The district he has run since before there were streets to name is only now getting a building of its own, on a site tight enough that construction traffic has to cut through the community's newest and most popular amenity to get there.
That's not a criticism of the site selection. Land inside a mature master-planned community is scarce by definition, and the districts chose to build debt-free rather than lease indefinitely. But it does mean the quarter-century mark isn't just a round number on a calendar. It's the year the entity that has quietly approved every plan for every home, road, and amenity in Lantana finally built something for itself, and the residents who use Ferguson Courts every week are the ones absorbing the short-term cost of that decision.
If you've wondered why the parking lot near the courts looks a little different some mornings, now you know the answer, and you know it's temporary. The district's own materials describe a logistics plan designed to keep disruption to a minimum, and a 25-year track record of managing every construction project in this community is a reasonable basis for taking that at face value.
For more on what's changing around town, our earlier guide to things to do in Lantana covers the community's calendar in more detail, and our Lantana neighborhood page stays current as new amenities and businesses come online.
Whether you're a longtime Lantana resident tracking these changes or thinking about what this year's growth might mean for your own plans down the road, the North Texas Team keeps a close eye on how these local shifts play out. If you'd like a conversation about what's happening in your specific corner of Lantana, Schedule a Concierge Consultation with our team.
