Long before the Dallas-Fort Worth area became the nation's top spot for adding U.S. residents, it was brought into homes worldwide as the television show "Dallas" broadcast aerial views of Texas farmland and local skyscrapers.

The hit series offered viewers a glimpse of what life was like in Dallas for the Ewing clan, a fictitious oil baron family who lived on a ranch. Filming for the show initially took place at a 14,000-square-foot white mansion located within what has become known as Brinkmann Ranch in Frisco, Texas, in the late 1970s before producers moved filming about 20 miles east to the Southfork Ranch in Parker, Texas.

Now, a part of the more than 5,500-acre Brinkmann Ranch about 27 miles north of downtown Dallas is offering potential residents a different kind of living than seen on "Dallas" in the form of a sprawling apartment property being developed by Trammell Crow Residential, a part of Crow Holdings.

The Dallas-based developer filed plans with the state to build a $64.1 million, eight-building apartment project that is part of its Alexan brand in the city of Frisco. The project is expected to start construction in October and bring an additional 355 apartments to Brinkmann Ranch in a third phase for a total of nearly 1,000 new apartment units and townhouses.

A Crow Holdings spokesman told CoStar News the additional apartment units at Brinkmann Ranch will provide "much-needed housing options to accommodate Frisco's tremendous growth."

Development has spread north through once sprawling ranches on the city's outskirts as the region's population has climbed to 8.1 million, up from about 2.5 million in 1980. That growth has been abundant in Frisco, demonstrated by the PGA of America headquarters and two championship golf courses getting built about 8 miles northwest of Brinkmann Ranch.

Before it became Brinkmann Ranch, the white mansion seen on the first few episodes of "Dallas" was owned by Texas oil man and former NFL player Cloyce Box after he bought the roughly 200-acre property known as Box Ranch in 1965. Box, who played wide receiver for the Detroit Lions, let the TV series film at his ranch before kicking them off the property in 1978, according to media reports.

Box faced legal and money troubles in the ensuing years, and a fire at the 28-room mansion in 1986 left him unable to rebuild the house. The property later sold to Baxter Brinkmann, who renamed the ranch and cobbled together what amassed to more than 5,500 acres with the help of Rex Glendenning, land broker and founder of Rex Real Estate. Glendenning told CoStar News he helped Brinkmann put together the assemblage in the wake of the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s and 1990s.

Brinkmann Ranch is considered to be part of urban Dallas rather than the outlying ranch it was portrayed as in the late 1970s.

The popularity of the hit show "Dallas" reached fever pitch in the summer of 1980 with the plot line and marketing catchphrase "Who Shot J.R.?" that referred to a character played by actor Larry Hagman. Decades later, the program continues to be broadcast in syndication. While the Frisco mansion seen on the first few episodes of "Dallas" in 1978 sits as a skeleton today, the estate where filming continued until the series end in 1991 still offers daily tours to fans.

Centurion American Development Group bought Southfork Ranch in Parker in October 2022. Centurion's Vice President Sean Terry told CoStar News he regularly has to calm heated folks who are concerned the storied Southfork Ranch might be torn down.

"There's a lot of confusion between the Frisco property and Southfork Ranch," Terry told CoStar News. "We are keeping this activated and are not tearing it down."

Southfork Ranch's white ranch-style house totaling nearly 6,000 square feet has visitors daily, with Centurion operating tours and hosting events such as weddings and concerts as well as the annual fundraiser the Cattle Baron's Ball. The Southfork Ranch event center and about 45 acres of working ranch with animals are still operational and that is not expected to change, Terry said.

Centurion has a history of buying storied properties, including The Statler Hotel in downtown Dallas, the former Collin Creek Mall in Plano, Texas, and the Crespi estate in Dallas' Preston Hollow neighborhood. Centurion plans to build residences surrounding Southfork Ranch and keep the historically significant property operational as its own entity.

The developer is planning to build dozens of houses on 2-acre lots, Terry said. However, the city of Parker is in a water moratorium and is not accepting the development of any new water meters, putting the project's timeline on hold even though the group is looking to line up its zoning.

"We want to build these ranch-style estates for residents to be a part of everything there," he added.

The influence "Dallas" had on viewers extended across the globe and helped shape the career of one prominent local commercial real estate executive when she lived in another part of the world.

Savills' Vice Chairman Jihane Boury is a longtime "Dallas" fan. The Dallas-based real estate executive still vividly remembers the first time she watched the TV show in the early 1980s in Beirut, as a distraction for the young teenager from what was then the Lebanese Civil War.

"I literally waited for the show to come on the television and — because of the war — I was so upset when the electricity cut off and it took a while for the generators to kick on," Boury told CoStar News.

Years later, Boury and her family moved to North Texas, where her father worked in oil and gas at a firm in Irving, Texas. On the 14-hour journey to the United States in October 1985, Boury remembers hearing Texans talking for the first time in a southern drawl known as Texas twang that she didn't recognize as any language she had ever heard before.

The teenager, who saw "Dallas" character Sue Ellen Ewing as an example of a strong woman she wanted to emulate, decided to tackle a commercial real estate career beginning in interior design, a skill she later took with her to Dallas-based developer Harwood International and helps her as a broker today.

During Boury's tenure at Harwood International, where she led the leasing team for 13 years, she was able to secure the 26th floor penthouse suite at what is known as Harwood No. 6 at Saint Ann Court in the Harwood District near downtown Dallas as a place where the reboot of "Dallas" was filmed in 2012.

She got to meet Larry Hagman, Linda Gray and Patrick Duffy, stars of the original show and the reboot, during filming at the office building. She even got to test her acting chops as the caterer helping Sue Ellen, played by actress Gray, plan for the faux Cattle Baron's Ball during an episode. When Boury and Gray were getting their hair done for filming, Boury told Gray she credits Sue Ellen's character with helping set her up for success in Dallas.

At full build-out, Trammell Crow Residential is expected to construct about 2,300 units at the Brinkmann Ranch property near Coit Road and Eldorado Parkway.

Trammell Crow Residential is currently building phase one and phase two at Brinkmann Ranch, adding 508 units in a three-story project in phase one with another 89 townhouses as part of phase two. The first two phases are expected to be completed by the end of 2025.

The third phase of the project is expected to be completed in late 2026. Trammell Crow Residential declined to comment on any potential future phases of the Frisco project.

Frisco Mayor Jeff Cheney, who is also a residential real estate agent, told CoStar News that about 16% of the remaining space in the city of Frisco has yet to be earmarked with plans from developers, with the municipality "running out of room for single-family opportunities."

Developers' plans are beginning to take shape with the city's biggest projects, including Fields West, a portion of a $10 billion master-planned, mixed-use development anchored by the PGA of America's headquarters campus getting underway. Universal's new kid-friendly resort is also in the development process and Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association's new campus is almost completed near The Star in Frisco, where the Dallas Cowboys has its global headquarters and practice facility.

As Frisco develops, Cheney said he expects denser housing in the city with tracts near the Dallas North Tollway and Preston Road catering to more taller apartment projects than typically found in the traditional suburbs.

The fast-growing city, which spans more than 69 square miles, estimates it has 234,424 residents. In the 2020 U.S. Census, the city had more than 200,000 residents, nearly doubling in a decade from 116,989 residents. In 1980, the city of Frisco had 3,499 residents, according to Census Bureau data.

HLR Architects of Plano, Texas, is the designer of the third phase of Trammell Crow Residential's Brinkmann Ranch project.