Billionaire Mark Cuban buys entire Texas town, ‘for a friend’

Unlike most homebuyers in Texas grappling with skyrocketing prices, bidding wars, and less available real estate options, Dallas Mavericks owner and billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban just bought an entire town.

And its owner’s family got a special Christmas present.

At barely 77 acres, Mustang, Texas, is roughly an hour southeast of Dallas, where Cuban’s franchise is headquartered.

South on Interstate 45 near Corsicana and three hours north of Houston, Mustang has no operational businesses, an empty strip club known for a 2008 murder, and an empty, volunteer fire department building.

In 2010, there were 21 residents, according to census data. As of 2019, no one lives there.

Mustang’s principal owner, Marty Price, fell ill and put the town up for sale, which listed at $4 million in 2017. But no one wanted to buy a ghost town. Even when the price dropped to $2 million, Mike Turner, president of Dallas real estate firm J. Elmer Turner, told The Dallas Morning News.

An attorney and avid basketball fan, Price was a long-time Mavericks season ticket holder with floor seats.

Cuban says he bought the town as a favor to Price, who died in late August at age 75.

Cuban told The Dallas Morning News in an email, “I don’t know what if anything I will do with it.” He told NBC News, "Did it to help out a friend. No plans yet!"

Turner told NBC News, "Mark Cuban stepped up and it was a natural for him to buy it. With his resources and imagination, I'm sure there are endless possibilities."

The town, which has no government and no zoning requirements, can be transformed into anything.

Jerry Newsom, chief of the volunteer fire department in the neighboring small town of Angus, told NBC Dallas, "We're excited to have him as our neighbor and we're excited about the growth and the potential it has."