Telfair, a 2,018-acre master-planned community in Sugar Land, has won the 2010 Houston’s Best “Community of the Year” award from the Greater Houston Builders Association (GHBA).The award, presented during the GHBA’s annual “Houston’s Best” awards ceremony, honored Telfair for a number of achievements in the past year, including transforming a historic prison building into a state-of-the-art science museum and rising to number four nationally in new-home sales.“The past 12 months have marked the most momentous year for Telfair since it opened in 2006, and we greatly appreciate the GHBA’s “Community of the Year” recognition,” said Heather Gould, marketing director for Newland Communities. “Even after the award application was submitted, Telfair continued to grow, opening an all-new model home village and completing the new Telfair Central Hall community center.”Located at U.S. 59 and University Blvd., Telfair offers new homes priced from the $240,000s to over $1 million. In 2009, new-home sales in the 2,018-acre community rose 9% to 450, ranking it fourth nationally and third locally. So far in 2010, new-home sales in Telfair have kept pace with last year.The GHBA judges, who are recruited from outside of the local homebuilding industry, lauded the transformation of the historic Central State Farm building at Telfair into the Houston Museum of Natural Science (HMNS) at Sugar Land. Newland Communities donated the 43,000-square-foot building, completed in 1939, for the museum, along with the site and structural improvements. With additional funding from the City of Sugar Land and HMNS, the $11.5 million museum opened last October.Telfair’s winning entry also included the TelfairLife community service organization, which provides a social and cultural layer to the 300 acres of recreational amenities at Telfair. Annual TelfairLife events such as the Charity of Your Choice Walk have raised over $160,000 for Fort Bend area charities, and TelfairLife has provided college scholarships for Telfair residents.Telfair is located in the Fort Bend Independent School District, and its onsite school, Cornerstone Elementary, has earned the Texas Education Agency’s highest accreditation rating, Exemplary.For more information about Partners in Building at Telfair, click here.