Starwood Land Ventures Completes Purchase of TOUSA’s Florida Assets
BRADENTON, Fl—In a sale that may strongly signal the stabilization of Florida’s troubled residential real estate market, Starwood Land Ventures LLC today announced that it has finalized the purchase of 5,449 residential lots and 36 model homes from TOUSA, a land developer based in Hollywood, Fla., that filed for bankruptcy in 2008. The purchase of the coveted properties positions Starwood as one of the state’s most prominent residential land investors.
After winning a contested auction over two other bidders this January with a bid of $81 million, Starwood Land Ventures, a Bradenton-based real estate investment firm, gained approval for the purchase from a U.S. Bankruptcy Court late last month. Starwood’s “stalking horse” bid was supported by the company’s creditors, who cited the company’s well regarded expertise in the real estate sector as a primary reason for the sale.
“After more than a year of tremendous effort by an excellent team of employees and consultants, we are extremely pleased with the acquisition of the TOUSA Florida assets,” said Mike Moser, East Region President of Starwood Land Ventures. “After a tough few years in Florida’s residential real-estate market, the high level of interest we have seen in these properties from builders and our own extensive due diligence has given us a high degree of confidence we will see the recovery of these assets as they emerge from bankruptcy amid a stabilizing real estate market. This is precisely the type of value generating project we envisioned taking part in when Starwood Capital partnered with former homebuilding executives to form Starwood Land Ventures three years ago and we are looking forward to building on that vision with this acquisition.”
Starwood’s winning bid in the auction for the TOUSA assets gives the company control of the most highly sought-after portfolio of residential real estate in Florida since the economic downturn began. Starwood Land Ventures now owns approximately 13,100 homesites with over 6,400 of these within 50 Florida communities. Additionally, the Company owns over 6,700 homesites in Phoenix and California.
Starwood plans to sell several of the newly acquired lots soon and is now talking to potential homebuilders about contracts to purchase lots and begin vertical construction. As further evidence to the quality of the portfolio’s properties, the company is receiving interest from nearly every major homebuilder in Florida. Starwood expects to strike deals with homebuilders shortly, Moser said, and will announce these deals as soon as they are settled.