Housing Giants - October 24, 2008 - (Page 20)

f e at u r e fall of home and land values is providing. At the time this article was prepared, sources interviewed indicated that the majority of funds out there are sitting on the sidelines. “We know people have lined up equity commitments,” says Kelly Toole, partner in the Washington, D.C.-based Beers + Cutler accounting firm. “We’re still at a point where they’re waiting to jump in.” Toole’s observation is echoed by others. “We haven’t seen a lot of activity yet, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist,” said W. Hobson Hogan, an associate with the Raleigh, N.C.-based real-estate management consulting and investment banking firm FMI. RISky VeNTURe Hogan cautions that due to the highly cyclical nature of home building, there may be a limit to the number of institutional investors and private equity players who will want to enter the home builder space. “They’d have concerns about catching the falling knife. There Private equity Deals That Have Gone Through we’ve observed reports of private equity funds starting to make their move into select markets. n Brookwood Value Partners, an affiliate of Brookwood Financial Partners, within the past few months closed on two major acquisitions in Florida. The first was the purchase of 214 finished residential lots in a community in Lehigh Acres, Fla., known as The Grove, from an affiliate of D.R. Horton. It is also contracted to purchase additional lots in that project at some point in the future. Thomas N. Trkla, Brookwood’s chairman and CEO, says the firm believes the current dislocation in the housing market has provided opportunities to acquire residential lots at prices that will result in strong returns for patient investors. D.R. Horton will remain the exclusive builder in the project, and the company will buy the land back when it has a new home customer. Brookwood is a Massachussetts-based private equity firm that acquires real-estate and invests in private companies. n In September, Brookwood Value Partners made its second purchase, closing on the acquisition of 106 single-family lots, 118 townhome lots and one commercial lot in Calusa Creek, a planned residential community in Punta Gorda, 20 HOUSING GIANTS.10.24.08 www.HOUSINGGIANTS.cOm http://www.fminet.com/ http://www.beersandcutler.com/ http://www.beersandcutler.com/ http://www.bfplp.com http://www.beazer.com/findHome/community.asp?CommunityID=2175 http://www.drhorton.com/corp/GetCommunity.do?dv=Z8&pr=44587 http://www.drhorton.com/ http://www.housinggiants.com

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