A Texas homebuilder has advanced plans to acquire more than 15 acres in the southwestern Las Vegas Valley from a land banker.
Developer DR Horton has early exercised its option to acquire 175 home sites from land investment firm Walton. According to a press release, the company plans to build townhouses and single-family homes on the Buffalo Drive property north of Blue Diamond Road.
Conditions were not disclosed.
Home sales in the DR’s two local communities, The Cottages and The Trails, are expected to begin next summer, the announcement said.
Land bankers typically buy vacant land and then sell it to builders who prefer not to hold the land any longer than necessary. Walton has a portfolio of more than 98,000 acres in the United States and Canada, and the deal with DR was the land banker’s first such deal in southern Nevada.
Tim Colbert, city manager for DR’s Las Vegas division, said in the press release that the home builder expects “more opportunities to work with (Walton) in Las Vegas.”
Walton normally holds land for a developer until that company is ready to begin construction, Ed Hadley, executive vice president for land acquisitions, told the Review Journal this spring.
He described it as a risk reduction tool as the builder does not sit on land he cannot use immediately or buy land that he ultimately could not develop.
Hadley says builders have deposited a down payment with Walton to purchase project land and can then pay the company off in chunks each time a home is closed.
Walton announced the 17 acre land purchase in the Southwest in May and, without naming DR Horton, said at the time that the property was being developed by “a top national home builder.”
According to a press release late last month, DR plans to build 99 townhouses in The Trails and 76 single-family homes in The Cottages.
Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342. Follow @eli_segall on Twitter.
