Homebuilders starting to snap up lots

With home starts in North Texas up by more than 50 percent so far this year, builders and developers are jumping to buy land and lots.

Several purchases have been announced this week.

Toll Brothers, the Pennsylvania-based luxury homebuilder, said Wednesday that it has bought 171 home sites in Colleyville, one of its largest land purchases here in 15 years.

“This reflects how interested we are in securing luxury sites in the Metroplex area to boost the future growth of the company,” Toll’s Rob Paul, president of the Dallas division, said in a statement.

Toll Brothers already has 10 home communities in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Its latest acquistion is in the Reserve at Colleyville, a community developed by a real estate firm founded by baseball star Rafael Palmeiro.

On Tuesday, New York-based Wheelock Street Capital announced it was teaming up with McGuyer Homebuilders Inc. of Houston to buy and develop land and lots in eight Texas home communities.

The $15 million equity investment in the partnership includes purchase of property in a Collin County residential project called the Trails of Melissa.

“The formation of this venture will allow us to take advantage of some of the great opportunities we are seeing in our markets right now,” builder Frank McGuyer said in the announcement of his new partnership with Wheelock. “We expect this to be the first of many key acquisitions.”

Read more>