Mountain Real Estate Capital has entered into a joint venture agreement with Lansdowne Development Group that is in line with the firm’s dynamic growth strategy of the past three years.
The MREC- Lansdowne partnership entails the acquisition and development of $50 to $100 million of residential land in the Virginia and Washington D.C. metropolitan areas that follows two previous MREC-Lansdowne acquisition projects earlier this year.
In May, MREC acquired Shenandoah, a 1,850-unit lakefront community located on Lake Fredrick in Winchester, Va., that consists of both active adult and market rate homes constructed by homebuilder partners such as Shea Homes and NVR.
In June, the joint venture closed on the acquisition of Leesburg Crossing, a 40-acre infill site located in the town of Leesburg, Va. “that will include several hundred townhomes,” the company said.
The joint venture continues an investment strategy of providing capital “to partners in select national residential markets,” said MREC’s managing director, Joel Kaul. It will benefit from Lansdowne’s previous working relationships with builders in the D. C. area. “We intend to supply lots to builders and fill a current void in the market.”
Hobie Mitchel, CEO of Lansdowne, said understanding the complexities, challenges and opportunities essential in residential and commercial development is key when working on projects like Shenandoah and Leesburg.
The joint venture intends to acquire and start other project development deals in the coming months, he said. “Using this platform with MREC allows us to take advantage of the housing market recovery in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area.”
MREC has closed similar deals in 16 states and is now working with 14 operating partners like Lansdowne based in Florida, Colorado, California, North Carolina, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin.
The Charlotte, N.C.-based private equity source for real estate developers and builders with a capitalized $1 billion in joint venture investment has acquired over 36,000 lot/homes and another 9,000 developable acres since 2010.
