Texas, Florida and OC push for Landsea Homes after busy April

Anaheim Housing Project Along Lincoln Avenue

It was a busy April for Landsea Homes

Corp. (Nasdaq: LSEA).

Shortly after announcing plans for a new townhome development in San Juan Capistrano (detailed in the April 19 print edition of the Business Journal), the largest publicly traded builder based in Orange County late last month disclosed additional expansion plans in the works both inside and outside of the county.

The company recently broke ground on a new area residential development in Anaheim and is also expanding to Texas and Florida through its just announced, $54.6 million acquisition of Vintage Estate Homes.

These moves add to a larger expansion strategy for Landsea Homes, the Newport Beachbased homebuilding arm of China real estate company Landsea Group, which went public early this year and counts a roughly $450 million market cap.

39 Commons

Landsea is building 65 townhomes for a new community, dubbed Nolin, at the northeast corner of Beach Boulevard and Lincoln Avenue in Anaheim.

The project is part of a larger redevelopment push for a long-vacant, 30-acre site once used by the city as a landfill.

The Anaheim City Council first approved a development agreement in 2019 to turn the city-owned land into a mixed-use project that will include housing, a grocery store and additional commercial uses.

The city last month approved 164 townhomes, 100 affordable apartments and 5,000 square feet of retail space on the southeast corner of the site. The project is called 39 Commons.

Los Angeles-based Zelman Development Co., which has been in negotiations with the city for years over the size and scope of the project, and Irvine’s Greenlaw Partners are heading planning efforts for the project.

Landsea’s townhomes will be built on 3 acres of the site near a planned retail center that will include a high-end grocery store, shops, restaurants and community spaces.

The three-story townhomes will range from 1,134 to 1,970 square feet, with sales beginning in October. “We’re looking forward to bringing this unique product type to Anaheim, which is a new city for Landsea Homes,” said Tom Baine, Southern California division president at Landsea Homes.

Florida, Texas Expansion

Landsea has expanded into additional markets outside of Orange County through its acquisition of Florida-based Vintage Estate Homes, announced at the end of April.

The deal, which closed last week, marks Landsea’s entry into the Florida and Texas housing markets, including Orlando, Palm Bay and Melbourne in Florida, and Austin and San Antonio in Texas.

“This acquisition provides Landsea Homes with the immediate opportunity to gain size and scale in key markets that are consistently maintaining strong housing fundamentals,” said John Ho, Chief Executive Officer of Landsea Homes.

“This is another step forward in our strategic expansion plans to create communities in highly-desired locations across the United States.”