MIAMI, Feb. 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- LandSource Communities
Development LLC ("LandSource"), a joint venture between Lennar Corporation
(NYSE: LEN and LEN.B), one of the nation's largest homebuilders, and LNR
Property Corporation ("LNR"), one of the nation's leading real estate,
finance, management and development companies, announced today that it has
added assets and a new partner, MW Housing Partners ("MWHP"). MWHP is co-
managed by MacFarlane Partners.
MWHP contributed cash and property with a combined value of
approximately $970 million in exchange for a 68% interest in LandSource.
The property, which included approximately 4,000 homesites, was part of an
existing land bank relationship between MWHP and Lennar and is located in
Arizona, California, Nevada and New Jersey. It was contributed into the
venture at today's fair market value. Lennar will continue to have options
to purchase these homesites, the build-out of which is part of Lennar's
strategic business plan.
LandSource is one of the largest and most diversified land development
companies in the United States, with assets located in California, Nevada,
Arizona, Texas, New Jersey and Florida. The Newhall Land and Farming
Company ("Newhall"), a LandSource subsidiary, owns some of the last
remaining large, undeveloped, but entitled, land in the greater Los Angeles
area. Newhall owns 15,000 acres of land in the rapidly growing Santa
Clarita Valley, approximately 30 miles north of downtown Los Angeles, which
includes 700 acres of commercial land and other property and approximately
23,000 residential homesites.
In addition to Newhall, LandSource owns commercial and residential
property that is in various stages of development in California, Florida,
Nevada and Texas. Notable projects include the conversion of Washington
Square, an office building in Venice, California, and two adjacent
buildings into residential condominiums located two blocks from the Pacific
Ocean, and the redevelopment of the former Mare Island Naval Shipyard near
San Francisco into more than 1,000 single-family homes and nearly 4 million
square feet of commercial space.
As of January 31, 2007, LandSource had assets with a book value of
approximately $1.3 billion. In the transaction, the LandSource assets were
appraised at a value of approximately $2.6 billion, with a potential
increase of over $600 million.
This transaction further enhances LandSource's position as one of the
nation's premier land investment and development companies. It also enables
LandSource to pursue the continued development of Newhall and expansion of
its land portfolio. The addition of MWHP's property provides strong
near-term cash flow which balances the longer-term strategic nature of
Newhall and the admission of MWHP as a partner will allow Lennar and LNR to
combine their respective residential and commercial expertise with the
collective expertise and capital resources of MWHP to utilize LandSource as
a new strategic platform.
As part of today's transaction, LandSource successfully completed a new
$1.55 billion bank debt financing that consists of a $200 million undrawn
five-year Revolving Credit Facility initially priced at a rate of LIBOR
plus 3%, a $1.106 billion six-year Term Loan B Facility initially priced at
LIBOR plus 2.75% and a $244 million seven-year Second Lien Term Facility
priced at LIBOR plus 4.5%. The pricing on the Revolving Credit Facility and
Term Loan B Facility may be reduced based on certain events. The financing
is non- recourse to the equity partners and secured by the LandSource
assets. The post-closing debt-to-appraised value of the assets in
LandSource is 51.7%.
Barclays Capital served as the sole lead arranger and sole bookrunner
for each of the facilities, with Barclays Bank PLC acting as administrative
agent for the credit facilities.
Headquartered in San Francisco, MacFarlane Partners is one of the
leading real estate investment management firms in the United States, with
$11.7 billion in real estate assets under management. Through MWHP,
MacFarlane Partners has invested in single-family residential land and
housing developments since 1995.
Lennar Corporation, founded in 1954, is one of the nation's leading
builders of quality homes for all generations. The Company builds
affordable, move-up and retirement homes primarily under the Lennar brand
name. Lennar's Financial Services segment provides primarily mortgage
financing, title insurance and closing services for both buyers of the
Company's homes and others. Previous press releases and further information
about the Company may be obtained at the "Investor Relations" section of
the Company's website, http://www.lennar.com.
LNR Property Corporation has been engaged in the development, ownership
and management of commercial properties and land since 1969. Until October
of 1997, LNR operated as a division of Lennar Corporation at which time it
was spun off to become a separate public company. In February 2005, LNR was
acquired by entities controlled by affiliates of Cerberus Capital
Management, L.P. LNR manages real estate properties, loans and securities
for its own account and for others exceeding $5 billion and is responsible
for the special servicing of over $200 billion of real estate loans which
collateralize commercial mortgage backed securities in the United States
and Europe.
SOURCE Lennar Corporation
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Related links:
http://www.lennar.com/
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CONTACT:
Scott Shipley, Investor Relations of Lennar
Corporation, +1-305-485-2054, or Jeffrey Krasnoff, President and
CEO of LNR Property Corporation, +1-305-695-5417
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