Bilzin Sumberg Represents Lennar Corporation in Formation of Strategic Land Investment Venture
Miami, Florida, December 4, 2007 The law firm of Bilzin Sumberg Baena Price & Axelrod LLP announced that it represented Lennar Corporation, one of the nations largest homebuilders, in its formation of a strategic land investment venture with Morgan Stanley Real Estate Funding II, L.P., an affiliate of Morgan Stanley & Co., Inc. The transaction closed November 30, 2007.
The venture, in which Lennar acquired a 20% ownership interest and 50% of the voting rights, was formed to acquire, develop, manage and sell land for residential use. Concurrent with its formation, Bilzin Sumberg also represented Lennar in the sale of a diversified portfolio of land to the investment venture, consisting of approximately 11,000 homesites in 32 communities located in California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada and New Jersey. As of September 30, 2007, the acquired properties had a net book value of approximately $1.3 billion and the sale price was $525 million.
In addition, Lennar secured options and rights of first offer to purchase certain finished homesites at current market value. Lennar will manage the land ventures operations and will receive fees for its services.
All aspects of the transaction, including the financing, regulatory and overall structuring of the venture, and the preparation, negotiation and documentation of the purchase agreement, management agreement and option agreements, and all of the ancillary agreements and documents were handled by the Bilzin Sumberg team which consisted of over nineteen (19) attorneys across four practice areas: Corporate, Real Estate, Restructuring & Bankruptcy and Finance.
Notes to Editors
1. Bilzin Sumberg's Corporate & Securities Group has built a strong reputation for highly complex corporate work, including mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, securities, capital markets, regulatory, joint ventures and strategic alliances, leveraged buyouts and management buyouts; "going private" transactions; and tax matters.
2. Bilzin Sumberg's Real Estate Group routinely provides legal counsel locally and nationally across a broad range of complex commercial real estate practice areas. We provide high quality legal counsel to investors, developers, and lenders facilitating transactions for commercial real estate allowing them to focus on the business aspects of their respective transactions.
3. Steven D. Lear is a partner in Bilzin Sumberg's Corporate & Securities Group, and is a nationally recognized corporate and securities attorney. He frequently represents clients in complex negotiations and financings of multi-million dollar mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and other multifaceted transactions.
About Bilzin Sumberg
Bilzin Sumberg is a commercial law firm based in Florida. The Firm’s core practices include Business Finance & Restructuring, Corporate, Environmental, International, Land Development & Government Relations, Litigation, Real Estate, and Tax. For more information, please visit bilzin.com.