Woodside Homes Jumps on Land Opportunities

The recovery of Utah-based Woodside Homes, which emerged from bankruptcy last year, has taken forward steps in four Western markets where, in recent months, Woodside has completed land acquisition deals that include more than 400 home sites. Woodside’s growth strategy, says CEO Joel Shine, is to “go where there’s a little less competition” from builders or existing homes, with an emphasis on being near job centers. Its biggest deal to date since coming out of Chapter 11 has been in Temecula, Calif., where Woodside placed in escrow $7.2 million to buy 210 finished and unfinished condominium lots. This community, known as Maravilla, has an interesting history: Developer American Property Enterprises paid $10 million to buy this 21-acre tract in 2003, sold it to a public builder two years later for $20 million, and then reacquired the land—into which the builder had invested another $6.4 million in improvements and impact fees—for $3 million in 2008.

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