Mountain Real Estate Capital Acquires 59 Lots in Riverwalk Vista Masterplan
Torrance, CA – August 1, 2011 – (RealEstateRama) — Mountain Real Estate Capital (MREC) announces the acquisition of Village III within the Riverwalk Vista master plan in Riverside, Calif. MREC acquired the asset directly from Bank of the West and will be retaining Artisan Communities to complete the remaining development work and ultimately build out the project. The transaction closed June 28; its value could not be disclosed.
The acquisition consists of three model homes, 14 partially complete production homes and 42 substantially finished lots. The project is located at the southeast corner of La Sierra Avenue and Indiana Avenue in the City of Riverside, Riverside County.
“MREC is extremely excited about the opportunity to acquire this asset directly from Bank of the West and establish a new relationship with Artisan Communities,” states MREC Chief Executive Officer Peter Fioretti. “This opportunity presented a number of challenges that MREC/Artisan were able to successfully overcome and help to bring this master plan back to life.”
The Village III project represents MREC’s third acquisition from a bank in California. MREC has also closed on investment / development opportunities with Bank of America and East West Bank, both of which were Southern California projects.
MREC is retaining Artisan Communities to manage the development, construction and ultimate build-out of the project. Bob Shiota, president of Artisan Communities, has extensive experience in homebuilding and land development in Southern California over the past 30 years having acquired $1 billion worth of residential development projects. “This particular acquisition presented some unique challenges that came with a distressed master plan that had been foreclosed on, but the MREC/Artisan team was able to gain cooperation with the neighboring landowners, the seller and The Hoffman Company to successfully close on this opportunity,” stated Shiota.
MREC Senior Director Tom Orradre adds, “this opportunity is a credit to both Artisan Communities and MREC for maintaining focus to resolve important issues in order to position Riverwalk for success. We are excited about the acquisition and the opportunity to work with Bob Shiota and his team at Artisan.”
MREC’s homebuilder joint venture program is led by Managing Director Joel Kaul in Minneapolis. “We now have five active projects in California with over 250 lots under ownership and projected revenues in excess of $120 million. We believe we will be well-positioned as the California housing market recovers,” commented Kaul. MREC’s investment team has additional offices in Atlanta, Charlotte, Los Angeles and Newport Beach.
MREC continues to emerge as a leading provider of equity capital to homebuilders and residential land developers. Over the past 18 months, MREC acquired over 8,800 lots and 7,000 acres with over $230 million committed to 21 transactions.
About Mountain Real Estate Capital
The Mountain Real Estate Group is focused on purchasing large portfolios and NPL/REO assets direct from banks. Additionally, the group provides capital through JV equity and restructure of current debt to its builder/developer partners. Mountain’s equity fund is positioned to invest up to $1 billion in these types of opportunities. Since 1993 Mountain has been a leading private capital source to its partners. Mountain Real Estate Capital is the equity investment arm of the Mountain Real Estate Group. Other affiliates include its lending group, Mountain Funding, LLC, and its asset management, Mountain Asset Management Group, LLC. For more information, visit www.mountainrecapital.com.
