Lennar buys 273 acres just south of Tampa for $17.5M

Lennar Corp. paid $17.5 million for 273 acres just south of Tampa, where the Miami-based company plans to build about 850 houses.

The 273-acre site in southern Hillsborough County is next to Interstate 75 and near a one million-square-foot fulfillment center in Ruskin operated by online retailer Amazon.

Cypress Creek Land Corp. sold the land to Lennar for $64,102 per acre. Cypress Creek had owned the land since 1994, when the company bought it from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Few large tracts of land are available in southern Hillsborough County, according to Bill Eshelbaugh, founder of Tampa-based Eshelbaugh Land Co., who brokered the land sale to Lennar.

Late last year, another company based in South Florida also acquired land near the Amazon fulfillment center in Ruskin for residential development. West Palm Beach-based Kolter Group paid $6.97 million, or about $26,000 per acre, for 268 acres in northeast Manatee County. The land is approved for construction of 562 houses.  [Business Observer] – Mike Seemuth