A New Jersey-based homebuilder submitted the winning bid for nearly 53 acres of state land near Desert Ridge, adding to its streak of public land auction victories.
K. Hovnanian Homes bid $71.1 million for 52.9 acres at an Arizona State Land Department Auction, the Phoenix Business Journal reported. Bidding for the prime chunk of property, located next to the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort & Spa, started at just under $37.8 million.
The price amounts to $1.3 million per acre.
The volume homebuilder beat out Phoenix-based Blandford Homes, as well as other national heavy-hitters like Toll Brothers, Lennar, Pulte, Taylor Morrison, Shea Homes and D.R. Horton.
Texas-based D.R. Horton was the original applicant for the land. It proposed a single-family residential development called Tallin West.
K. Hovnanian, a subsidiary of publicly traded Hovnanian Enterprises, hasn’t said how many homes it plans to build on the site.
“The way that it’s positioned against the JW Marriott Golf Resort is pretty unique,” Vaughn Wright, vice president of finance at K. Hovnanian, told the outlet.
K. Hovnanian is the seventh-largest homebuilder operating in the Phoenix region. The firm was awarded 950 permits in the area last year, the outlet said.
The company’s victory at the latest State Land Department auction adds to a list of wins at such bidding events. In February, K. Hovnanian outlasted Lennar in an auction for 72 acres in Peoria surrounding Lake Pleasant Crossing, beating out more than 50 other bids in the process.
The firm is part of a partnership that acquired 44 acres in Phoenix last October for $20.9 million via a state land auction. It plans to build high-end homes on one part of the parcel, with Plaza Companies purchasing a portion in April for $12 million and partnering with Fayth Hospitality Group to develop a Hilton dual-branded hotel on the site.
JW Marriott Desert Ridge is one of the region’s highest valued properties, likely adding value to K. Hovnanian’s planned project. Elliott Investment Management and Trinity Real Estate Investments sold the hotel to Ryman Hospitality Properties in May for $865 million. — Chris Malone Méndez
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