Lennar has changed its land bank partner for 423 homesites in the Keys Gate subdivision in Homestead through a $24 million transaction. JEN Partners, a New York-based firm that previously served as Lennar’s land bank, sold the lots to DW Partners, also based in New York. The purchase price was $23.98 million.
As part of this arrangement, Lennar ended its purchase option agreement with JEN and entered into a new agreement with DW Partners that will last until 2031. The lots are located south of Southwest 344th Street and east of Southwest 162nd Avenue.
DW Partners is an alternative asset manager led by David Warren and Robert Clark and was founded in 2009.
Lennar, headquartered in Miami, is the second largest homebuilder in the United States and the leading builder in south Miami-Dade County. The company often uses land banks to secure sites for future development while keeping these costs off its balance sheet, which helps maintain cash flow for construction projects.
Other firms working as land banks for Lennar include Garrett Development from Scottsdale, Arizona, and TPG Angelo Gordon from New York. This year, Lennar also created Millrose Properties as its own publicly traded land bank.
Stuart Miller and Jon Jaffe lead Lennar; Jaffe is set to retire this year.
Securing development sites ahead of time is important for Lennar because buildable land supply is low in Miami-Dade County. The southern area remains one of the few regions suitable for single-family or townhome developments. In recent years, developers have been active in south Miami-Dade by acquiring property and submitting project applications. According to Colliers Research, since 2020 Lennar has completed nearly 70 percent of all homes built in this area and currently accounts for about 60 percent of ongoing projects.
Within Keys Gate itself, Lennar filed plans in 2022 to develop 1,335 homes along with a golf course on a separate 350-acre parcel.
Other stakeholders at Keys Gate include Mast Capital from Miami, which bought a complex with 292 townhomes at 1140 Southeast 24th Road for $50.8 million in 2021.
Elsewhere in south Miami-Dade, D.R. Horton—based in Arlington, Texas—has proposed building a complex with 108 townhomes across several lots on Southwest Third Avenue and Southwest Seventh Street in Florida City.
Additionally, Terra—a Coconut Grove-based firm led by David Martin—plans to redevelop part of the South Dade Government Center site at multiple addresses on Southwest 211th Street in Cutler Bay into a Live Local Act project featuring up to 724 units; phase one would include two eight-story buildings with around 362 units and parking spaces for approximately 458 vehicles.
