Toll Brothers-GTIS Partners JV Announce Acquisition Of Sienna South

(RTTNews) - Luxury home builder Toll Brothers, Inc. (TOL) in a joint venture with GTIS Partners, a real estate private equity firm, Wednesday announced the acquisition of Sienna South, the last major undeveloped parcel of Sienna Plantation, one of Houston's most successful master planned communities.

Sienna South is a 3,700-acre site located in Houston's southwest corridor. It is fully zoned for up to 10,000 single-family homes, along with 140 acres of retail and commercial use and 63 acres of civic use.

The Toll-GTIS joint venture expects to develop 6,500 single-family home lots which will be sold to local, regional and national home builders over the expected life of the community.

Toll Brothers may acquire up to 1,750 of those lots for its own home building operation over that period. When fully built out, Sienna South is expected to have generated gross home sales of over $2.6 billion.

The JV has entered into an agreement with The Johnson Development Corp., developer of Sienna Plantation and some other Houston communities, to act as master developer.

Site improvements at Sienna South are slated to commence in April. Sales of lots to builders are projected to commence in late 2014. Sales to home buyers should begin in 2015.

Sienna South is the last major parcel of developable land within Sienna Plantation, which is an award-winning 7,000-acre master planned community. Started in the 1990s by Johnson Development, the community is home to more than 20,000 residents.

Sienna South's master plan includes over 1,100 acres of open space with an array of parks, lakes, sports fields, pools, clubhouses and hiking trails.

The extension of the County-financed Fort Bend County Parkway, scheduled to be completed early this year, will connect Sienna Plantation directly to Houston's Inner Loop 610.

Sienna South also offers easy access to the growing Houston Energy Corridor.

TOL closed at $35.96 on Tuesday, flat with the previous close.