Dream Finders, One of Nation’s Largest Homebuilders, Snatches Up Lot South of Phoenix

Article originally posted on Phoenix Business Journal on August 7, 2024

Florida-based Dream Finders Homes Inc. (NYSE: DFH), which made its Arizona debut this summer, just closed on more lots.

The national homebuilder recently paid $13.84 million in cash to an entity tracing to New Jersey-based Hovnanian Enterprises Inc. for 123 finished lots within the city of Maricopa, according to Tempe-based real estate database Vizzda LLC. Dream Finders ranked No. 12 on Pro Builder’s latest Housing Giants rankings of the nation’s largest builders, with 2023 revenue of more than $3.7 billion.

Nate Nathan and his son Max Nathan of Scottsdale-based Nathan and Associates Inc. negotiated the transaction that closed July 31 for $112,500 per lot.

“With the city of Maricopa buying over 1,000 acres for employment on the south side of the Casa Grande highway, Maricopa is going to be becoming an emerging hot bed of new employment,” said Nate Nathan, president and designated broker for Nathan and Associates.

Hovnanian officials declined to comment on the sale.

The nearly 1,500-acre swath of land — about an hour south of downtown Phoenix — is expected to create more than 30,000 jobs and contain as much as 12 million square feet of Class A industrial space at full buildout.

With all those jobs comes the need for more homes.

Tyler Champlin, who was named inaugural president of the Phoenix division of Dream Finders Homes, said he plans to break ground on two model homes by September. Homes will range between 1,600 and 2,900 square feet, with prices starting in the mid- to high $300,000s to target the entry-level buyer. The 123 lots are located south of the southwest corner of Hartman and Honeycutt roads within Rancho Mirage Estates.

“We think Maricopa is a great submarket, especially with the $20 billion expansion of the Intel campus in Chandler,” said Champlin, who also praised Maricopa for its “great sense of community.”

Besides this latest move by Dream Finders, there is plenty of other economic activity building up in Maricopa.

Scottsdale-based El Dorado Holdings Inc. on April 30 sold 308.7 acres to the city of Maricopa at the southeast corner of White and Parker roads for $29.33 million, according to Vizzda. That will increase the total city-owned land in the industrial park to 608 acres.

Chris Grogan, president of El Dorado Holdings, said that land was originally planned for a future phase of its Eagle Shadow master-planned community.

“We’re very supportive of the city and employment opportunities that we had been talking about coming to the city,” Grogan said. “We are big believers that the city of Maricopa is primed for employment growth. It has a great trade population, a skilled workforce and an educated workforce. This land is going to be prime to compete with the Casa Grandes and Eloys and other places getting a lot of employment growth right now.”

El Dorado owns another 3,400 acres of land in and around the city of Maricopa, Grogan said.

Michael Ingram, founder of El Dorado, was instrumental in developing the city’s basic infrastructure, including the roadwork to create John Wayne Parkway and setting up water, wastewater and electric utility service.

Florida builder Dream Finders: ‘We are very bullish on Phoenix’

Meanwhile, Dream Finders has more lots in escrow in metro Phoenix that are expected to close by the end of the year.

“We are very bullish on Phoenix,” Champlin said.

Since its inception in 2008, Dream Finders has closed more than 31,100 homes in nine states, and expects to close 8,250 homes this year.

In February, Dream Finders acquired Crescent Homes, expanding into markets in South Carolina and Nashville, Tennessee. This followed the acquisition of Houston-based McGuyer Homebuilders Inc. in September 2021.

“Historically we’ve entered new markets through acquisitions of other builders,” said Champlin, who noted that Phoenix is different because there aren’t a lot of regional builders in the market.

As an out-of-state homebuilder entering the Phoenix market, it was important to hire a division president with local experience.

Champlin was vice president of land acquisitions for Scottsdale-based Meritage Homes Corp. (NYSE: MTH) when he got a call from Dream Finders about potentially leading its expansion plans in Phoenix.

“We hit it off and I came on board,” he said.