Elliott Homes Assembles Nearly 430 Acres for ~$16.43m

VIZZDA—March 4^th, 2013 — In what is easily the largest land transaction of the New Year, Elliott Homes has acquired 429.20 contiguous acres of agricultural land in Waddell in four transactions totaling $16,430,230.10 for an average per acre price of $38,281.05. National Safe Harbor Exchanges, a 1031 exchange intermediary, facilitated the all cash transaction between Elliott—represented by Stephen Hemington and Brian Spickard—and four separate owners. A representative of the sellers indicates that this sale was a reverse 1031 exchange.

The largest portion acquired by Elliott is a 183.76 acre contiguous parcel sold by Ronald Schut of Miedema Produce for $7,019,208 or $38,197.06 per acre. A non-contiguous parcel totaling 115.68 acres was sold to Elliott by Darrell and Diane Kuiper for $4,453,790 or $38,500.95 per acre. Kelvin and Kathryn Moss sold a contiguous 76.71 acre parcel for $2,860,336 or $37,287.65 per acre. Finally, Mitchel Medigovich unloaded 53.05 non-contiguous acres $2,096,896 or $39,526.78 per acre. The assemblage is zoned RU-43 and located at the Northwest corner of Citrus Lane and Olive Avenue.

With the exception of that portion sold by Medigovich, these parcels were previously acquired in a simultaneous transaction on January 20^th, 2012 in which Wayne Smith, owner of W.L.S. Construction, acquired roughly 399 acres in two transactions for $5,563,596 from Mark Winkleman of ML Manager—the court-appointed receiver for Mortgages Ltd. Smith then sold 183.76 acres for $2,724,561, 115.68 acres for $1,728,773 and 76.71 acres for $1,110,262 the sum of which exactly equals Smith’s basis. The Medigovich portion was previously acquired at a pair of trustees auctions in Q1 2012 with a combined credit bid of $5,309,534.

Kohner Properties assembled the land in several transactions beginning in December 2004 and encumbered it with $24m in new debt with Mortgages Ltd. on January 4^th, 2005. Following the collapse of Mortgages Ltd., the property was noticed for trustee sale on October 30^th, 2009 and it reverted to ML Manager as successor beneficiary on May 25^th, 2011 with a$3.614m credit bid. Per City of Glendale planning documents, the site had previously been planned for the 1,144 lot Turning Leaf at the Meadows subdivision.

By:

Paul Dionne

Director of Analytics

Vizzda.com