Del Webb, Horton Land Deals Lead Multi-Million Projects

ORLANDO-Two big names in the shelter development industry are banking on Florida’s rising population trend to continue and are buying land in big chunks for planned new residential communities in 2005 and 2006.

Arizona-based Del Webb Corp., a subsidiary of Michigan-based Pulte Homes, has contracted to purchase an estimated 200 acres at the 1,200-acre, mixed-use ChampionsGate development in southwest Osceola County. Webb plans to develop a $200-million, 700-home community of condominiums, carriage homes and townhomes not far from the Walt Disney World attraction.

The ChampionsGate land price wasn’t disclosed. But area industrial brokers who have done deals in that submarket tell GlobeSt.com the effective price will probably be around $200,000 per acre or about $4.59 per sf, making it an estimated $40-million deal. That would also make it the largest land transaction this year in Central Florida, according to several local brokerage houses who monitor land sales monthly.