The joint venture is LandSource Communities Development LLC. The new partner is MW Housing Partners, which is co-managed by MacFarlane Partners and includes the California Public Employees' Retirement System. The agreement was reached on Dec. 28 and is expected to close on Feb. 15.

Under terms of the deal, LandSource will issue a 62% ownership interest and a 50% management interest for a contribution of land and cash valued at approximately $900 million. The property, which is part of an existing land bank relationship between MW Housing Partners and Lennar, is being contributed based on today's fair market value. Lennar will continue to have options to purchase the homesites at the market price at the time of the sale.

As of July 1, LandSource had assets with a book value of approximately $1.3 billion, with its primary investment being the Newhall Land and Farming Co., which owns 15,000 acres of land in the rapidly growing Santa Clarita Valley approximately 30 miles north of Downtown Los Angeles. LandSource will obtain new financing on its properties. The new financing, combined with existing cash generated from operations, will fund distributions of approximately $660 million each to Lennar and LNR.

"LandSource has created value through the continued development of Newhall and growing its land portfolio in targeted high growth markets," Lennar president and CEO Stuart Miller and LNR president and CEO Jeffrey Krasnoff say in a joint statement.

Steven Lear, a partner with Miami-based law firm Bilzin Sumberg, led a team of attorneys which worked on the deal. Those attorneys included Brian Bilzin, Robert Siegel, Steven Simon, Stephen Rubin, Marla Brock, David Schubauer and T. Kendall Sparkman. "The deal was considered a unique opportunity to bring together several entities for long-term benefits," Lear tells GlobeSt.com. "LandSource is considered one of the premier land funds in the nation."