Faist will be responsible for directing the growing accounting, tax and financial operations of FCP's management companies and partnerships. Prevously, he was the VP-corporate controller for the Mills Corp.

The land program represents a new business platform--an added initiative--to the firm's overall business plan, Esko Korhonen, co-founder and partner tells GlobeSt.com. "We think there numerous opportunities in land right now." Among his first duties, Shearer, who has worked with FCP as a consultant last year, has been tasked with building a team to source residential land opportunities, secure entitlements, establish strategies for value creation and manage the disposition or funding solutions for those land assets. Shearer was formerly SVP, Land for NVR, parent of Ryan Homes and NVHomes.

Land acquisition is becoming an accepted opportunistic play in the DC region and nationally as well, with investors looking beyond the current housing slump to the next cycle even if it is several years out. As one example, Duball LLC, a Reston, VA-based firm, is launching a $300-million fund with CMI Group to acquire land parcels in the DC area as well as parts of the mid-Atlantic.