Neal makes $8.66M buy into Country Club East
MANATEE -- A company affiliated with Manatee County's largest home builder, Neal Communities, has made one of the most expensive land purchases by any Neal company in 2015.
Stirling Equity Group, a company managed by Neal Communities Michael Storey and Neal executives James Schier and Priscilla Heim, purchased 72 lots in growing Lakewood Ranch subdivision Country Club East. According to Manatee County property records, Stirling made the purchase in two separate transactions Dec. 15 totaling $8.66 million.
The purchase eclipses the $8.29 million Neal Communities paid last December for 111 acres in Lakewood Ranch for its Indigo subdivision. At the time, that was the most any Neal company had spent on a single land purchase.
The seller, SLV II CCE Venture, is a development partnership between of Starwood Land Ventures of Scottsdale, Ariz. and Lakewood Ranch master developer Schroeder-Manatee Ranch. Starwood inked a $45 million agreement with SMR in 2013 under which the company will develop 600 lots across 475 acres in Country Club East. The community, one of 10 villages in Lakewood Ranch, is private and gated. It is built around a golf course, lakes and ponds and nature preserves.
SLV II CCE Venture made another sale in Country Club East a day earlier, selling 12 lots in the Prestbury neighborhood to WCI Communities of Bonita Springs for $1.56 million.
Other purchases Neal Signature has made in the subdivision include nine lots for $1.17 million in September, six lots for $1.04 million in August 2014, six lots for $1 million in March 2014 and 13 lots for $1.5 million in December 2013. Neal's latest purchase is in a 360-acre portion of land at the far eastern edge of the community.
A semi-custom, luxury division of Lakewood Ranch-based Neal Communities, Neal Signature Homes is building in several neighborhoods in Country Club East. Since entering Country Club East, the company has been building homes primarily in the $400,000 to $600,000 range.
Matt M. Johnson, Herald business reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7027 or on Twitter@MattAtBradenton.
This story was originally published December 29, 2015 at 12:06 PM with the headline "Neal makes $8.66M buy into Country Club East ."