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KB Home plans to sell 4 Hillsborough parcels

By ANDREW MEACHAM
Published April 20, 2007

Alarmed by a sinking market, some Hillsborough County developers are dumping excess property, analysts say.

Recent land sales by real estate companies include KB Home, which plans to sell property in three counties, including four parcels in Hillsborough.

KB Home spokeswoman Cara Kane would not disclose the exact location of the parcels or their selling prices.

But attorney Blake Whitney Thompson, whose St. Petersburg company is buying land from KB Home, said all four parcels are east of Interstate 75 on either side of State Road 60.

Companies that last year commanded prices of $50,000 to $60,000 for lots are now unloading them for as low as $14,000 to $17,000, Thompson said - the amount the Cypress Company typically bids for residential lots.

Such selloffs have increased this year, Thompson said, particularly in Hillsborough County - where his company is in "full buying mode."

"There has been a recent realization that either they sell to developers and take a haircut, or the banks are going to come after them," Thompson said.

Some homebuilders, particularly the ones that are publicly traded companies, may be feeling pressure from investors as land sits idle, real estate consultant Marvin Rose said.

"What was a two- to three-year supply of land is becoming a seven- to eight-year supply," Rose said.

As a result, companies that might have taken a wait-and-see attitude a year ago are now more willing to sell, said Clearwater land use consultant Todd Pressman.

"When you start to have a change in the market, every company looks a lot more closely and with a lot sharper knife at what they don't need," Pressman said.

That's business as usual, said Joseph Narkiewicz of the Tampa Bay Builders Association, who called recent trends "not unusual at all."

"As the market changes, people will buy and sell land to better reflect what their part of the market will be," Narkiewicz said. "That's the way it works."

Andrew Meacham can be reached at 661-2431 or ameacham@sptimes.com.

[Last modified April 19, 2007, 07:04:14]