12 Oaks - Residential Community -Holly Springs, North Carolina

Walton Street Capital paid $29.2 million for the community just west of the N.C. 55 Bypass, according to Wake County property records. The purchase totals nearly 600 acres of land and includes a golf course designed by Jack Nicklaus’ design firm.

12 Oaks has nearly 1,400 home sites, and completing the project is likely to take eight to 10 years if sales average 150 homes a year.

Walton Street Capital’s partner in the deal is Landeavor, which will serve as the operating developer going forward, said David Mason, 12 Oaks’ general manager.

Mason said Walton purchased 12 Oaks in a portfolio of properties that included three other residential communities: Bogue Watch in Carteret County, Anchors Bend in Wilmington and McKewn in Charleston, S.C.

LandTech Receiver Services took over 12 Oaks after its developer, L.M. Sandler & Sons of Virginia Beach, Va., ran into trouble. Sandler was one of the most active developers in the Triangle during the housing boom, but has struggled since the market tumbled.

Walton Street Capital declined to comment on the purchase, which includes all the remaining undeveloped land and lots that have not yet been sold to a builder.

12 Oaks has been one of the better performing subdivisions in the Triangle, with more than 100 homes sold last year. During the first quarter of this year, there were 21 homes sold in 12 Oaks, ranking it third among all subdivisions in Durham, Johnston, Orange and Wake counties, according to Triangle Multiple Listing Services data.

Mason said as of Sunday there had been 58 homes sold in 12 Oaks this year.

Those numbers are particularly impressive when you consider that the number of new homes on the market has dropped precipitously in recent years, in large part because new homes have had a hard time competing with existing inventory that has been severely discounted. There were just 1,603 new homes on the market in the Triangle at the end of the end of March, MLS data show. That was down 27 percent from the same period a year ago and off 40 percent from two years ago.

Many new home communities in Holly Springs and Apex are benefiting from the pending completion of the new Interstate 540 extension in western Wake County.

The 18.8-mile toll road, the state’s first, is expected to be completed by the end of the year. The first section, a 3.7-mile stretch called the Triangle Parkway, opened in December.

Once finished, the road will connect Holly Springs to the region’s biggest jobs center, Research Triangle Park, giving homebuilders along the extension a more attractive sales pitch to buyers.

The number of single-family building permits issued in Holly Springs increased 98 percent in the first quarter compared to same period last year, according to data compiled by the Home Builders Association of Raleigh-Wake County. Apex permits jumped 42 percent.

Full story can be found at: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/05/12/2058905/chicago-private-equity-firm-buys.html