Landsea Homes finalized its previously announced acquisition of Antares Homes, a builder based in Dallas-Fort Worth, significantly expanding its presence in Texas. With the closing of the $242.5 million merger, Landsea is taking a further step to become “one of Texas’ top home builders,” a stated goal for the company since relocating its headquarters to Dallas in 2023.
“Since moving our headquarters to Dallas, Landsea Homes has been looking for opportunities to scale in Texas and become a top 10 home builder in that market,” Landsea president and chief operating officer Mike Forsum tells BUILDER. “Antares Homes shares our philosophy of building quality homes and providing exceptional customer service, which makes them a great fit for Landsea Homes.”
Landsea Homes, the 35th largest company on the 2023 Builder 100 list, first entered the Texas market in 2021 through its acquisition of Vintage Estate Homes, a builder with communities in the Austin and San Antonio markets. After two years of steady organic growth, Landsea Homes signaled the importance of the Texas market to the company by relocating its corporate headquarters to Dallas from Newport Beach, California.
Following the relocation, Landsea ramped up its operations in Texas, purchasing finished lots in Liberty Hill and closing on homesites for development in the Austin market in the latter months of 2023.
“One of our main strategies is to grow in the right markets across the country. Texas is one of those markets, and it is a key one for us,” Forsum says. “The availability of land and demand for housing in Texas, and more specifically in the Dallas area, is robust. These will certainly be key drivers of growth for us over the next five to 10 years.”
The acquisition of Antares Homes accelerates Landsea’s growth in Texas: Antares is building homes in 19 communities at 13 locations throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area, including Fort Worth, Burleson, Crowley, Forney, Granbury, and Midlothian. The transaction also adds 2,254 owned or controlled lots to the Landsea Homes portfolio. In addition to aligning geographically with Landsea’s growth plans, Antares Homes’ focus in energy-efficient construction aligns with Landsea’s High Performance Home offerings.
“We’ve already established a strong presence in the Austin area, where our first High Performance Homes have just recently come onto the market,” Forsum says. “We’re confident we’ll be able to do that in Dallas as well, appealing to first-time home buyers with our quality homes and attainable price points.”
In accordance with the acquisition of Antares Homes, Landsea Homes named Melissa Kelly president of the builder’s new Dallas-Fort Worth division and announced Rollie Gonzalez will serve as the vice president of finance–controller and also work out of the Dallas-Fort Worth office.
“We will continue to explore potential mergers and acquisitions here in Texas,” Forsum says. “We’re able to immediately gain scale in markets via acquisitions like [the Antares Homes merger] and then grow our presence in the market using our expertise and access to capital.”
