Japanese homebuilding and development company, North America Sekisui House (NASH), recently purchased land in Texas and Colorado from Wheelock Street Capital for $1 billion dollars. NASH is a subsidiary of Sekisui House Ltd., which is the largest homebuilder in Japan.
In Texas, NASH bought the Sweetwater community in Austin and the Canyon Falls development. Located about an hour north of Dallas, Canyon Falls is set to include about 1,289 homes and 106 acres of commercially-zoned land. In Colorado, NASH purchased 1,900 acres in two communities, Anthem Colorado in Broomfield and Inspiration Colorado in northern Douglas County. In addition, NASH is developing an apartment and retail complex in Denver near Belleview Station with Holland Partner Group.
NASH has wisely invested in states where the housing market is making a robust recovery. In Denver, home values had the biggest annual jump in January 2015 and Dallas was not far behind in third place. According to Zillow, Colorado home values have grown 10.7% over the past year while Texas home values have grown 7.1%. Both states’ housing markets are predicted to increase by about 5% in 2015.
Newland Communities, the largest private developer of residential and urban-mixed communities in the US, will manage the development of the four holdings in Colorado and Texas from its Houston branch. The total acreage of the holdings consists of 3,400 acres, and the master plan outlines 4,600 single-family home lots and 125 acres of commercially-zoned property. This is not the first NASH-Newland partnership. The two development companies have been working together since 2010, when NASH first bought 492 acres of land in Houston to build 1,200 homes with Newland.
The US is the largest destination for Japanese investment and receives about 30% of all Japanese outbound foreign investment. Though they are hardly the only states to see significant Japanese investment, both Texas and Colorado have won lucrative deals in recent months. In December 2014, Panasonic Enterprise Solutions, the North American branch of the Japanese corporation, announced it would build a technology center and business solutions hub in Denver. In January 2015, Daikin Industries, a Japanese air-conditioning company, announced plans to build a new factory in Houston, Texas. The new factory will cost about $410 million and is set to operate by early 2016.
Melissa Newcomb is a Project Assistant at the East-West Center in Washington, D.C.