Lennar buys 22 acres at Lake Las Vegas for housing tract

Lennar Corp. has bought a stretch of land at Lake Las Vegas, as another housing tract starts taking shape in the Henderson community.

Miami-based Lennar, one of the biggest homebuilders in the country, purchased 22 acres from hedge-fund billionaire John Paulson’s group.

The $10.8 million sale closed Aug. 31, property records show.

Lennar bought land adjacent to the Reflection Bay golf course as well as part of the course’s practice area. The builder acquired 90 single-family lots, said Cody Winterton, executive vice president of Raintree Investment Corp., which is leading development efforts at Lake Las Vegas for Paulson.

Winterton said he believes Lennar is looking to open model homes early next year.

Lennar spokesman Marshall Ames declined to comment.

Its project would follow other new housing tracts at Lake Las Vegas by Century Communities, William Lyon Homes, Pulte Homes and CalAtlantic Homes.

Those builders acquired roughly half of the former Falls golf course near Lake Las Vegas’ main entrance off Lake Mead Parkway, according to Winterton. The rest of the course was turned into open space.

Spanning 3,600 acres, Lake Las Vegas boasts mansions, luxury hotels, golfing, retail and a 320-acre man-made lake. After the real estate bubble burst last decade, it was one of the hardest-hit projects in one of the hardest-hit regions of the country.

Developers lost the faux-Mediterranean community to foreclosure, and new owners later pushed it into bankruptcy. Tourism dried up, home foreclosures soared, and golf courses closed and turned brown.

Paulson, founder of New York-based Paulson & Co., acquired about 1,000 acres at Lake Las Vegas after the market crashed.

Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342. Follow @eli_segall on Twitter.