Empire Communities' Eau Du Soleil rises from the ground on the Humber Bay Shores (Photo courtesy of Empire Communities)
A Canadian company based in the GTA has made a big American deal.
Empire Communities has acquired Texas builder Centerra Homes, expanding its U.S. presence to include Austin and San Antonio.
While Empire Communities has built more than 12,000 new homes and condominiums over the past 25 years in the Greater Toronto Area and Houston markets, it's preparing to expand far beyond with this acquisition.
"We are extremely excited to be entering the Austin and San Antonio markets with the recent acquisition of Centerra Homes," says Brent Forrest, vice-president of finance and acquisitions at Empire Communities.
"Since the inception of our Texas homebuilding division in 2012, we have been looking to slowly grow our portfolio of communities within the various Texas sub-markets. With the addition of the 11 Austin and three San Antonio communities, we are in a solid position of growth and look forward to continuing our tradition of delivering well-priced quality built homes."
Forrest also says Empire will continue to leverage learnings from both markets to facilitate continued growth and enhance the company's ability to further improve its customers' home-buying experience.
In 2016, the Canadian-based developer launched its U.S. Homebuilding Division in Houston. Empire recently announced its sixth Houston-area community and will start construction soon in two Austin-area developments, Santa Rita Ranch in Liberty Hill and Lakeside in Georgetown.
The builder’s pricing ranges from the low $200,000s to around $600,000, with sizes up to 4,800 square feet.
Initially founded by Tom Grant and Gene Rowehl in Austin Texas, Centerra Homes has a long-standing history of building quality homes over the last 10 years.
Plans are to transition all 14 communities to the Empire brand later this year.
Empire plans to retain Centerra’s existing management structure with its 30-plus employees. Tom Grant and Gene Rowehl will continue to oversee the Austin and San Antonio markets.
