As of yet, however, they have not made an entrance into the Atlanta market, as their move came at the outset of the economic downturn.
The Atlanta situation exemplifies a shift in Lennar's approach. For much of the past, the company had relied heavily on joint ventures as a means to enter new markets, in part to mitigate the risks and in part to reduce the cost of entering the new markets. However, the financial crisis has left some of their partners unable or unwilling to meet obligations. As a result, Lennar was forced to writedown many of these ventures, and shifted their focus towards a more secular growth model (2008 Lennar Corporation Annual Report).
The Lennar Corporation operates is 57 markets around the country (Lennar.com, 2009). They have used a number of different market entry strategies to fuel this growth. In recent years, the company has relied on both acquisitions and joint ventures. The latter played a prominent role in the past decade, as the firm used JVs to reduce their risk and increase the amount of expansion they could undertake. However, having experienced substantial writedowns as a result of the economic downturn and the failure of partners to live up to their obligations,...
Retrieved March 19, 2009 at http://moneycentral.msn.com/companyreport?Symbol=LEN
Lennar Corp. 2008 Annual Report. Retrieved March 19, 2009 at http://www.lennar.com/Annual%20Report/Lennar_Corporation-AR_2008_ClientDL/HTML2/lennar-ar2008_0002.htm
Nilsen, Kim. (2001). Lennar Corp buys Sunstar Homes from Fortress Group. Triangle Business Journal. Retrieved March 19, 2009 at http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/stories/2001/12/17/daily50.html
Saunders, Jessica. (2007). SunCal wins Alameda Point bid after Catellus-Lennar deal stalls. Easy Bay Business Times. Retrieved March 19, 2009 at http://www.bizjournals.com/eastbay/stories/2007/05/07/daily21.html
Schoolcraft, Lisa R. (2007). Lennar looks to Atlanta for building opportunity. South Florida Business Journal. Retrieved March 19, 2009 at http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/stories/2007/04/23/focus6.html
Lennar Corporation website. Retrieved March 19, 2009 at http://www.lennar.com/about/history.aspx
