Leading California Homebuilder Wathen Castanos Homes Acquired by Trumark Homes

Published a year ago via Business Wire

Wathen Castanos Homes, a leading award-winning California homebuilder, announced the acquisition of its homebuilding business by Trumark Homes, a subsidiary of Daiwa House USA Inc.

Originally founded in 1983 and currently led by President, CEO, and partial owner Josh Peterson since 2014, Wathen Castanos Homes is a leading private homebuilder in California's Central Valley and Central Coast with a long-established legacy of homebuilding success. Currently building in San Luis Obispo, Monterey Bay, Clovis, Fresno, and Madera, Wathen Castanos Homes is known for its award-winning design and energy efficiency.

"We are very excited and honored to join the Trumark Homes family," said Peterson. "This transaction represents the culmination of an extensive process run by Tony McGill and his team at Zelman & Associates to analyze our strategic alternatives and find the best long-term partner for all of our stakeholders, especially our employees, land partners, and subcontractor partners. Over the decades that we have been in the homebuilding industry, we have always been guided by a foundation of quality and values, a tradition of craftsmanship, and dedication to high-quality customer care. Trumark Homes shares these same guiding principles as well as the resources to accelerate our growth, which makes them the perfect match for us."

Trumark Homes launched a new homebuilding division in Colorado in 2021, capitalizing on the robust housing market there. That move marked the company's first foray outside of California, signaling its ambition to become a dominant player in the western U.S. homebuilding landscape. The acquisition of Wathen Castanos Homes is the next step toward that vision as the company eyes additional growth opportunities in the Western United States to take advantage of the vast resources of Trumark's parent company, Daiwa House.

"Our acquisition of Wathen Castanos Homes is a unique opportunity to fulfill several of our strategic goals," said Gregg Nelson, co-founder and Co-Chief Executive Officer of Trumark Companies. "First and foremost, our companies share a similar culture as well as a commitment to building quality homes and providing an unparalleled homebuyer experience."

Added Michael Maples, co-founder and Co-Chief Executive Officer of Trumark Companies, "With today's announcement, our homebuilding portfolio is now contiguous from Northern California to Southern California. This is another important step forward in our vision of becoming the dominant regional homebuilder in the West, as this acquisition will allow us to exceed $1B in revenue in 2024."

Nelson, Maples, and Peterson emphasized the quality of employees and dedication both Trumark and Wathen Castanos have to their highly skilled teams as integral to the value of joining the two companies.

Zelman & Associates, a subsidiary of Walker & Dunlop, served as the exclusive sell-side investment banker to Wathen Castanos Homes.

Founded in 2007 by Ivy Zelman and Dennis McGill, Zelman & Associates is the leading institutional research advisory and investment banking firm dedicated exclusively to the U.S. housing industry. Zelman provides distinguished institutional research and investment banking capabilities with the highest levels of client service, trust, sophistication, and credibility unique to the housing, institutional research and investment banking industries. This transaction continues Zelman's position as the #1-ranked M&A advisor for residential builders and developers since 2015.

All securities offered through Zelman Partners LLC, a registered broker dealer and member of FINRA and SIPC.

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