GlobeSt.com UPDATE: Firm Steps Up Buying Plan

Carlton W. Fleming, president of Opus Communities Inc., says seven months of negotiations produced the LOI to kick off an audit, which will be completed in 60 days. Meanwhile, Fleming says he's expecting to close on the Tower Group, a developer of single- and multifamily projects as well as office and retail product, and possibly two other companies with histories as a production builder and custom developer before the end of the year. For previous story, click here. "There's still a lot in the business plan to unfold in three to six months," he says of a plan to build a full-service real estate corporation with a $100-million foundation.

Roque Saco-Vertiz, Tower Group's president, tells GlobeSt.com "we're always doing joint ventures and always looking for capital. Opus (Communities) has come up with an opportunity for us to do the projects that we'd like to do." The LOI is the next step in "getting to know each other," he says. "We both feel like this is going to work just fine for us. It's hopeful in the next 60 days that we will move forward."

Fleming says he is structuring a takedown to make the locally based Tower Group a wholly owned subsidiary of Opus Communities, now using Richardson as the headquarters location. The Tower Group has developed more than $2 billion via multiple partnerships responsible for projects like the Dallas Cowboys Headquarters, Mary Kay Headquarters, Club Corp. Building, Eldorado Town Center, Valley Ranch, Lone Tree, King's Gate, Oakwood Estates, Oakdale and King's Lake, all in Texas, plus built award-winning communities in Denver, Atlanta, Washington, DC and Toronto.