Carlton W. Fleming, president of Opus Communities Inc., saysseven months of negotiations produced the LOI to kick off an audit,which will be completed in 60 days. Meanwhile, Fleming says he'sexpecting to close on the Tower Group, a developer of single- andmultifamily projects as well as office and retail product, andpossibly two other companies with histories as a production builderand custom developer before the end of the year. For previousstory, click here. "There's still a lot in the business plan to unfold inthree to six months," he says of a plan to build a full-servicereal 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 theprojects 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 isgoing to work just fine for us. It's hopeful in the next 60 daysthat we will move forward."

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