Phil Weber has left his post as head of Fannie Mae’s multifamily division to become an executive vice president at Austin, Texas-based Forestar Group.
Weber had been at Fannie Mae since 1990, serving in a variety of roles beore being named senior vice president of multifamily in 2006. Michele Evans and Heidi McKibben will serve as interim heads of Fannie Mae’s multifamily division.
“We wish Phil all the best in his new endeavor,” said Ken Bacon, Fannie Mae’s executive vice president of housing and community development, in a statement.
That new endeavor will be to help grow Forestar Group by identifying and developing business opportunities and capitalizing on the company’s existing multifamily projects and assets.
Forestar is a residential development group that owns about 260,000 acres of land, more than three-quarters of which is located in and around Atlanta. The remainder is located in major Texas markets. The company has more than 100 projects in its portfolio, half of which are in Texas, that are mostly residential and mixed-use communities. The publicly traded company, which has about 90 employees, was spun out of Temple-Inland at the end of 2007.
Weber was not available for comment, but Forestar’s CFO Chris Nines called the hiring a strategic move to build out the company’s multifamily portfolio. “He’s going to leverage the existing assets that we have, as well as opportunities in the markets where we operate where we don’t own land,” Nines says. “That could be development or investment.”
While Forestar owns many mixed-use communities, the company owns just one pure multifamily project, the 414-unit Las Brisas luxury development in Austin. “We’ve had a lot of residential and commercial experience, and being able to roll multifamily into the existing portfolio makes a lot of sense,” Nines says. “We’re excited to have Phil on board.”