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Corvus International LLC is returning to its commercial roots with a partner known for food and another who runs an executive airplane business.
Having completed several large condo projects such as the Bel Mare in Riviera Dunes and Positano on the Gulf on Longboat Key, Corvus International is looking to return to commercial development. Before moving to Florida, it developed manufacturing buildings for Michigan's auto industry.
Corvus is partnering in a new joint venture, called MVP Corvus Development Partners LLC, with Bob Basham, a founder of the restaurant chain OSI Restaurant Partners LLC and owner of Lee Roy Selmon's; and Nick Reader, president of Walkabout Air Inc. According to Tim Vining, a principal with Corvus International, the partnership is focused on developing commercial real estate in Florida primarily relating to green initiatives, such as recycling, green energy or biofuels.
The joint venture has already found its first project: a 208-acre parcel in the heart of The Mosiac Co.'s phosphate mines, which it purchased recently for $8.13 million to develop a fully lined class-III landfill with a small recycling operation.
The new joint venture also doesn't have to worry about finding a buyer. Waste Management has already signed a joint development contract with the group to help it develop the landfill and buy it from the partnership as it gets underway. MVP Corvus Development Partners is mainly responsible for taking the risk to buy the land and get it through the lengthy comp plan amendment, rezone and permitting processes.
“We just feel like it's a good time to be acquiring land and doing large-scale non-residential projects,” says Tim Vining, a principal with Corvus International. “We're planning to aggressively acquire land in Florida.”
As for their next project, Vining was mum, although he did expect another deal to come up in the next 30 days. He also said that Tim Morris, another principal of Corvus International, is in India for the next few weeks looking at the use of Jatropha plant seeds to create biodiesel with an eye towards bring the shrub and related process plants to Florida.
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