A changed landscape

When Starwood Land Ventures and Vanguard Land Co. formed in the wreckage of the last decade's housing boom, each focused almost exclusively on buying distressed land at rock-bottom prices to sell to homebuilders at a profit.

But nearly a decade and one Florida housing recovery later, both companies have had to shift focus and are increasingly developing sites and communities themselves — sometimes in partnership with the very builders from whom they once sought to generate profit.

Much of the switch has stemmed from the builders, who, since 2011, have leveraged access to public capital markets to bank land for future use.