Emaar, the real estate giant from Dubai, is replacing veteran local builder Larry Webb as CEO at John Laing Homes in Newport Beach. Webb and an investor group made a well-timed sale of Laing to Emaar near the home market’s peak in mid-2006. A company statement says ….

Symbolizing John Laing Homes’ ongoing commitment to growth in the United States, Robert Booth will assume the position of Chief Executive Officer of John Laing Homes effective May 21st. Larry Webb, who has served as CEO of John Laing Homes since 1995, will remain with the company to help with the leadership transition through late May.
“Larry’s leadership and passion have helped make John Laing Homes an industry leader and laid the foundation for future growth,” said Robert Booth, who is also Managing Director of Emaar Canada. “We’re grateful for all of Larry’s contributions, and excited to pursue new opportunities for growth.” The transition to new leadership will take the partnership between John Laing Homes and Dubai-based Emaar Properties to a new level as John Laing Homes continues its transition from a regional homebuilder to a national homebuilder.

Last November. I had a chat with Webb that was the basis for a Register column …

If timing is everything, Larry Webb and his crew at John Laing Homes might be the smartest guys on the block. A year and a half ago – “the good old days” in real estate life – Laing from Newport Beach was sold to Emaar, a real estate giant from Dubai for a billion bucks.
You think that such generous pricing for a builder in tough markets like California and Colorado would be available today when U.S. homebuilder stocks, as a comparison, have been roughly sliced in half since that sale?
So I needed to know: What did Webb and the investor group that owned Laing know? Did they somehow foresee the oncoming exit of loan money and homebuyers? “I had no idea that the market would do what it did,” he says.

To read more of the column, CLICK HERE; or to see a snippet of Laing’s financial challenges, CLICK HERE.

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