North American Title County Headquarters Opens on Hopyard

By Hacienda Network Staff Writer

North American Title Co. has opened a new, 14,500 facility at 4255 Hopyard Road in the Britannia VI development. The new building consolidates three separate offices which performed title searches and other research for properties in Alameda, Contra Costa, and Santa Clara counties.

"This is kind of a trial," says Amy Jolley, North American Title sales manager. "We've always had a main office for Alameda County. When we moved to Pleasanton we incorporated three title plants, where they do the meat and potatoes of the research for the title insurance report."

North American Title's Pleasanton branch office, which is also in Hacienda, will remain as a separate office.

"The branch offices handle escrow," says Jolley. "The office on Stoneridge Drive will remain open; in fact, they're thrilled now because their title plant is just down the street."

Bright New Building

The new facility is approximately 14,500 feet, and currently houses about 75 employees.

"We love the new building and Hacienda," says Jolley. "It's a nice professional park, and we like having the shopping and restaurants nearby. That's something that we didn't have at our old building in Hayward."

The building also houses separate departments for foreclosure and subdivisions.

New Services Coming

North American Title currently offers title and escrow services on real estate in California, Colorado, and Arizona. It operates more than 80 branches and currently generates approximately $85 million in annual revenues.

The recently announced purchase of North American by Lennar Corporation, one of the largest real estate development firms in the nation, is expected to enable the introduction of new services.

"We're becoming partners with a company that has other services to offer, not by another title company," says Jolley. "Lennar wants to keep things the way they are. Lennar has asked management to stay and contracts have been signed in that respect."

North American Title will become a part of Lennar's Financial Services Division, which includes coast-to-coast mortgage banking operations and title insurance activities.

"This transaction reaffirms our commitment to growing the financial services arm of our company and complements Lennar's recent homebuilding expansion in California and Arizona," says Stuart Miller, Lennar's president and CEO.

The transaction is expected to close January 4, 1998.

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