HIC Land names Victor Padilla co-CEO as it shifts to master-planned communities

HIC Land has named Victor Padilla co-CEO alongside founder Stefan Hoyer, the South Carolina firm said in a press release shared with Multifamily Dive. The appointment accompanies a shift from smaller residential subdivisions to larger master-planned communities, which the release says positions the company "for its next phase of growth" as it expands across the Southeast.

Padilla was most recently director of operations and was Hoyer's first hire, with more than a decade at the firm, according to the release. His remit has widened into acquisitions, dispositions, financing, personnel management and strategic growth, and he already oversees much of the day-to-day business. Before HIC Land he was an audit senior at Deloitte. Hoyer, who founded the firm in 2008, stays on as co-CEO and continues working with homebuilders, landowners and investors.

HIC Land operates in eight states with more than $300 million in total investments and more than 48,000 lots under development, owned or under its control, per the release. It owns or controls parcels representing more than 7,500 multifamily units and over 700 acres of commercial property it intends to develop as part of the future strategy.

The core business is unchanged in kind — buying entitled and permitted land, installing infrastructure and selling it to homebuilders, with a Southeast focus. Padilla told Multifamily Dive the firm will keep working with builder partners on smaller projects while developing commercial and multifamily components inside its larger communities, "which allows us to take a more comprehensive approach to planning and shaping how each community comes together."

Larger master-planned projects require "significantly more time, capital and resources" to deliver, Padilla said. That suggests the multifamily and commercial parcels will carry more of HIC Land's capital through the development period rather than turning at a lot closing, and it makes the co-CEO's financing and disposition experience as relevant as the land-sourcing side. The shift also pushes the firm toward municipal infrastructure and amenities spending, which Padilla described as part of integrating housing with shops and recreation.