Lafayette Real Estate, a vertically integrated investment manager focused on single-family rental (SFR) and build-to-rent (BTR) housing, announced today that Marquis Homes - its internal homebuilding company - has broken ground and begun vertical construction on two new BTR communities in Florida: The Preserve at Crystal Springs in Jacksonville and Hawthorne Hollows in Venice.

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The Preserve at Crystal Springs is a 64-unit BTR community located just 15 minutes west of downtown Jacksonville. The community will offer a variety of three- and four-bedroom townhomes strategically situated near major logistics hubs, including Alliance Florida and Westlake Industrial Park, and is supported by significant employers such as Amazon, Baptist Health and Bank of America. The homes are being built with sustainability in mind, incorporating Energy Star-rated appliances, LED lighting, low-VOC paint, recycled flooring materials, and water-saving fixtures.

Hawthorne Hollows features 50 three- and four-bedroom townhomes located 15 minutes from Florida’s most celebrated beaches and 30 minutes from Sarasota. Major employers near Hawthorne Hollows include PGT Innovations (1k employees) and the new Sarasota Memorial Hospital Venice (200+ beds). Situated in a rapidly growing submarket expected to continue its expansion over the next five years, the community will provide residents with a well-located, newly built and high-quality housing option. Final home delivery is anticipated by the end of 2026.

The projects reflect Lafayette’s continued commitment to delivering high quality residential communities through its vertically integrated platform. Both developments are being built by Marquis Homes, which enables efficiency, quality control, and consistency across its build-to-rent portfolio. Upon completion, both communities will be managed by Brandywine Homes USA, Lafayette’s in-house property management platform, which already manages over 4,500 homes including nearly 1,700 in Florida.

"We are deeply committed to providing households with more high-quality rental housing options and taking action to create new housing supply,” said Thibault Adrien, Founder and CEO of Lafayette Real Estate. “While some submarkets are currently experiencing softness due to high deliveries from projects initiated a few years ago in the lower interest rate environment, key indicators, such as starts and permits, point to an upcoming slowdown in deliveries, which reinforces our confidence in the ~1,200 homes we’re already committed to building over the next three years.”

“Our goal with Marquis is to bring the rigor of a national homebuilder to the BTR space, while aligning incentives with long-term investors like Lafayette,” said Jason Besse, President of Marquis Homes. “Our teams on the ground work closely with local officials, engineers, and subcontractors to manage every stage of the process, from land entitlement to vertical delivery.”

These latest projects from Lafayette represent another significant milestone in the firm’s BTR program. In 2025, Lafayette began horizontal development on more than 300 lots. Approximately 1,200 additional lots are under contract to be entitled and developed over the next few years across metropolitan areas, including Charlotte, NC; Nashville, TN; and Dallas, TX.

About Lafayette Real Estate

Lafayette was founded in 2011 and has been one of the leaders in the single-family rental (SFR) and Build-to-Rent (BTR) space ever since. In 2023, industry peers voted Lafayette as the Best SFR Company in the US as well as CEO of the Year for Thibault Adrien, at the annual IMN Awards. Lafayette’s operations are vertically integrated, including asset management, property management (Brandywine Homes USA) and development & construction (Marquis Homes). Today, Lafayette has $1.3bn in AUM, consisting of a portfolio of approximately 5,000 units, mainly in the US Sunbelt

For more information, visit lafayette-re.com.

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