While Miller says Lennar was founded to providehousing for moderate income families, the companyhas been moving to diversify its activities forseveral years. It has added investment andfinancial divisions, both of which are highlysuccessful.
"Housing is still our main focus," Miller saidyesterday. "The diversification is to smooth outcycles in the housing industry.
The two businesses we've moved into work on atiming that is different than homebuilding."
Lennar builds houses in Florida, Arizona and,recently, Texas, but the company's investment andfinancial divisions operate nationwide.
Partnering with prestigious New York brokeragehouses, Lennar has invested millions of dollars inexpanded portfolios whose assets range fromcommercial real estate to bad mortgages fromfailed savings and loan institutions.
In fact, in the early 1990s, Lennar was thelargest buyer of Florida real estate from theResolution Trust Corporation, the federal agencyestablished to liquidate insolvent S&Ls.
Buying from the RTC has allowed Lennar to pickup assets at bargain-basement prices.
Along with the investment firm Morgan Stanley,which raised an $800 million "vulture" realtyfund, Lennar acquired the assets of Ameri-FirstBank, appraised at $900 million, for about halftheir actual value.
A partnership with Westinghouse Electric Corp.and Lehman Brothers put Lennar in control of $3billion worth of assets for about half of theirvalue, as well.
These, as well as other investments, haveenabled Lennar to profit while other firms havesuffered, and have earned Miller admiration fromindustry onlookers.
Kenneth Campbell, who tracks the real estateindustry for Audit Investments in New Jersey, toldThe Miami Herald: "I'll bet some of the others inthe business will be looking around, saying,"What's he know that we don't?"
For Miller, there is no contradiction betweenhis image as a housing-oriented candidate and theactual diversity of his business interests.
"I certainly feel that [investment] experiencewould be a help as an Overseer," he said