Meritage Homes Corporation, a leading U.S. homebuilder, announced that the company has created a new South Region to be based in Atlanta. Initially, the region will include Meritage’s recently acquired operations in Nashville, Tennessee, and the Atlanta and Greenville-Spartanburg markets to be added with the acquisition of Legendary Communities that was announced earlier this week. This will be the fourth operating region for Meritage Homes, in addition to the existing West, Central and East regions.

James (Jay) Thrower has been hired to lead the new region as South Region President. Jay has more than 25 years of experience in the real estate and homebuilding industry, including 17 years of senior management positions with two other national homebuilders, where he was responsible for operations in Georgia and North and South Carolina.

“We are excited to have Jay join us to lead and grow our new South Region,” said Steven J. Hilton, chairman and CEO of Meritage Homes. “Jay brings a wealth of experience in this region and an impressive record of accomplishments in such areas as land acquisition and development, product design and development, sales, construction, finance, purchasing, estimating, marketing, operations, and management. He will be a valuable addition to our organization and help us continue to expand and diversify our geographic footprint.”

“Meritage is truly a leader in the homebuilding industry, and I am honored to be joining a quality organization with an opportunity to establish and grow a new region that we expect will contribute meaningfully to Meritage’s revenue and earnings growth within the next several years,” said Mr. Thrower.