A month after buying 8,300 home sites from Lennar Corp., Tampa's land-hungry Metro Development Group has closed on another 1,000 lots, this time from M/I Homes.

Metro and M/I have been joint venture partners in the Cypress Creek neighborhood near Sun City Center in southeastern Hillsborough County. Without disclosing a purchase price, Metro announced Friday it was buying out its partner's share of the land.

"They came to us and said, 'We'd love to get rid of this asset and you're the natural buyer,"' Metro vice president Rob Ahrens said Friday.

M/I hasn't posted the spectacular losses of builders like Lennar, but the Ohio company said Florida accounted for $22-million of its $35-million loss in the third quarter ending Sept. 30.

Formed in 2003 by Canadian developer John Ryan, Metro has been scooping up lots on the cheap from builders hemorrhaging money in Florida's slumping housing market. A New York private equity firm supplies financing for the Metro deals.

Metro has about 30,000 lots in Florida it will sell to builders when the housing market recovers, which Ryan estimates will happen in 2010.

Only 100 homes have been completed at Cypress Creek, a 562-acre development off Interstate 75 approved for 1,400 single-family homes and 825 town homes.

Metro's biggest single purchase to date was the Lennar acquisition. About 3,900 of the 8,300 lots were at Pasco County's Epperson Ranch. Another 530 home sites were at Waterleaf in Riverview.