TimberStar Southwest, a joint venture owned by commercial real estate financial firm iStar Financial and a group of equity investors, has been sold to Boston-based Hancock Timber Resource Group, a global timberland investment group.

Hancock will pay $1.71 billion for the assets, including assumption of some debt. In October 2006, TimberStar Southwest purchased the acreage and lumber properties from International Paper for $1.19 billion.

The deal includes approximately 900,000 acres of forestland with facilities in Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas.

"We are very pleased to reach an agreement with TimberStar on the acquisition of these excellent and highly productive timberlands,” said Dan Christensen, president of Hancock.

Hancock Timber manages approximately 3.7 million acres of timberland in the Pacific Northwest, southeastern United States, Brazil, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.