For months, real estate broker Robyn Robinson has been searching on behalf of a client for a new home near Monarch Beach that would fit the family’s budget.
Other than a few custom home sites, which generally started at more than $1 million just for lots, the agent for Mission Viejo-based Regency Real Estate Brokers wasn’t having much luck.
But last month, a new phase of the Ritz Pointe development opened that fit her customer’s bill.
So along with 28 others who have already claimed the 65 homes priced from mid-$800,000 and up, Robinson’s clients are making plans to purchase new homes at Ritz Pointe.
The new development by Capital Pacific Homes, a unit of Capital Holdings Inc., she says, couldn’t have come at a better time.
“In that area, there is just no selection,” said Robinson. “They have opened a prime strip of land within walking distance to the beach.”
For the Newport Beach-based development firm, Ritz Pointe in Dana Point is just one of three high-end residential projects currently under way.
But publicly traded CPH is also moving on other fronts in vastly different price catagories. It has opened a new Inland Empire unit to develop homes in the mid-$200,000 range. In Nevada, Texas and Arizona, the company is developing houses from $80,000 and up.
And it is expanding into Colorado with plans to begin six projects in different suburban markets this year.
“We change our direction based on the economy and the market,” said Hadi Makarechian, chairman and CEO of CPH. “We constantly revisit our business plan.”
One of the most high-profile of those twists is taking place in Rancho Palos Verdes.
There the company is developing Oceanfront Estates, which will include 79 homes priced at $2 million to $4 million each.
“It’s the single most expensive project by a public homebuilder in the country,” said Marc Cummings, president of CPH’s coastal division.
With an initial four homes scheduled to be completed in the coming weeks, Oceanfront is slated to total 16 homes in the project’s first phase.
Models will open in mid-February. Already, CPH has one buyer under contract and several others reportedly close to signing.
“This is a little bit different program than anybody else has done in Southern California,” said Cummings. “We have seven different floor plans. A buyer can then completely pick their own interior and customize their homes to whatever style they want.”
Oceanfront floor plans range from 4,041 square feet to 7,998 square feet and from five to seven bedrooms.
“Everyone else will finish a house and let you select flooring, counter tops and cabinets,and that’s about it,” said Cummings. “We’re not going to finish a house before we have a buyer.”
Even at such lofty prices, brokers active in Rancho Palos Verdes believe the project will sell well.
“We have a large stock of older homes in the area, but not a lot of new homes,” said Phyllis Reed, fine-homes director for Prudential California Realty in nearby Rolling Hills Estates. “We have buyers coming out from the West LA area, and we don’t have enough new property for them to look at. This is a project that’s needed in this area.”
Reed does see some risks, though, for CPH.
“It’s right on the ocean, but it might be too far for people away from the Peninsula to move to,” she said.
But CPH’s Makarechian is confident that the project’s semi-customized interiors and wide range of floor plans will create a product different enough to attract buyers from afar.
“The attraction is the Pacific Ocean,” he said. “When you create an environment where everything is brand new and well-designed, it will bring people to the coast. We’re hoping to draw from everywhere, including people coming from the East Coast and Europe,not just the surrounding areas.”
Prudential’s Reed sees another possible market for CPH in Rancho Palos Verdes.
“We have a lot of older homes worth $1 million to $1.6 million in the area,” she said. “CPH will get buyers from other places, but to me the prime purchasers are people who have lived nearby for 10 to 15 years and have some equity built up.”
CPH is also betting on continued good economic fortune at its Montecito development, which will include a total of 97 homes ranging from $1.4 million to $1.9 million. The project is near Newport Coast Drive and Pelican Hill North along the Newport Coast area.
As with its other plans, CPH is using ocean views designed on top of a ridge overlooking Fashion Island.
The first phase of the project is scheduled to start delivering a total of 20 homes later this month. Already, 11 of those houses have been sold.
“We do face competition with several other projects in the Newport Coast area,” said Cummings. “And Crystal Cove is getting close to coming on line.”
But CPH believes demand will remain strong in Orange County for new homes and plans to start a second phase of Montecito in February with construction of 12 more units.
“We will build in smaller phases after the second phase,” said Cummings.
But with projects going on around the West Coast and in Colorado now, he added, “we have a good range in terms of geographic diversity.”
“If a market in another part of the country drops off,” said Cummings, “we’ll be active in several other areas with a range of different types of projects.” n
