Homebuilder Centex Corp. is looking to get out of a partnership that’s developing the largest part of Tustin’s former Marine base, according to city officials.
Centex is in discussions to withdraw from Tustin Legacy Community Partners LLC, the partnership that’s building Legacy Park, a roughly 820-acre masterplanned development. It’s the biggest project at the 1,500-acre former Marine base currently under construction.
The departure of Dallas-based Centex would make the partnership an all-local affair. Two units of Walnut-based J.F. Shea Co. as well as the city of Tustin are the other partners.
Legacy Park calls for 2,100 homes and 6.7 million square feet of offices, restaurants, shops and hotels in the next six to eight years. The project broke ground late last year.
The entire former Marine base is set to see about 4,500 homes when completed. The local office of Miami’s Lennar Corp., Newport Beach’s William Lyon Homes Inc. and John Laing Homes are building an additional 2,500 or so homes elsewhere at the site.
Centex has a 50% stake, in the Tustin Legacy partnership. Aliso Viejo-based Shea Properties has a 25% stake, with Walnut’s Shea Homes owning the other 25%.
No new owners are expected to be brought into the partnership, and no slowdown in development is expected to result from the change, according to Christine Shingleton, Tustin’s assistant city manager.
The Shea divisions would instead double their investments in one of the biggest remaining development projects in OC.
For more on this story, see the April 30 issue of the Business Journal.
