Bidding closed Wednesday on two parcels of the former El Toro Marine base, with the Navy getting its minimum asking price of $185 million.
The auction is set to continue tomorrow on the remaining two parcels of the base up for bid.
The local arm of Miami-based Lennar Corp. submitted the only bids for two parcels, which total 1,104 acres. They’re at the northwest and southeast corners of the base.
Under auction rules, bidding officially has closed on those parcels since no other bid was received.
“We would have liked to have seen (the auction) gone on for several days,” said David Haase, realty officer for U.S. General Services Administration, which is handling the sale on behalf of the Navy. He cited the bidding frenzy when the former Tustin Marine base was sold a few years ago.
The El Toro online auction, first announced in 2003, has faced delays and issues over environmental cleanup. Irvine is set to charge winning bidders another $400 million in development fees.
The base’s other two parcels, which make up the majority of the 3,700 acres for sale, received six bids Wednesday. Lennar said it also is interested in those parcels. The auction is set to continue Thursday on the remaining parcels. Bidding will continue each day until no higher bid is logged.
The southeast parcel sold Wednesday is the only one not contaminated, according to the General Services Administration’s Haase. It totals 202 acres and sold for $60 million.
Irvine has zoned the site for commercial development. Haase said if the parcel received one bid at the minimum price, it’s a reflection of how developers value commercial land.
Most of the bidding today was on parcel two, the largest piece of the base at 1,752 acres. Irvine hopes to see housing, parks and other open space uses, such as golf courses, built there.
The bidding is anonymous, with developers using code names. Before Monday, all four parcels received minimum bids from a company or companies using the name Hrtgfld,an obvious reference to the Navy’s branding of base redevelopment as Heritage Fields.
Hrtgld bid the minimum of $220 million for the largest parcel. Grtpark, a likely reference to Irvine’s Great Park campaign for base redevelopment, bid $1 million more. OCHOPE bid a little higher, and Grtpark ended the day with the highest bid at $223 million.
