A year from now, look for the first real signs of redevelopment at Irvine’s Heritage Fields, said Emile Haddad, the executive overseeing the conversion of the former El Toro Marine base in Irvine.
But Haddad, a homebuilding veteran, isn’t giving predictions about when home and commercial building at Heritage Fields will ramp up.
“We’re watching things carefully,” he said. “There have been some promising signals.”
Last week, the city of Irvine approved a reworked development plan for Heritage Fields.
Haddad, who spearheaded Lennar Corp.’s 2005 buy of the former Marine base, is overseeing the development wearing a new hat,chief executive of Aliso Viejo-based Five Point Communities LP.
Miami-based Lennar, which runs much of its operations out of Aliso Viejo, owns a majority of Five Point with investors.
Haddad, formerly chief investment officer at Lennar, said he has final say in operational matters at Heritage Fields.
Five Point also took over management of four other Lennar projects: the newly refinanced Newhall Land Develop-ment in Santa Clarita Valley and three projects near San Francisco.
The new company has a local staff of 22 people who moved over from Lennar, according to Haddad.
By fall, demolition of the former Marine base’s runways could be under way, Haddad said. Backbone infrastructure work should take place in the next year, he said.
Some land parcels even could be prepared for development in that time, according to Haddad.
That would be the most significant development Heritage Fields has seen since Lennar paid about $1 billion for the 3,700-acre former base four years ago.
Lennar acquired the land as part of a deal with Irvine to redevelop part of it as homes, stores and business space and the rest as parks and open space.
The real estate downturn has slowed progress on both fronts, with no movement on commercial development and little to show for Irvine’s ambitious plans for the Orange County Great Park.
Everyone still is on board, according to Haddad.
“The project has 100% support from its partners and lenders,” he said.
Along with Lennar, Heritage Fields investors include LNR Property Corp., Rockpoint Group LLC, Blackacre Institutional Capital Management LLC and the computer world’s Michael Dell.
The Great Park is set to largely be funded by taxes from home sales and development fees at Heritage Fields. The project now is set to hold about 4,900 homes,up from an original plan of 3,600 homes,as well as businesses.
The plan approved last week commits about $100 million toward early work on the Great Park in the next five years.
That’s roughly the same amount of money already spent for the much-heralded project, which is set to cover about 2.2 square miles.
About two-thirds of the funding would come from Miami-based Heritage Fields El Toro LLC, a venture of Lennar and investors.
Heritage Fields El Toro is set to spend $40 million during the next five years on infrastructure and construction work.
It should spend another $18 million during the same time to help with maintenance and operations of the Great Park as it develops.
For its part, Heritage Fields El Toro no longer has to develop a golf course for the city or convert about 170 acres of farmland, which Irvine will use for the Great Park.
Heritage Fields El Toro is pledging $9 million to cover lost revenue from the scrapped golf course.
The remainder of the $100 million in pledged funding is set to come from revenue now earned at the Great Park.
Land at the former base brings in about $10 million a year from leases and other income produced.
