RESIDENTIAL
Costa Mesa’s Warmington Group, the parent company of a homebuilder and mortgage financier,and one of Orange County’s larger private companies,is making some changes during the slow housing market.
The changes are starting at the top. Tim Hogan recently stepped down as chairman and chief executive of Warmington Homes California, the company’s homebuilding division.
Hogan had been with the company,which counts about 100 employees,for 28 years. He was president of the company’s homebuilding division from 1987 to 2007 and served in his current role for about a year and a half.
Hogan said he left the company to pursue other endeavors. Among those is the formation of Costa Mesa-based TPH Enterprises LLC, a real estate consulting firm. One of its first clients is Warmington.
Jim Warmington Jr., who was promoted to president and chief operating officer of the company in early 2007, is taking over Hogan’s chief executive title. He’s the fourth generation of Warmingtons to hold one of the company’s top spots since it started operations 80 years ago.
Among other changes, the homebuilder is consolidating its two Southern California divisions into one larger division. It’ll be led by Brian Sinderhoff, who had previously overseen Orange, Los Angeles and Ventura counties.
Likewise, Michael Williams, who had been serving as director of sales and marketing of the company’s OC, Inland Empire and San Diego divisions, will be expanding his role to include all of Southern California.
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Rendering of Warmington home in Corona: company consolidated regional divisions |
Warmington has about 30 housing projects in various stages of development, primarily in Southern California, as well as in the Bay area, Sacramento and Las Vegas. Among builders with projects in OC, it ranked No. 24 last year with 20 sales in 2007, according to the Business Journal’s February list.
Parent company Warmington Group ranks as OC’s 17th largest private company based on revenue, according to the Business Journal’s May list.
The company,whose holdings include Bayport Mortgage Co., Chateau Interiors & Design and Warmington Capital Partners,reported $560 million in revenue last year. That was a big drop from the prior year, when it did $757 million.
“While we continue to work through some difficult projects in a tough marketplace, we consistently repay our debts to our lenders in full, which secures our ability to do new deals when the opportunities present themselves,” Warmington Jr. said in a statement.
Fasthold Raises $300M
Fasthold Capital Inc. of Orange is the latest upstart company eyeing the distressed mortgage market.
The company, which was formed last year, said it has raised more than $300 million to buy distressed mortgage assets as a principal investor.
The capital was raised from private investors, credit institutions and the company’s three founders and principals, Michael Castanon, John Liebgott and John Duden.
Castanon previously was chief executive of Cypress-based subprime lender Right-Away Mortgage Inc., which closed last year. Duden founded and was chief executive of Laguna Hills-based National Mortgage Network Inc., a lender. Liebgott previously was an executive with the Winter Group, a mortgage securitization company with local offices in Woodland Hills.
Fasthold said it is bidding on housing and commercial portfolios ranging from $1 million to $150 million. It has closed on about $50 million of deals so far, according to the company’s Web site.
Along with buying distressed assets, the company’s services include commercial real estate lending and loan sale advisory services.
Thinking Strategic
Barry Gross, president of Irvine-based Developers Research LLC, a land consulting firm that provides analysis on development projects, is starting a venture for owners of distressed land.
The company, Strategic Land Advisors, is intended to help banks, investors, landowners and developers evaluate, develop or sell large land holdings.
Gross’ partner and the company’s managing partner is Paul Grover, who spent the past 12 years with Irvine land broker O’Donnell Atkins Co.
Gross is staying on at Developers Research, whose Irvine office also is the headquarters for Strategic Land Advisors. That Michelson Drive office also holds the headquarters for a new land development company, Foremost Communities Inc., as well as an upstart homebuilder, Real Estate Dimensions Inc.
COMMERCIAL
SVN Equities LLC, the investment offshoot of Irvine-based brokerage Sperry Van Ness, acquired three office and industrial properties totaling 416,225 square feet in Columbus, Ohio, for about $20 million.
The buildings are 84% full. It’s SVN Equities’ first buy in the Columbus market and the company’s second in Ohio. It paid $22 million for two office buildings totaling 380,000 square feet elsewhere in the state in late 2006.
