Two executives who rode the housing boom are starting a business building homes on land acquired at a discount during the downturn.
Craig Atkins, one of the county’s top land brokers during the boom years, and Mark Buckland, a builder of urban infill homes, have formed a homebuilding business called City Ventures LLC.
The company plans to buy distressed land on the cheap here and elsewhere in Southern California and put up homes at relatively inexpensive prices ,in the $400,000 to $600,000 range.
The pair has enlisted Imperial Capital LLC, a Los Angeles-based investment banking firm, for funding. The founders are investing their own money as well.
One Yorba Linda property eyed for 50 homes is expected to be City Venture’s first local project. The company hopes to have model homes done there next year, with homeowners moving in around early 2011.
These will be “bread and butter, entry-level homes” for the most part, said Atkins, cofounder of Irvine’s O’Donnell/Atkins Co., which wrapped up its land brokerage operations around the end of last year.
For more on this story, read the April 13 issue of the Business Journal.
