Irvine’s SunCal Cos., one of the country’s biggest developers of masterplanned communities, has a new line of business: homebuilding.
The company is starting up Mosaic Homes, which will build on SunCal’s land in Southern and Northern California.
Mosaic’s chief executive is Jay Moss, most recently the Southern California regional general manager of Los Angeles’ KB Home.
It’s a big shift in strategy for SunCal, which to date has left the homebuilding duties on its large land holdings to other companies.
Much like Newport Beach’s The Irvine Company, SunCal plans housing projects and then sells land to homebuilders and retail developers who build to its specifications.
SunCal has developed more than 250,000 lots that way and has projects in the works for California, Arizona and Nevada.
A majority of SunCal’s California developments still will be built by other homebuilders.
But Mosaic gives the company another option to turn to as some homebuilders have backed away from building during the downturn.
“SunCal wanted to control its destiny,” Moss said.
Large, publicly traded homebuilders have been looking to cut down their land holdings, leaving SunCal with fewer buyers for its projects.
“With the struggles of public homebuilders right now, it made sense for SunCal. They decided it was time to fully integrate” its development business with homebuilding, Moss said.
For more on this story, see the Oct. 1 edition of the Business Journal.
