Orange County-based homebuilders make up two of three firms tapped to build the first batch of homes at Bedford, the first major residential development in Corona in more than 15 years.
Aliso Viejo-based New Home Co. is acting as master developer of the 275-acre site, which is slated to hold just over 1,600 homes over the next decade.
It bought the site, previously called Arantine Hills, in 2014 in a joint venture with Toronto-based Tricon Capital Group Inc.
Bedford is just over the Orange-Riverside county line in Corona near the intersection of the Corona (15) Freeway and Cajalco Road next to the Eagle Glen master-planned community. It’s about 30 miles from John Wayne Airport.
New Home began grading last year for an area to get the first 400 homes.
The company said last year that it planned to sell parts of the land to other builders, in addition to building some homes on its own. New Home has increasingly targeted the Inland Empire as it plans more affordable homes to go alongside its high-end offerings.
The first 238 home lots at Bedford are spoken for, according to New Home.
TRI Pointe Homes, a unit of Irvine-based TRI Point Group Inc. that’s been an active builder in the Inland Empire for several years, will build a 101-townhome project called Citron. Homes there will range from 1,231 square feet to 1,514 square feet with three bedrooms and 2 ½ baths. Prices will start in the low $400,000s.
Salt Lake City-based Woodside Homes, another builder with an active Inland Empire pipeline, is building Nova, a 96-home project whose offerings will range from 1,754 square feet to 2,296 square feet and have up to five bedrooms. Prices will start in the low $500,000s.
New Home is keeping 41 lots for itself that will hold Whitney, the largest of Bedford’s first homes. They’ll be 2,771 square feet to 3,327 square feet with four to five bedrooms. Prices will start in the mid-$600,000s.
The three neighborhoods are scheduled to open in a few months.
Stockton Sale
Newport Beach-based CT Realty Investors has found a buyer for two of the first three industrial buildings it constructed at its NorCal Logistics Center, a 345-acre development site in the Central Valley of Stockton that it bought last year.
The privately held firm said San Francisco-based industrial giant Prologis Inc. paid $47 million for the currently unleased buildings, which total 575,127 square feet, or $82 per square foot.
The buildings are part of CT Realty’s first phase of development for the logistics center about 75 miles east of the Port of Oakland. It’s near the inland Port of Stockton and Burlington Northern Santa Fe’s intermodal rail yard, one of the rail company giant’s largest area facilities.
CT Realty plans for the development to ultimately total about 4.4 million square feet, one of the biggest speculative industrial developments in Northern California in years.
A third, 1.1-million-square-foot building, one of the largest speculative industrial buildings in Northern California, is also part of the first development phase, and still unspoken for.
The second development phase will start late this year and encompass three buildings totaling 1.6 million square feet.
The transaction with Prologis allows the buyer “to enjoy a fair profit on their investment going forward while providing CT with a sizeable return and well ahead of schedule,” CT Realty Managing Partner Carter Ewing said.
Beckman’s Higher Price
In the July 9 edition of the Business Journal, I reported on the sale of Brea-based Beckman Coulter Inc.’s office and industrial campus, a five-building site of about 576,000 square feet.
Hines and Oaktree Capital Management LP bought it from a Delaware-based trust; the price wasn’t immediately available. My story estimated a price in the $100 million range.
CoStar Group Inc. records subsequently showed the site sold for $115 million, or about $200 per square foot.
