RESIDENTIAL
Lawrence “Larry” Webb, a former chief executive of Irvine’s John Laing Homes, last month wrapped up work on LandSource Communities Development LLC, helping take the Santa Clarita Valley-based master planned community out of bankruptcy.
Now it looks like he’ll be spending most of his time on homebuilding again, under the banner of The New Home Co.
The Irvine-based company is opening up shop on Trabuco Road, near land where homebuilding is planned in Woodbury. The New Home was formed at the end of June, according to state records.
Joining Webb at the new builder is another local housing heavyweight. Joe Davis, who led Newport Beach-based Irvine Company’s homebuilding operations until retiring in 2007, is said to be involved in New Home, according to sources.
“We are going to be (a) private (builder) with no old baggage,” Webb told Big Builder Magazine this month. “See me in a year or so, but I think it’s OK. I think our timing is pretty good.”
In early July, I reported on growing industry speculation that Webb was planning a new homebuilding venture. The company was said to have been tapped by Irvine Co. as one of several companies to operate its upcoming “executive builder program.”
Under the program, Irvine Co. plans to pay builders to put up houses in Irvine while it retains ownership of the land and homes until they’re sold to buyers, sources said.
Initially, five builders including Webb’s new venture were said to be involved in the program. Now there’s believed to be eight builders involved.
Starting a new company without any baggage is a big change in plans from Webb’s last role.
Webb and Timothy Hogan, the former chief executive of Costa Mesa-based Warmington Homes California, acted for much of the past year as co-restructuring officers for then-bankrupt LandSource. The company now is operating under the Newhall Land Development name following its restructuring.
“For a while there it looked like it might not (survive),” Webb told Big Builder magazine. “I am pretty proud that we saved a bunch of jobs.”
The recapitalized Newhall Land venture is being run by Five Point Communities LP, a new company headed by another OC local, former Lennar Corp. chief investment officer Emile Haddad.
Trumark Plans
A recently formed homebuilding company has plans to build in Lake Forest.
Trumark Homes, part of Danville-based Trumark Cos., said it just bought 11 acres of land in Lake Forest for $4.8 million.
Plans for Trumark Homes, which operates out of Irvine, is to build up to 72 traditional homes at the site, which is on the corner of Regency Lane and Osterman Road.
Construction is scheduled to start in late 2010, according to the company.
The seller was the Whisler Family Trust. Silver Oak Investors LLC was the equity provider in the deal.
Since the project “will not have a community facility district tax, we will have a lower tax rate than other new home developments in the area, said Michael Maples, principal of Trumark Homes and co-founder of Trumark Cos., in a statement.
Trumark Homes started operations this May. Last month, it bought a 4-acre parcel of land in the Upland, where 39 homes are planned. It’s also scouting out locations in the San Francisco Bay area.
COMMERCIAL
A new real estate investment trust being overseen by Irvine’s Thompson National Properties LLC is up and running.
The registration statement for TNP Strategic Retail Trust Inc. this month was OK’d by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The REIT is hoping to raise up to $1 billion of common stock,
which will be used to invest in retail properties, primarily buildings in the Western U.S.
It will be eyeing grocery-anchored shopping centers and free-standing single-tenant retail properties, as well as real estate-related loans including mortgage, mezzanine, bridge and other loans related to commercial real estate, according to the company.
It’s the fifth public REIT in the past decade that’s been sponsored by Thompson Chief Executive Tony Thompson, the former chairman of Santa Ana-based Grubb & Ellis Co.
“I haven’t seen such opportunity in retail in a very long time,” Thompson said in a statement.
