Dwight Manley, one of the city’s largest property owners, sold the land he owned at 1698-1700 Greenbriar Lane in Brea to Hearthstone Inc., a division of Lennar Homes, for $45 million.
Manley, the real estate developer who formerly represented the basketball player Dennis Rodman as his sports agent, bought 1698-1700 Greenbriar Lane last October for $31.5 million, in what was the most expensive real estate deal for the Brea/La Habra area for the 12 months leading up to the sale.
1698-1700 Greerbriar Lane was home to a Mercury Insurance office building when Manley bought the property.
Lennar Homes is now proposing to convert the 9.7-acre site into a residential development with 179 attached units.
The Brea City Council approved the housing project in April.
Lennar proposed to build three housing types: five-plex buildings with one- and two-car garages; attached three-level duplexes with two-car garages, a side entry and rear yards; and, attached three-level duplexes with two-car garages and rooftop decks.
The 179 units would be built across three neighborhoods: 80 units at The Courts; 26 units at The Yards; and 73 units at The Villas.
Mercury Insurance was one of the largest corporate employers in the city of Brea before it sold many of its office holdings in the area—including the office building at 1698-1700 Greenbriar Lane—to an entity controlled by Manley in a $31.5 million deal.
Brea Housing & Commercial Plans
The Greenbriar residential project is one of three housing developments on tap for Brea.
The City Council approved Brea Plaza Apartments, a 120-unit multifamily development proposed to be built above a two-level parking structure with 95 spaces at the northwest corner of Brea Plaza shopping center, in April.
Also approved by the local Planning Commission in July 2024 was South Brea Townhomes, a residential development bringing 32 for-sale single-family units to 685 S. Brea Blvd.
City Council members also approved an Amazon delivery facility at 275 Valencia Ave., Brea, in late August.
The proposed delivery facility calls for the demolition of an existing, three-floor, 637,503-square-foot office building that was once occupied by Bank of America and replaced with a 181,500-square-foot, single-level warehouse building for Amazon’s last-mile parcel deliveries.
Mr. Brea
Manley, also known as “Mr. Brea,” was also a professional athlete agent, representing former NBA players such as Karl Malone and Rodman. Manley has been on the Business Journal’s OC500 most influential list for his role as the largest property owner in his home city’s downtown area.
The coin collector previously told the Business Journal that Brea is in desperate need of housing and that the Greenbriar project and Brea Center Apartments would both increase the city’s housing supply.
Brea has a shortage of homes for sale, and we are seeing 75-year-old 1,300-square-foot to 1,500-square-foot homes selling for over $1 million,” Manley told the Business Journal in March.
“This leads to more property tax income, more economic activity for the businesses, more students for the schools.”
