California Pacific Homes Inc. is back.
The Irvine-based company had been one of the area’s largest homebuilders for much of the past decade. But it’s kept a low profile in the past few years as the local market softened.
About a year ago, the Business Journal reported that the private company, headed by Chief Executive Cary Bren—son of Irvine Company Chairman Donald Bren—had opted to mothball operations, at least until the market improved.
That break is over.
Irvine Co. said earlier this month that California Pacific was tapped to build a 125-home project, dubbed Santa Barbara, at the Newport beach-based developer’s Woodbury project near the former El Toro marine base.
Whether the builder has any more projects in the works, in Irvine or elsewhere, remains to be seen. California Pacific’s Web site does not list any other current developments.
Officials for the company—which saw a heavy amount of layoffs in the past few years—couldn’t be reached for comment.
Homes at the Santa Barbara project should open this summer, according to Irvine Co. officials. Prices haven’t been determined.
The two- and three-bedroom townhomes at Santa Barbara are set to run from 1,165 square feet to 1,810 square feet.
Based on other new homes selling at Woodbury, Santa Barbara’s townhomes appear likely to sell from about $450,000 to $700,000.
The Santa Barbara project comes on the heels of strong demand for homes at other Irvine Co. neighborhoods in the area.
More than 300 homes at the Woodbury and Woodbury East developments have been sold in the past few months in one of the better-received home projects in the country of late.
A total of about 685 homes are expected to be built in this phase of development, which kicked off in late January.
Irvine Co.’s original expectation was to sell all those homes in about two years. The pace of sales so far this year is well ahead of those projections.
That success has caught the eyes of other builders and developers in Irvine. Officials overseeing development of Heritage Fields, the site of the former El Toro marine base, are hopeful that construction could begin in 2012 if market conditions continue to improve.
Miami-based Lennar Corp. is expecting to relaunch sales at its Central Park West development just off the San Diego (I-405) Freeway next month, after mothballing townhomes and low-rise condos built at the site for nearly three years.
Even with recent building, the number of new homes—about 750—remains near an all-time low for Irvine, according to data from Irvine-based Real Estate Economics.
Construction Costs
Most of the construction costs for the latest batch of homes in Woodbury and Woodbury East were financed by Irvine Co. under its “executive builder” program that pays individual builders a flat fee to put up homes.
The builders are expected to be paid 3% to 6% of each home’s price.
Irvine Co. traditionally has sold lots to builders that put up homes according to specifications set by the company.
California Pacific’s Santa Barbara project also is being financed under the executive builder program, according to sources.
California Pacific is a familiar builder on Irvine Co. land. The company has built nearly 2,000 homes in the county since 2000, primarily on land purchased from Irvine Co.
The homebuilder, previously known as Bren Co., was started decades ago by Donald Bren.
He turned the company over to Cary Bren in 2000 when his son—who had been California Pacific’s president for two years—bought the homebuilder’s assets for a reported $25 million.
California Pacific sold about 400 homes in Irvine at the peak of the market in 2005, when it ranked No. 4 among Orange County’s most active builders in terms of sales.
Sales began slipping after that break-out year. It reported 169 home sales in 2006, earning the company more than $250 million in revenue and about $18 million in profits, according to reports.
In 2008, local sales totaled about 47 homes, according to Business Journal figures provided by Costa Mesa-based Hanley Wood LLC.
But by mid-2009, the company no longer had any land holdings in Irvine.
