RESIDENTIAL
Local assets previously owned by defunct builder John Laing Homes of Irvine are driving some of Orange County’s largest land sales this year.
In the most recent big-dollar sale, Christopher Homes, part of Newport Beach’s PLC Land Corp., recently closed on a big Huntington Beach property that Laing once owned. The 23-acre site, where 201 upscale homes are planned, is a few blocks from the ocean.
The site’s at Newland Street and Hamilton Avenue, near Beach Boulevard.
A sales price wasn’t disclosed. Sources put the price at close to $47 million, a little more than $2 million per acre, or about $234,000 per home lot.
John Laing broke ground on project in 2006, when it was known as Blue Canvas, but stopped development as the market soured. The builder filed for bankruptcy last year and its remaining assets are in the process off being sold off by lenders.
Model homes at the gated community, which is being rebranded as Pacific Shores, will be under construction soon, according to Christopher Homes, which has built more than 1,000 homes in Huntington Beach. The model homes should be open by the end of the year.
Two neighborhoods will be built at the site, with the more expensive of the two including homes running close to 4,000 square feet with and as many as six bedrooms. Smaller homes will start at 1,480 square feet—Laing initially expected those townhomes to sell in the $600,000 to $800,000 range.
The next former Laing project being put up for sale locally is a multiblock site in downtown La Habra, where a 91-home condo project had been planned.
The Irvine office of Land Advisors Organization is marketing the property, just off Euclid Street near La Habra Boulevard, for the main lender, said to be Germany’s Allianz SE. Bids are due by April 20.
The former industrial site was initially eyed by Laing for homes in the $500,000 range, although a new owner is likely to put a price-tag closer to $400,000 on any homes built there, said Mike Hunter, senior land consultant for Land Advisors.
The property includes three model homes and 88 “semi-finished” detached condo lots. Costa Mesa’s Warmington Group had been tasked with overseeing the project after Laing went into bankruptcy but isn’t involved in the sale, according to Hunter.
Advanced Deals
Advanced Real Estate Services Inc. remains an active apartment buyer, although opportunities to buy remain limited, according to officials with the Lake Forest-based investment and development company.
In its most recent deal, the company—which operates under the ARES name—bought a 144-unit apartment complex in Norwalk called Tierra Palms for about $15.2 million, or about $106,000 per apartment.
The two-story project is next door to another 153-unit complex that the investor owns and includes 32 two-bedroom units and 112 one-bedroom units. The complex is about 90% full.
ARES has closed on four apartment and condominium deals in the past two quarters, for a total price of about $75 million.
Those acquisitions included a 196-unit complex in Santa Ana, a 172 unit-complex in Fountain Valley and a 39-condo project in Huntington Beach that the company’s currently operating as apartments.
“We have a significant amount of equity that needs to be placed,” President Rick Julian said.
Officials for ARES, which also has a housing project in the works in San Juan Capistrano, said they’re still keeping an eye on what happens at the Orange County Fair & Event Center in Costa Mesa. The company came second in January’s state-directed auction to buy the 150-acre site.
Newport Beach-based outlet developer Craig Realty Group won the auction with a $56.5 million bid, reportedly $500,000 more than ARES’ bid. But after a flurry of local objections, the state rejected all the bids for the property last month, saying the prices were too low.
COMMERCIAL
Anahiem’s Extron Electronics Inc., an electronics maker, has the local office development market largely to itself right now.
The company just broke ground on a 200,000-square-foot expansion of its headquarters. In addition to offices and training facilities, the six-story building also will have a first-floor restaurant and concert venue tentatively dubbed The Ranch.
The building is expected to be completed by the fall of 2011.
Extron, which the Business Journal estimates to do about $150 million in annual sales, said it currently has 500,000 square feet of owned and leased property in the Anaheim area.
The company, which makes projector systems used in classrooms, boardrooms and auditoriums, has occupied its present headquarters since 1995.
