Orange County Business Journal

Mastering the Plan: Share Sales Rise for OC’s Big Three
FEBRUARY 23, 2015
Irvine Ranch, Pavilion Park,
RMV Counter Nat’l Trend
By MARK MUELLER
Sales at Orange County’s best-selling
masterplanned residential developments
showed no signs of slowing last year and
are poised for more growth this year, despite a cooling trend across much of the
country.
Sales increased in 2014 at Irvine Ranch,
Rancho Mission Viejo, and Pavilion Park at
Great Park Neighborhoods, with builders
on the developments’ land posting a combined 2,307 sales, a 14% increase over
2013, according to a new report by John
Burns Real Estate Consulting LLC.
Each of the projects placed among the top
20 best-selling masterplanned communities
in the country, according to the Irvinebased consultancy’s data.
The brisk sales are the latest evidence
that homebuilders see OC as one of the best
locations to be in the country, particularly
for projects that target move-up and higherend homebuyers.
That trend likely won’t change anytime
soon.
Each of the three communities has ambitious new phases of construction in the
works, with nearly 7,000 homes planned
over about the next three years that could
keep their sales strong for the foreseeable
future.
OC Up, Elsewhere Down
Only Houston, which has six projects
listed in the top 20, had more entries than
OC, but sales by that city’s crop of entries
dropped 12% year-over-year in 2014.
The cumulative 14% year-over-year increase for the three largest OC projects
contrasts with the 10% decline for the
country’s 20 largest masterplanned communities on the whole, according to the report.
Sales for the other 17 best-selling communities in the country fell nearly 14% last
year.
The only other masterplanned community in California to crack the top 20 on the
list was Valencia in Los Angeles County,
which ranked ninth.
That project, whose sales increased 33%
last year, is overseen by FivePoint Communities Management Inc. in Aliso Viejo,
the master developer of Great Park Neighborhoods.
The trend of sales declines at large projects outside California resulted from a
slower sales market in some areas, higher
prices in others, and delays in lot availabilities, the John Burns report said.
“Although numbers are down, most topselling communities do not report a reduction in demand, but rather other constraints
that are adversely affecting their ability to
deliver new product,” noted a recent report
by Bethesda, Md.-based-based RCLCO,
which publishes its own data on masterplanned communities.
OC’s big three communities appear to
have avoided any fallout from any such
challenges in 2014. Irvine Ranch retained
its No. 2 position among the country’s top
20, with 1,431 home sales in 2014, up
about 1% over 2013 levels.
The Irvine Company-overseen development has been California’s best-selling
masterplanned community for several years
but likely lost some sales last year due to
local competition from other projects under
way, according to the John Burns report.
Rancho Mission Viejo placed No. 13 in
Local breaking news: www.ocbj.com
the country, with 451 sales, up 25% over
year-ago levels.
Pavilion Park in Irvine, which is nearing
sellout, ranked No. 18 with 425 sales, a
73% increase—the second-biggest jump of
any project among the top 20.
Another notable local project that kicked
off last year, Baker Ranch in Lake Forest,
reported 309 sales since it opened last February. That placed the venture between
Shea Homes Inc. in Walnut and Horsham,
Pa.-based Toll Brothers Inc. at No. 33 for
sales among all masterplanned communities in the country.
The timing of the openings of Baker
Ranch, Rancho Mission Viejo, and Great
Park appear to have been well-measured,
according to John Burns officials.
佡 Homes 28
Amelia: home model at Orchard Hills on Irvine Ranch
ORANGE COUNTY BUSINESS JOURNAL 17
Infill Projects Keep Big and Small Builders Busy
18 ORANGE COUNTY BUSINESS JOURNAL
Local breaking news: www.ocbj.com
FEBRUARY 23, 2015
Less Risk, Fast Sales Appeal
to Publicly Traded Firms
By MARK MUELLER
Orange County’s largest masterplanned
developments are driving a bulk of the recent new-home sales in the region, but
plenty of builders are also finding success
buying land for residential projects off the
beaten path.
Half of the county’s top 30 builders by
sales last year generated at least a portion
of their 2014 sales from infill land sites in
existing urban communities where land has
been dedicated to new uses, according to
Business Journal data (see list, page 20).
Notable entries on this year’s list include
Brandywine Homes, No. 17 on the list, an
Irvine-based builder that specializes in infill development and has projects moving
ahead in land-constrained markets, such as
Yorba Linda and Costa Mesa.
Likewise, Irvine-based City Ventures
Inc., No. 14, a 6-year-old builder whose
business strategy embraces taking on hardto-entitle infill sites larger builders tend to
shy away from, notched 75 sales in the
county last year and has projects for sale or
in development in Garden Grove, Santa
Ana, Costa Mesa and Yorba Linda.
Large builders, including some of the
country’s biggest publicly traded ones,
have occasionally been tapping OC’s infill
development sites for a portion of their recent sales, although their strategies in the
area differ.
Miami-based Lennar Corp., the country’s second largest homebuilder by sales
last year, ranked No. 6 on the Business
Rendering: Brandywine Homes Seabright project in Costa Mesa
Journal’s list for sales last year. A large
part of the sales came from the massive development going on at Great Park Neighborhoods, where it’s an initial investor.
The company, which has large operations in Aliso Viejo, also had a significant
number of sales last year at Central Park
West, a 43-acre site near John Wayne Airport that was the first big infill redevelop-
ment site in the Irvine Business Complex
to feature for-sale homes.
On the other end of the spectrum, Irvinebased Standard Pacific Corp., the largest
builder based in Orange County, made a
bulk of its sales last year at new, largescale communities in Brea and Rancho
Mission Viejo. The company ranked No. 3
on this week’s list but currently isn’t sell-
ing homes at infill sites.
Best of Both Worlds
Infill development is a key component
for The New Home Co., according to
Larry Webb, chief executive of the Aliso
Viejo-based builder.
“We’ve looked at tons on infill,” Webb
佡 Infill 26
20 ORANGE COUNTY BUSINESS JOURNAL
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22 ORANGE COUNTY BUSINESS JOURNAL
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Researched by Dana Truong
24 ORANGE COUNTY BUSINESS JOURNAL
Local breaking news: www.ocbj.com
FEBRUARY 23, 2015
HOMEBUILDERS
u From page 22
*'
Prev.
Rank
+), *3
•Address
•Website
•Email
+/ ( %+)". .+(!
// %"! *!
!"/ %"! &*
// %"! %+)". .+(!
!"/ %"! %+)". .+(!
"),(+3"".
-"*/ +), *3
+, (+ ( +#5 & ( .
•yearly % change
•yearly % change
•yearly % change
•Headquarters
•Title
•Phone/fax
•yearly % change
-)&*$/+* -+0, +# +.
3090 Pullman St.
(21) Costa Mesa 92626-5901
homesbywarmington.com
amys@warmingtongroup.com
72
227%
34
NA
38
73%
99
7%
Warmington Group of Cos.
Costa Mesa
Jim Warmington Jr.
CEO/president
(714) 557-5511/(714) 641-9337
16
kbhome.com
customerrelations@kbhome.com
70
-60%
6
50%
64
-62%
0(1)
NA
KB Home
Los Angeles
Jeffrey Mezger
CEO/president/director
(310) 231-4000
17
- *!32&*" +)".
16580 Aston
(21) Irvine 92606-4805
brandywine-homes.com
dave@brandywine-homes.com
67
205%
0
NA
67
3,250%
15
-12%
Brandywine Homes
Irvine
James Barisic
chairman
(949) 296-2400/(949) 296-2420
18
& %)+*! )"-& * +)".
5171 California Ave., Ste. 120
(19) Irvine 92617-3036
richmondamerican.com
lsmiller@mdch.com
65
110%
0
NA
65
110%
85
21%
M.D.C. Holdings Inc.
Denver
Leonard Miller
regional president, Irvine division
(949) 467-2600
19
+)".
4 Park Plaza, Ste. 1000
(28) Irvine 92614-2552
mbkhomes.com
barbarakburgess@mbk.com
55
-42%
0
NA
55
162%
51
24%
Mitsui & Co.
Tokyo
Timothy Kane
CEO
(949) 789-8300/(949) 789-9300
%-&./+,%"- +)".
23 Corporate Plaza Drive, Ste. 246
(11) Newport Beach 92660-7944
christopher-homes.com
info@plcland.com
52
-42%
50
-44%
2
NA
21(1)
NA
PLC Land Co.
Newport Beach
Christopher Gibbs
chairman
(949) 721-9777/(949) 729-1214
21
nwhm.com
press@nwhm.com
42
-64%
21
NA
21
-82%
119
18%
The New Home Co.
Aliso Viejo
Larry Webb/Tom Redwitz
CEO/COO
(949) 382-7800/(949) 382-7801
22
+1* *& * +)".
2525 Campus Drive
(23) Irvine 92612-1503
khov.com
40
90%
0
NA
40
90%
wnd
Hovnanian Enterprises Inc.
Red Bank, N.J.
Steve Kabel
division president
(949) 222-7700
22
"-&/ $" +)". +-,
1250 Corona Pointe Court, Ste. 210
(NR) Corona 92879-2099
meritagehomes.com
40
900%
0
NA
40
900%
wnd
Meritage Homes Corp.
Scottsdale, Ariz.
wnd
(951) 547-8300
24
" +0*/-3 +)".
2235 Encinitas Blvd., Ste. 111
(NR) Encinitas 92024-4356
seacountryhomes.com
info@seacountryhomes.com
36
NA
0
NA
36
NA
wnd
SeaCountry Group
Encinitas
Robert "Buck" Bennett
president
(760) 436-8404/(760) 436-8410
25
+-/+* *
2280 Wardlow Circle, Ste.100
(20) Corona 92880-2879
drhorton.com
34
21%
34
21%
0
NA
0
NA
D.R. Horton Inc.
Fort Worth, Texas
Jonathan Smith
division president
(951) 272-9000/(951) 272-9797
26
" 4"- +)".
1800 E. Imperial Highway, Ste. 200
(NR) Brea 92821-6072
beazer.com
31
NA
0
NA
31
NA
wnd
Beazer Homes
Atlanta
wnd
(714) 285-2900
27
+)".
13821 Newport Ave., Ste. 120
(23) Tustin 92780-7803
hqthomes.com
don@hqthomes.com
30
43%
30
43%
0
NA
3
0%
HQT Homes LLC
Tustin
Donovan D. Huennekens
owner
(714) 508-3990/(714) 508-3999
28
* "(" +)".
2900 Adams St., Ste. C-25
(23) Riverside 92504-8312
vandaele.com
buyerservices@vandaele.com
22
5%
0
NA
22
5%
65(1)
NA
Van Daele Homes
Riverside
Michael Van Daele
CEO
(951) 354-2121/(951) 354-2996
29
+* **& "1"(+,)"*/
5500 Bolsa Ave., Ste. 120
(30) Huntington Beach 92649-1188
bonannidevelopment.com
ed@bonannidevelopment.com
20
43%
20
43%
0
NA
2
0%
Bonanni Development
Huntington Beach
Ed Bonanni
CEO/president
(714) 892-0123/(714) 892-0122
". & +*./-0 /&+*
"1"(+,"-. *
(28) 2040 S. Santa Cruz St., Ste. 115
Anaheim 92805-6821
chirag@desaicompany.com
20
33%
15
7%
5
400%
5
0%
Desai Construction &
Developers Inc.
Anaheim
Chirag Desai
VP
(714) 940-0040/(714) 940-0050
15
+)"
10990 Wilshire Blvd.
(6) Los Angeles 90024-3913
20
%" "2 +)" +
85 Enterprise, Ste. 450
(7) Aliso Viejo 92656-2680
29
+0- ". Metrostudy, a Hanley Wood Company, Irvine and the homebuilders +/". OC units sold is determined by 2014 escrows
closed, not contractual sales.
-"1& /&+*. NA: not applicable; NR: not ranked; wnd: would not disclose
List may not be reprinted without permission of the editor
(1)
Business Journal estimate
Researched by Dana Truong
Infill
26 ORANGE COUNTY BUSINESS JOURNAL
Local breaking news: www.ocbj.com
FEBRUARY 23, 2015
佡 from page 18
said, with local projects as small as a few
dozen home lots.
The company can also go large, as evidenced by Arantine Hills, a 1,200-home
project it bought last year just over the
Riverside County line in Corona.
New Home, which is selling the highestpriced homes at the new Orchard Hills
community in Irvine, ranked No. 21 on this
week’s list with 42 sales in OC last year.
The company’s strategy is a combination
of larger communities and smaller infill
sites, Webb said.
“We want to be in land-constrained
areas.”
New Home has one
of the area’s more
prominent—and expensive—infill developments under way in
Meridian, a 79-unit
condo project being
built next to Fashion
Island in Newport
Beach.
The project, which
Webb: infill developis going up on land
ment key for New
next to the Newport
Home Co.
Beach Marriott Hotel
& Spa, previously held a tennis club. It
began sales late last year with home prices
at about $2 million.
Among the smallest stand-alone projects
on New Home’s plate is Oliva, a 40-home
project in San Juan Capistrano being built
on 17 acres just off Del Obispo Street.
Home count doesn’t play too much of a
part in the company’s decision-making
when looking at infill sites, Webb said.
“It has less to do with the number of lots
and more the amount all the houses will sell
Las Brisas: apartment complex to be raised to make way for Taylor Morrison infill project in Newport Beach
for,” he said.
For a smaller project such as Oliva,
where homes will be priced from $1.6 million, the sales generated will justify the
company’s investment in the project, he
said.
In general, larger builders looking at infill locations in OC and other coastal markets in Southern California are searching
for sites that can accommodate 50 or more
homes or that will generate at least $25
million in total sales, according to recent
data from Sal Provenza, a senior land adviser at Irvine-based brokerage WD Land.
Land sales in the area are currently trading at a finished lot price of 45% to 50% of
the future home’s price, but for some small
local infill sites, public builders are willing
to pay as much as 60% of the ultimate
home price to acquire the land, Provenza
said.
That’s due in part to a reduced market
risk for the infill projects resulting from a
shorter time to market and sales period, in
addition to public builders’ ability to drive
down construction costs because of volume
discounts, vendor relationships, and other
factors, according to WD Land research.
Recent Deals
Among national builders developing a
sizable portfolio of smaller local infill sites
is Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Taylor Morrison Home Corp., which has been snapping
up properties along Costa Mesa’s westside
and in Newport Beach.
The company, which ranked No. 4 on
this week’s list, recently closed on land on
Whittier Avenue and West 16th Street next
to Banning Ranch, property records show.
Plans call for the land, previously used
by an aerospace manufacturer, to be converted from an industrial site to an 89-unit
residential project.
The site’s prior owner, a Beverly Hillsbased entity listed in property records as
MW Bluffs Owner LLC, worked with the
city to get the Lighthouse project of 49 residential units and an additional 40 livework units.
Taylor Morrison bought the site last
month from MW Bluffs. Terms of the sale
were not disclosed.
The land was assessed at a little more
than $11 million last year, according to
property data.
A time frame for the project hasn’t been
disclosed.
Taylor Morrison has two other infill
communities in Costa Mesa under way and
also has what looks to be one of the area’s
priciest infill developments currently on
the books, a 24-home project called Echo
Beach less than a block from the ocean in
Newport Beach.
The site, just off Pacific Coast Highway,
is now home to a midsize apartment complex called Las Brisas, which will be razed.
Taylor Morrison bought the property late
last year from a seller with ties to Newport
Beach-based developer Brooks Street. A
time frame for the project hasn’t been disclosed.
The property last traded hands in 2013
for about $25 million. ■
28 ORANGE COUNTY BUSINESS JOURNAL
Local breaking news: www.ocbj.com
FEBRUARY 23, 2015
OC Data Drill
New-home sales in Orange County haven’t hit the 10,000 mark since 1997. In the 1980s, 15,000 sales per year was the norm. Those levels aren’t expected to be reached
anytime soon, thanks to a dwindling supply of developable land for new homes, but sales have rebounded from the darkest days of the last recession. 2014 new-home sales—
4,027— were the highest here in 10 years.
—Mark Mueller
Homes
佡 from page 17
A key theme in the latest rankings is that
“several communities with infrastructure
started early in the recovery came out of the
gate strongly in 2013 and experienced phenomenal sales in 2014,” according to the
consultancy.
Baker Ranch, along with the three large
OC masterplanned communities that
ranked in the top 20, were responsible for
65% of the sales reported on this week’s
Business Journal list of the top local homebuilders (see list, page 20).
Seventeen of the 30 builders on the list, including each of the top 10, had sales in at
least one of the four large local communities.
Buyer Types
Asian buyers were a key source of sales
for the Great Park and Irvine Ranch projects, while retirees bought a lot of the
homes at Rancho Mission Viejo. About a
third of sales at the latter were at Gavilan,
a community geared for older residents.
The Villages in Florida, a community
that, like Gavilan, gears sales to those 55
and older, retained the No. 1 spot in the
country for sales last year, though its sales
fell 24% to 2,601.
That project is believed to have about
two years of land remaining if it continues
to sell at its current pace, which would appear to give Irvine Co. in Newport Beach
an opportunity to grab the top spot in the
next few years if it keeps up its current pace
Rendering: Pavilion Park at Great Park Neighborhoods nearing sellout
of home development.
Next on Tap
Irvine Co., in addition to ongoing large
projects including Orchard Hills, Cypress
Village, and Portola Springs, has a 1,900home project in the works on Jeffrey Road
in North Irvine.
The as-of-yet unnamed project, described by the company as “Planning Area
5B,” was previously occupied by garden
and plant company Hines Nurseries LLC.
Sales at Hidden Canyon, a smaller highend project on Irvine Ranch that’s being
led by Toll Bros., will also begin this year.
Also on tap in Irvine: Beacon Park, the
second phase of development at Great Park
Neighborhoods. Nine homebuilders were
selected in January to build at the 960home development next to Orange County
Great Park.
The project, on land between Trabuco
Road and Irvine Boulevard, is scheduled to
open for sales this year as the second batch
of home development at Great Park Neighborhoods.
Tony Moiso’s Rancho Mission Viejo
LLC—OC’s second largest land owner
after Irvine Co.—is preparing for the second phase of its development, which will
ultimately include about 14,000 homes.
Grading work is under way at the 2,700home project, called Esencia, which has a
late 2015 opening date. The 860-acre project
is about three times the size of the developer’s first phase of construction, Sendero,
which includes the Gavilan community.
Baker Ranch’s developers are prepping
for a second round of construction at their
372-acre Lake Forest community, which
will ultimately hold close to 1,800 homes
and more than 400 apartments. ■