Chinese homebuilder Landsea buys 569-house Lake Forest project
Nov. 24, 2015 Updated 12:00 a.m.
By JEFF COLLINS / STAFF WRITER
A Chinese homebuilder with a $1 billion war chest has moved its U.S. headquarters to Orange County and recently made Lake Forest the site of its fifth U.S. development.
Landsea Holdings Corp., the private subsidiary managing U.S. development for one of China?s top 100 builders, moved its U.S. base to Irvine from Pasadena earlier this year to be closer to the national and regional offices for a host of homebuilding firms.
And it confirmed Monday it recently acquired the bulk of the 95.5-acre Portola Center South project in northeast Lake Forest, with approval to build up to 569 homes, in ?an off-market transaction.?
The price of the transaction wasn?t disclosed. Portola Center South is part of the 930-home Portola Center located at Glenn Ranch and Saddleback Ranch roads, north of the Foothill Transportation Corridor toll road.
SunRanch Capital Partners, a partnership of developers Baldwin and Sons and Sunrise Co., had been in charge of the entire Portola Hills project.
A Lake Forest city website shows Portola Center South consists of 313 detached single-family homes, plus a 256-unit multi-family development.
There?s also a 5-acre community park at the northwest end of the development and 57 affordable-housing apartments for seniors. A 10,000-square-foot retail center is planned for the ground floor of the affordable-housing apartment building.
Bill Pisetsky, Landsea Holdings? senior vice president, said his company acquired everything but the affordable-housing units and the retail center.
?The property has preliminary entitlements for up to 569 units but will likely have less at build-out,? he said.
Pisetsky said Landsea had not determined if it will build all the homes itself, saying ?we might sell off a portion of the lots? to other builders.
Grading on the parcel began in June and lot sales to builders had been scheduled to begin in early 2016, according to a September announcement by Newport Beach-based Landmark Capital Advisors, which assisted SunRanch in getting a new $100 million financing package.
Landsea Group of Nanjing is among China?s top 100 real estate developers, the firm?s website says. It has more than 50 completed or ongoing projects in a dozen major Chinese cities as well as in Frankfurt, Germany.
In September 2014, Landsea held a news conference at the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles to announce plans to invest $1 billion in U.S. homebuilding projects.
Company officials said last year that Landsea already had acquired a 200-unit luxury condo midrise in Weehawken, N.J., across the Hudson River from New York City; a 109-unit townhome development in Dublin, about 36 miles east of San Francisco; and two single-family home projects and an active-adult building in Simi Valley.
Landsea later announced it had joined a partnership to build a 30-story residential tower near downtown Boston.
?We have already established our presence in Asia and Europe, but there is no better housing market than the United States,? Landsea founder and Chairman Tian Ming said at the time.
The Lake Forest development is Landsea?s first project in Orange County. Pisetsky said the firm is looking for more opportunities to build homes here.
The timing of the project ? with future home sales likely to take several years ? shows Landsea believes it still has plenty of time to capitalize on the homebuilding recovery.
The median price of a newly built Orange County home hit an all-time high in October, according to CoreLogic.
?We?re an American homebuilder,? Pisetsky said. ?Our parent company is in China, but everything (else) is local. ... The architects, the land planners ? they?re all here.?
Staff writer Sarah de Crescenzo contributed to this report.
Nov. 24, 2015 Updated 12:00 a.m.
By JEFF COLLINS / STAFF WRITER
A Chinese homebuilder with a $1 billion war chest has moved its U.S. headquarters to Orange County and recently made Lake Forest the site of its fifth U.S. development.
Landsea Holdings Corp., the private subsidiary managing U.S. development for one of China?s top 100 builders, moved its U.S. base to Irvine from Pasadena earlier this year to be closer to the national and regional offices for a host of homebuilding firms.
And it confirmed Monday it recently acquired the bulk of the 95.5-acre Portola Center South project in northeast Lake Forest, with approval to build up to 569 homes, in ?an off-market transaction.?
The price of the transaction wasn?t disclosed. Portola Center South is part of the 930-home Portola Center located at Glenn Ranch and Saddleback Ranch roads, north of the Foothill Transportation Corridor toll road.
SunRanch Capital Partners, a partnership of developers Baldwin and Sons and Sunrise Co., had been in charge of the entire Portola Hills project.
A Lake Forest city website shows Portola Center South consists of 313 detached single-family homes, plus a 256-unit multi-family development.
There?s also a 5-acre community park at the northwest end of the development and 57 affordable-housing apartments for seniors. A 10,000-square-foot retail center is planned for the ground floor of the affordable-housing apartment building.
Bill Pisetsky, Landsea Holdings? senior vice president, said his company acquired everything but the affordable-housing units and the retail center.
?The property has preliminary entitlements for up to 569 units but will likely have less at build-out,? he said.
Pisetsky said Landsea had not determined if it will build all the homes itself, saying ?we might sell off a portion of the lots? to other builders.
Grading on the parcel began in June and lot sales to builders had been scheduled to begin in early 2016, according to a September announcement by Newport Beach-based Landmark Capital Advisors, which assisted SunRanch in getting a new $100 million financing package.
Landsea Group of Nanjing is among China?s top 100 real estate developers, the firm?s website says. It has more than 50 completed or ongoing projects in a dozen major Chinese cities as well as in Frankfurt, Germany.
In September 2014, Landsea held a news conference at the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles to announce plans to invest $1 billion in U.S. homebuilding projects.
Company officials said last year that Landsea already had acquired a 200-unit luxury condo midrise in Weehawken, N.J., across the Hudson River from New York City; a 109-unit townhome development in Dublin, about 36 miles east of San Francisco; and two single-family home projects and an active-adult building in Simi Valley.
Landsea later announced it had joined a partnership to build a 30-story residential tower near downtown Boston.
?We have already established our presence in Asia and Europe, but there is no better housing market than the United States,? Landsea founder and Chairman Tian Ming said at the time.
The Lake Forest development is Landsea?s first project in Orange County. Pisetsky said the firm is looking for more opportunities to build homes here.
The timing of the project ? with future home sales likely to take several years ? shows Landsea believes it still has plenty of time to capitalize on the homebuilding recovery.
The median price of a newly built Orange County home hit an all-time high in October, according to CoreLogic.
?We?re an American homebuilder,? Pisetsky said. ?Our parent company is in China, but everything (else) is local. ... The architects, the land planners ? they?re all here.?
Staff writer Sarah de Crescenzo contributed to this report.
