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One of the nation’s largest homebuilders has bought every lot in the next phase of the Harvest at Limoneira development in Santa Paula, which could speed up completion of the entire project by years.
Harvest at Limoneira is the biggest new residential development in Ventura County in decades, with more than 2,000 homes planned on former Limoneira Co. farmland at the east end of Santa Paula. It is being built in phases, with most of the 707 homes in the first phase already sold and occupied.
Limoneira and its partner in the project, The Lewis Group of Cos., have been selling individual lots to homebuilders, who then sell the finished homes. On Tuesday, Limoneira announced it had closed a deal with builder Lennar Corp. to buy all 554 lots in Phase 2.
In the first phase, the Limoneira-Lewis partnership sold lots in smaller chunks to four different builders, including Lennar. This time around, said Limoneira CEO Harold Edwards, “there was significant demand from multiple builders, and Lennar approached us about the potential of buying all of them at once.”
In the first phase, Limoneira-Lewis built the roads and other infrastructure. In Phase 2, Lennar will take on that responsibility.
The deal with Lennar moves projected completion of the entire Harvest at Limoneira project up by a few years, Edwards said. That means homes in Phase 3, the final portion of the development, could be on the market in three to five years, rather than five to seven.
“That’s the crystal ball, but a lot of it is driven by market demand,” Edwards said.
Limoneira did not release financial information about the Lennar sale. Edwards said Limoneira will include information about its own share of the proceeds when it releases its second quarter earnings report on June 6.
“The partnership has to make decisions about how much cash will go to the partners and how much profit will go to the partners,” he said. “It’s a little too early for us to know what that is, so we’ve stayed away from making any financial announcements.”
The sale is the second big milestone in the last few months for Harvest at Limoneira.
In February, the Santa Paula City Council approved Limoneira-Lewis’ proposal to increase the maximum number of permitted homes from 1,500 to 2,050. The new allotment includes 300 apartments, which will be the only for-rent homes in the development.
“We’re really excited about that,” Edwards said. “The market for rentals is really strong, and there just isn’t enough of that product.”
Tony Biasotti is an investigative and watchdog reporter for the Ventura County Star. Reach him at tbiasotti@vcstar.com . This story was made possible by a grant from the Ventura County Community Foundation's Fund to Support Local Journalism.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Builder buys more than 500 lots in Harvest at Limoneira development
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