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E-mail StoryNortheast’s trend-setting development slow going
| Saturday, Mar 22 2008 4:00 PM
Last Updated: Monday, Mar 24 2008 8:26 AM
Ducks would glide on a shimmering lake, ads promised.
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December 1996: Land sale recorded for what will become City in the Hills. Chevron USA sells to Qumran Investments Inc., one of many companies affiliated with the master developer now known as Mountain View Bravo LLC.
June 1997: Mountain View Bravo LLC is formed.
November 2000: The Bakersfield City Council unanimously approves basic framework for the City in the Hills project. As is typical in large developments, modifications are made as the project moves forward.
September 2004: Grading and other work begins at the site.
March 2008: Permits for 439 single-family homes have so far been pulled by builders, city building officials say.
Sources: County of Kern, city of Bakersfield, California Secretary of State, Californian archives
In January, The Californian wrote about what industry professionals say is a first for metropolitan Bakersfield: A rash of developer defaults and foreclosures.
Earlier this month, we profiled local projects of the financially troubled Sacramento developer Reynen & Bardis Communities Inc.
This time, we offer a status report on City in the Hills, the square-mile project that launched northeast Bakersfield’s growth spurt.
December 1996
• $1.9 million: Chevron USA Inc. sells about 620 acres to Qumran Investments Inc., one of many company names used by City in the Hills’ master developer, Mountain View Bravo LLC. The property becomes the bulk of the future square-mile planned community in northeast Bakersfield.
Qumran holds on to property at the southern portion of the site, transferring most of it to its MVB Holdings and MVB Ventures limited liability companies.
The Juliana’s Garden by BLU S.K.Y Homes neighborhood remains the master developer’s project. Maps recorded with city and county planners indicate about 180 homes have so far been approved on the south side of City in the Hills Drive. A press release announcing use of Sharp solar panels in the houses said up to 300 would be built.
October 2005
• $8.4 million, D.R. Horton: Mountain View Bravo sells a patch roughly bordered by Panorama and City in the Hills drives, east of Vineland Road, to D.R. Horton Los Angeles Holding Company Inc.
The Texas-headquartered homebuilder is eventually slated to build almost 400 homes on some 180 acres in the Lavender Trails and Contessa’s Vineyard neighborhoods.
Mountain View Bravo remains the master developer while D.R. Horton and other companies joining the project are so-called “merchant builders.”
• $6.7 million, K. Hovnanian: A portion on the north side of Panorama Drive is sold by Mountain View to homebuilder K. Hovnanian’s Four Seasons at Bakersfield LLC. The New Jersey-headquartered homebuilder has eventual plans for its 55-and-over Four Seasons neighborhood, where about 750 units could go in on about 183 acres.
November 2005
• $9 million, Regent: Regent Land Investments LLC, an affiliate of Wisconsin investment firm Stark Investments, buys another portion north of Panorama from Mountain View Bravo. Regent later sells some of the holdings to Hovnanian.
• $4.2 million, Regent: In a separate transaction, Regent buys land south of Panorama; again, some is later sold to K. Hovnanian.
• $4.1 million, K. Hovnanian:K. Hovnanian at Rosemary Lantana LLC buys land south of Panorama on the west side of Masterson Street from Mountain View Bravo. The Lantana’s Edge and Rosemary Arbor neighborhoods could ultimately count about 420 homes on 100 or so acres.
September 2006
• $7.2 million, K. Hovnanian: Regent Land Investment sells some of its holdings north of Panorama to K. Hovnanian’s Four Seasons at Bakersfield.
May 2007
• $3.5 million, K. Hovnanian: Regent sells some of its land south of Panorama to K. Hovnanian at Rosemary Lantana.
Though the transaction was recorded last May, sales papers were signed in August 2006, documents show.
Sources: County of Kern, city of Bakersfield, First American Real Estate Solutions, Kerndata.com, Californian research
Photos:
A patch of finished homes is surrounded by totally undeveloped spreads of land within the City In The Hills development of Highway 178 in northeast Bakersfield.
An aerial view of the City in the Hills housing development
Across the divided highway from City in the Hills' finished homes are large areas of undeveloped land.
Roads within the City in the Hills development lead to empty patches of land.
But City in the Hills’ dusty surrounds don’t yet match dreamy scenarios touted in sales brochures.
The square-mile development first envisioned in the late 1990s inaugurated growth in northeast Bakersfield. Plans to house 11,500 people in the mostly empty area along the north side of Highway 178 opened doors for a batch of developments now sprouting nearby.
So far, however, permits for just 439 single-family homes have been pulled at City in the Hills, said Phil Burns, Bakersfield’s building director.
Construction has largely slowed — as it has at many sites around Kern — since the housing market’s fizzle.
Parks and pockets of retail and commercial development meant to provide convenience for those living in the master-planned community, located between Morning Drive and Alfred Harrell Highway, have yet to materialize.
Progress is much slower than anyone would want, said Cindy Pollard, a local representative for the project’s Los Angeles-based master developer, Mountain View Bravo LLC.
But the developer is committed to completing the City in the Hills development, she said.
“Things are just really at a standstill for most developers everywhere,” Pollard said. “And things are no different for the City in the Hills master developer.”
LUSH LAWNS, DRY FOUNTAINS
City Hills Drive, the development’s central artery, curves through stretches of undeveloped dirt interspersed with clusters of newly built homes.
Grass is mostly green and landscaping immaculate within nascent neighborhoods being constructed by several builders.
On Thursday afternoon, a few construction crews worked inside K. Hovnanian’s two project sites here.
But signs of unfulfilled grander plans are everywhere at the development’s edges.
In Juliana’s Garden, a neighborhood along the south side of City Hills Drive where an affiliate of the master developer, BLU S.K.Y. Homes, is building, piles of pipe and lumber lay just off Garden View Lane.
Construction has stopped in Juliana’s Garden, Pollard said.
“Cash flow is an issue,” she said, adding that the developer is trying to secure financing.
In the mean time, the company is trying to sell off its existing inventory of eight empty homes.
In August, Sarah Cisneros and her family were the first to move into a $338,000 home in Juliana’s Garden, she said.
Already, concerns have emerged.
Cisneros regularly pays a homeowners association fee, she said, but sidewalks are cracked, fences unfinished, central fountains dry and promised parks and retail centers still don’t exist.
A “for rent” sign hangs in the yard down the street from her home and several other houses appear empty.
“It’s a little discouraging,” Cisneros said.
BILL DISPUTES
A series of mechanic’s liens from construction companies seeking payment from Mountain View Bravo affiliates have mostly been paid off, county records show.
But one firm is taking the master developer to court.
The Aleco Corp., a Bakersfield-based site development company, has filed suit to recover more than $1 million in alleged nonpayment from three companies associated with the master developer, court records show.
One suit involves more than $421,000 for grading and sewer installation at the Sycamore Villas project in Arvin.
The other two claim more than $592,000 in unpaid bills for grading, paving and dry utilities work at the City in the Hills project. Neither Aleco nor the company’s attorney, Timothy Scanlon, returned calls seeking comment.
HAPPIER PASTURES
On the north side of City Hills Drive, a resident of Texas-based homebuilder D.R. Horton’s Contessa’s Vineyard tract had no complaints about her neighborhood.
It’s a quiet area and she likes her neighbors, said Jennifer Killmer, a 26-year-old first time homeowner.
But Killmer wondered when her young son might be able to play in the park she was told would be built — complete with a lake — by the end of 2007.
“That was one of the reasons we bought out here,” Killmer said.
D.R. Horton’s sales staff told her the park is BLU S.K.Y.’s responsibility, she said.
That’s correct, Pollard said.
But the construction of the City in the Hills parks is tied to the number of building permits pulled, she said.
A city agreement dictates the nine-acre park planned to front Contessa’s Vineyard will be completed within two years after D.R. Horton pulls its 200th permit, Pollard said.
So far, D.R. Horton has pulled 180 permits, city figures show.
Last month, D.R. Horton included homes in its two City in the Hills neighborhoods in a sale of some Southern California holdings with discounts of up to 50 percent.
ROAD CONDITIONS
When City in the Hills was first approved by Bakersfield officials in late 2004, developers were required to add a lane in each direction on Highway 178 from Fairfax Road to Alfred Harrell Highway.
Work was to be done by 2010 or when half of the project had been built.
But an interchange now going in at Fairfax Road and Highway 178 — and future city plans to widen 178 from Morning Drive east to Alfred Harrell — could mean the lanes are installed before City in the Hills reaches its halfway point.
Theoretically, city of Bakersfield Development Services Director Stan Grady said, that doesn’t mean City in the Hills developers dodge the cost of building those lanes.
“If we end up going in ahead of them, they still have to pay for it,” Grady said.
Usually a reimbursement agreement is signed between the city Public Works Department and the developer, Grady said.
But it is currently unclear whether there is such an agreement or how much City in the Hills developers will be required to pay, officials said.
PERMITS PULLED
Permits for 439 single-family homes at City in the Hills have so far been pulled by developers, said Phil Burns, the city of Bakersfield’s building director.
180: D.R. Horton’s Lavender Trails and Contessa’s Vineyards neighborhoods
114: K. Hovnanian’s Lantana’s Edge and Rosemary Arbor neighborhoods
97: K. Hovnanian’s Four Seasons neighborhood
48: Mountain View Bravo LLC’s Juliana’s Garden neighborhood by BLU S.K.Y Homes
WHO IS MOUNTAIN VIEW BRAVO?
Like many business entities, City in the Hills’ master developer, Mountain View Bravo LLC, has operated under many names. It has also had several main managers over time, signature pages on recorded documents indicate.
Here are some of the people and company names associated with what appears to be a Los Angeles-based entity:
• Philippe Laik, original organizer of Mountain View Bravo LLC, state business records show.
• Dennis A. Harris, signed as Mountain View Bravo’s president or managing member through much of City in the Hills’ development, project records show.
• Mimi Mok, has signed as Mountain View Bravo’s president in the past year or so, county records show.
COMPANY NAMES
• Qumran Investments Inc., started in 1987, state records show. Documents currently list the same Los Angeles address shared by all the affiliates, but records from the late 1990s show a San Francisco address as the legal contact.
• Mountain View Bravo LLC, started in 1997. Start-up papers filed with the state show the organizer, Philippe Laik, signed papers as an officer of Qumran Investments. Business type is listed as “real property ownership and operation.”
Some other company names with the same managers, addresses and contacts include:
MVB Holdings LLC
MVB Ventures LLC
BLU S.K.Y Homes
BLU S.K.Y. Development
S.K.Y Companies
S.K.Y. Management LLC
S.K.Y. 21 LLC
S.K.Y 2130 LLC
Hydro Ventures LLC
Canaan Valley Corp.
S&J Alfalfa Inc.
Sources: California Secretary of State, Kern County and city of Bakersfield public records, Californian research