Castaic project in SunCal bankruptcy
| Thursday, Nov 13 2008 08:08 PM
Last Updated Friday, Mar 27 2009 02:06 PM
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A 4,000-home SunCal development in Castaic and three other projects were placed in involuntary bankruptcy by the Irvine developer Wednesday, bringing a total 15 SunCal developments into federal bankruptcy court.
Wednesday’s four filings were classified as involuntary because lender Lehman Brothers hadn’t consented, said Joe Aguirre, spokesman for SunCal Cos.
Lehman has arranged funding for all 15 sites, including Bakersfield’s McAllister Ranch.
The latest filings affect these projects:
• Northlake, above Castaic Lake in Los Angeles County; 4,000 homes on 1,500 acres; in the planning and entitlement stage;
• Marblehead Coastal, an oceanfront project in the Orange County city of San Clemente; 313 villas on 248 acres; grading and significant infrastructure have been completed;
• Heartland in Beaumont, Riverside County; 980 homes on 417 acres; grading complete with some infrastructure finished;
• Fairway Canyon in Beaumont; 3,300 homes on 985 acres; some neighborhoods sold out; additional phases scheduled.
Last week, SunCal filed voluntary petitions affecting eight other developments around California.
In September, McAllister Ranch and two Riverside County sites were put into involuntary bankruptcy by construction companies and junior lenders.
SunCal indicated on last week’s filings nine other Lehman-related projects tied to $2.3 billion in funding could be placed in bankruptcy. With four down, are five more Lehman-SunCal ventures in the pipeline?
“I can’t speculate on that,” Aguirre said, adding SunCal does have other Lehman-funded projects in its portfolio.
SunCal has secured $75 million in alternate funding for the latest projects, Aguirre said, depending on certain conditions being approved by the Chapter 11 bankruptcy court.
McAllister Ranch and the two Riverside developments are being heard separately from the latest cases, though all are before the same bankruptcy judge in Santa Ana.
