SCV, you can breathe a huge sigh of relief.
Newhall Land lives on, according to the Signal and multiple news sources, who say the once-powerful developer/inventer of the paseos/pawn in Lennar’s real estate scheming has emerged from bankruptcy largely intact with rights to Newhall Ranch and some $90 million in cash:
LandSource, owner of Santa Clarita-based Newhall Land and Farming, will emerge from bankruptcy with $90 million in cash and a new company name after a federal court approved a reorganization plan on Monday.
U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Kevin J. Carey accepted a plan that allows LandSource to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy as the newly named Newhall Land Development.
Lennar Corp., one of the owners of LandSource Communities Development, announced Monday that the plan allows the Miami-based home builder to buy about 15 percent of the Newhall Ranch project, along with other properties, for approximately $140 million.
Lennar had a 16 percent stake in LandSource before falling land prices pushed the venture into Chapter 11 protection last June.
The NewNewhall Land will be called Newhall Land Development, and will “still boast Newhall Land and Farming Company as its primary holding,” according to the Signal. If that sounds like a lot of Newhalls to you, just wait till they start building Newhall Ranch.
Looks like Lennar made out like bandits on the deal. As the Signal reports above, they are acquiring about 15 percent of Newhall Ranch for just $140 million. In 2007 they sold much of their stake in Newhall Ranch to CalPers and other investors for almost $1 billion. Now that’s selling high and buying low, is it not? Don’t you wish you had that kind of skill when it came to real estate?
I for one am happy about this development. For awhile there, it looked as if Newhall Land would be split up and sold off like a kid’s treasured baseball card collection. And then what would I and the SCV blogging community be left with?
Without Newhall Land to kick around, and without the dialectic between local environmentalists and what they called “Newsprawl Ranch,” the SCV would have been a pretty boring place. After all, you can only write about green open space so much….it’s much more interesting to write about bland strip malls and more stucco houses and the inevitable cries from some that we are turning bit-by-bit into the hated San Fernando Valley.
I put it to you: what is the SCV without this conflict between developers and no-growthers? And what is that conflict without a local boogeyman like Newhall Land (fighting Dan Palmer or SunCal just doesn’t feel the same!)?
The SCV without Newhall Land is like Star Wars without Darth Vader…it just doesn’t make sense.
So a few questions remain about NewNewhall Land. I’m hearing rumors that the company may have to vacate its cool looking building on Valencia Blvd (wedged between the County’s Civic Center and City Hall as it were). If so where would they go? With only $90 million in the bank and a new city to build, they can’t afford to be choosy when it comes to office space.
I know some good retail spaces in Newhall they could probably convert; there’s one right next to the massage parlor that just became available. It’d be great to have Newhall Land back in Newhall!