Land Development

Land Development

WCHP is one of the few companies who have any remaining capability to deliver lots. Many of the major land developers in the region have been decimated by market turmoil over the last several years. These companies are not capable of large scale land development due to bankruptcy and loss of capital sources. Large public homebuilders, that in the last cycle undertook minimal land development, no longer have the appetite to pursue this business model since the public markets prefer that they focus on lots that can be turned quickly into homes for sale. In short, there is a definite shortage of manufacturing capacity in the land development business.

The WCHP team has a long history of processing land entitlements and acting as a land developer. Over the last 15 years we have delivered several thousand lots to production builders. Our team is well versed in all aspects of the land development business having developed projects ranging from stand-alone subdivisions to master planned communities. Some of our major land developments are described below:

San Miguel Ranch – 750 acres in Chula Vista, California

The 750 acre master planned community is located in Chula Vista, California and contains 1,046 detached homes, 339 condominiums, 29 acres of parks, a 10 acre commercial site, an elementary school and 244 acres of open space. After entitlements were obtained, Trimark restructured the project’s capital structure with CalPers equity and acted as the project’s master developer managing a budget in excess of $100 million which included completing the mass grading, constructing all major infrastructure (streets, water, sewer and utilities) and developing wetlands and habitat mitigation sites. Trimark sold and delivered rough graded lots to merchant homebuilders such as Continental Homes, Pardee Construction, William Lyon Company, Shea Homes and Buie Communities.  In addition, Trimark developed the community theme and managed the master marketing program for the community.

The Corona Valley – 300 acres in Corona, California

After completing the entitlement effort, the development team put in all of the required infrastructure (including widening of major arterials and the construction of regional flood control and sewer facilities) and sold all of the 1240 lots to several homebuilders, including Standard Pacific, Pulte, Centex and Woodside Homes.

North Shore at Mandalay Bay – 90 Acres in Oxnard, California

Site development commenced in 2007 with the approval by the DTSC of the long awaited FS/RAP and Remedial Design and Implementation Plan (RDIP).  Management oversaw a bulk grading and remediation effort whose cost exceeded $20M.   LFR, the grading and remediation contractor, was tasked with this complex day to day scope.   Grading and remediation for this site was onerous and had various jurisdictions claiming oversight which management navigated successfully.   As part of the approvals for this project offsite mitigation parcel had to be acquired and ultimately re-vegetated to the satisfaction of the California Fish and Game and the US Army Corps of Engineering.   The ability for the larger North Shore project to continue its development path hinged on this offsite project being repaired successfully.  In order to obtain this objective, the offsite parcel required a painstaking process of hand removing a vast area of invasive plant material not native to local coastal dune habitat and replacing it with native plant material that would ultimately protect the dunes.  Vigorous scrutiny by these two jurisdictions was a daily occurrence.    Concurrently with both of these,  management also oversaw the installation of over a mile of major offsite sewer force main necessary for the ultimate build out of North Shore. This force main was installed in and/or adjacent to numerous major streets.   The grading and remediation element culminated successfully in 2008 with the DTSC issuing a No Further Action (“NFA”) memo allowing for the development of single family homes.

Prior to forming WCHP in 2007, the principals of the company acquired over 60 residential sites and performed various land development activities in addition to constructing over 3,500 single family homes in the following California counties:

• Kern
• Los Angeles
• Riverside
• Sacramento
• San Bernardino
• San Diego
• San Joaquin
• San Luis Obispo
• Stanislaus
• Ventura

Below is a sample of projects developed by the principals of WCHP since 1997: