With years of legal wrangling and bankruptcy proceedings finally over, the Oaks at Calabasas can move forward as soon as it gets a new owner.
New Millennium Homes put the property up for sale after receiving title to the 1,300-acre site in late summer. In October, the city of Calabasas extended for five years a development agreement for a 550-home development, with half the land to be preserved as open space.
New Millennium, which earlier announced its intention to sell the property once the court cases concluded, is believed to have found several buyers interested in purchasing the site. Company officials declined comment.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors originally approved the project in 1991, with 650 acres to be dedicated as open space, according to Mark Persico, Calabasas director of planning and building services. The original owner, Village Properties, floated a bond offering but couldn’t make the repayments as a housing recession hit. So it sold half of the property to New Millennium Homes.
Village declared bankruptcy and lawsuits were filed between Village and the bondholders, one of which was New Millennium Homes. When the dust cleared in late summer 1999, New Millennium Homes took ownership of the entire site, Persico said.
Before declaring bankruptcy, Village managed to build 23 homes. New Millennium has graded the sites for an additional 33 homes and will start grading on another 120 sites soon. “In order to keep their entitlements, they have to be able to show good-faith progress,” Persico said.
Calabasas officials are pleased that with the end of legal wrangling, development finally can move forward. “When a project is in limbo, it doesn’t serve anybody’s purpose,” Persico said.
The luxury homes in the gated community will sport price tags in excess of $1 million on lots averaging one-half acre in size. And the homes will offer “spectacular views” of the Santa Monica Mountains, said John Burns, a principal with the Meyers Group, a real estate consulting firm. “It will be a large, wonderful community whenever it gets built,” he added.
