Building the Villages at Heritage Springs housing complex in Santa Fe Springs has been an exercise in contrasts.
On one hand are the 25 active oil wells still pumping petroleum from the 54-acre site east of downtown Los Angeles – the only remnants of a vast oil field.
Then there are the 512 homes to be built there, each with a state-of-the-art solar electric panel built into its roof that is designed to cut energy costs by up to 60 percent.
In fact, the developer boasts it will be the largest solar community in the U.S. created by a single builder.
“It’s sort of a contrast between the old and the new,” said Brad Porter, vice president of Comstock Homes, the residential unit of Manhattan Beach-based builder Comstock Crosser & Associates. “It’s putting a green development in a field of brown.”
The subdivision, which officially opened last month when its first few homes were put up for sale, is among scores of solar home projects that are going up despite the anemic housing market.
SunPower Corp., the San Jose company that manufactured and installed Comstock’s solar panels, is involved in 130 solar housing projects, mostly in California but also in Arizona, Nevada and Colorado. Other projects are being constructed by various builders nationwide.
The idea is simple: In a down market, builders need every advantage they can get and few features are as attractive these days to buyers as green technology, solar power and lower energy costs.
Bob Raymer, technical director for the California Building Industry Association in Sacramento, said he can’t confirm whether Villages at Heritage Springs will be the country’s largest single-builder solar community but it will be huge.
“It’s going to be right up there near the top, if not the top,” he said.
Sales impact
The Villages development is Comstock’s first solar project. The company, whose commercial projects include Manhattan Gateway Shopping Center in Manhattan Beach, partnered with SunPower in 2006 to plan and construct the development.
“Solar was getting a lot of publicity. We thought it would have a great impact on sales, and be the right thing to do in today’s environment to be on the cutting edge,” said Comstock Chief Financial Officer Gary Lyter.
By the time the recession hit and the national housing slump had taken hold, the company decided it already had put too much into the project and moved ahead. Another reason to proceed: a one-time $4,000 tax credit available to the buyers of solar homes.
All told, the company spent about $100 million acquiring and developing the land from BreitBurn Energy Partners LP, an L.A. oil producer that still owns and operates the 25 wells, which are being hidden by strategically placed block walls. The real estate developer plans to spend another $100 million building the homes.
The development will ultimately include 186 single-family homes and 326 town homes, each equipped with a solar panel built into the roof, feeding a convertor in the garage that will provide the house with electricity.
Though the cost of the equipment is about $20,000 per home, developers said, it has not been added to the price.
“We just absorbed it to help with the sales,” Lyter said.
As presently planned, the development will include town homes ranging in price from $385,000 to $490,000, and single-family dwellings ranging from $485,000 to $750,000.
About 50 units are under construction with the rest to be built as they are sold. Given the state of the economy, Porter said, the reaction so far has been good. A kickoff open house the weekend of Oct. 24 attracted about 400 potential buyers, six of whom bought homes.
Porter said that he expects the first move-ins in December, and hopes to have all the homes built and sold in three years.
“In 2005 we would have sold them all in one day, but for now this is just fine. We’re adjusting our expectations a bit,” he said.
The city of Santa Fe Springs has been a strong supporter of the project, its largest in 25 years. The city has a strong base of manufacturing companies that boost its daytime population to more than four times its residential size of 18,000.
“We’re hearing excitement, both from residents looking to move up, and from business owners and business people who would like to live closer to their businesses,” said Paul Ashworth, the city’s director of planning and development.
