GMSP told Limoneira development
partner also builds community
June 24, 2015
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula News
Limoneira Co. has selected a partner to help oversee the development of its East Area 1 and 2 projects, and the agreement should be finalized soon those attending the June Good Morning Santa Paula learned.
Mike Penrod, the project manager for the proposed project and featured speaker at the Chamber of Commerce’s breakfast meeting said Limoneira does not want to make the name of the development partner public until the agreement is finalized.
The company was the top choice of 41 interviewed and Penrod said it has broad experience in not just development oversight but community building.
“Now,” he noted, “we’re set to go,” with an entity prepared to handle the finance and infrastructure needs in preparation of actual building which will be handled by other companies.
Members of the Limoneira Board of Directors were involved in the selection, “quite a contest” and one won by those that showed the strongest commitment to the project and partnership.
“Limoneira is very cautious about putting a name out there,” due to its reticence as a public company to impact stock prices but the group selected has been involved in various master-planned communities in Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
Said Penrod, “It’s not a big public company which is good for working with Limoneira and they bring an awful lot of expertise; the president said ‘We create communities where people want to live.’ And with people already wanting to live here that’s fantastic.”
East Area One is a planned 500-acre-plus development east of Hallock Drive and north of Highway 126 where 1,500 homes, a new K-8 school, a small retail area, parks and other amenities are planned.
Penrod said the lot layout for the development has been revised: “We did a lot of research in Ventura County,” and garnered input from various builders leading to a plan that will offer “lots of variations in price,” and style.
“A lot of the homes that are single family might have narrower lots,” as the structures will be akin to “New York lofts” and brownstones.
Development home sizes will range from 1,600 to 3,500 square feet of living for the larger homes planned higher on the hillsides.
Prices are projected to range from the high $300,000s to as much as $800,000.
“We want to build as close to 1,500 homes as we can, we’re trying to get as close as we can,” said Penrod.
The development partner they’re hoping to announce in mid-July “Is also very involved in schools,” not just in planning and construction but also “in getting involved in education from the ground up,” and company representatives have been attending school board meetings.
Once the agreement is finalized Penrod said company employees would move to Santa Paula to oversee development progress and issues.
Plans for grading and infrastructure should be approved by the end of the year so site preparation can begin. Penrod said finished lots would then be sold off to homebuilders by the end of 2016 with the plan to get the first homes occupied in 2017.
The entire project will take about seven years at a build rate of about 200 to 250 homes completed annually.
East Area 2 across Highway 126 will have space for larger retailers — some of whom Penrod said are ready to commit — but its development depends on the infrastructure of East Area 1.
The new shopping center will offer more sales tax to Santa Paula, which he said loses about $1.5 to $1.7 million annually to sales leakage.
Penrod noted that both projects are committed to hiring on a local level through job fairs and other recruitment methods.
