American Property Enterprises negotiated the July 2009 acquisition of a 35 acre unimproved site near Menifee, California.  Known as Copper Skye Townhomes, the site has tentative map entitlements for 378 townhomes. The property was acquired by an investment group in which American Property Enterprises’ principals are significant investors. The purchase from Bank of America was for $1,700,000 or $4,500 per lot. The bank had foreclosed on the original builder which paid $18,750,000 for the site and had spent an estimated $2-4 million plus in costs and fees. The final engineering, architecture and final maps are virtually complete with the final map ready to record.

The site has 2,500 feet of street frontage on the south side of Newport Road within the Winchester Hills Specific Plan about 2.5 miles east of I-215. The site is easily accessible via Newport Road from the I-215 and I-15 freeways, and is close to abundant retail and service businesses as well as recreational amenities. American Property Enterprises is a 24 year old San Diego-based investor-developer of residential and commercial/industrial properties that also has property management capabilities. The company is actively pursuing distressed commercial and residential real estate as well as performing and non-performing loans.

For more information, contact American Property at 858-546-7474.

Pacific Communities (Nelson Chung, Principal) has acquired 40 finished lots located in Palmdale.  The lots are located at the SWC of 70th St W and Avenue M.  Recorded information shows that the transaction closed on July 24th, 2009.  The Seller in the deal was an LLC formed by TPMC Real Estate of Dallas, TX (David Weinreb, Principal).  TPMC is rumored to have acquired the note on the property from the previous lender.  The Trustee’s deed showed an outstanding balance of over $13 million at foreclosure.  The transaction price for the sale to Pacific Communities is unknown.

Pacific Communities owns various parcels in the immediate vicinity of the site.

The deal was brokered by Randy Coe and Michel Faris of Park Place Land Advisors.  Faris and Coe can be reached at 949-852-8288.

Pacific Communities can be reached at 949-660-8988.

The Gabrych Family Trust has completed its acquisition of +/-35 acres located in the City of San Jacinto.  The land is located at the corner NWC of Cottonwood and Sanderson and is zoned for Medium Density Residential and Community Commercial.  The seller in the deal was AW Properties (Allen Weingarten, Principal), the Rancho Santa Fe based lender and developer.  Recorded information shows that AW Properties had previously been the lender on the deal and that there was an outstanding balance of over $4 million on the loan at time of foreclosure.  The transaction price for Gabrych’s purchase of the 35 acres is unknown.

The Gabrych Family Trust has been active as both a Buyer and Seller in the market.

Global Investment and Development (Aaron Rivani, Principal) has acquired a number of finished lots located in Cathedral City.  The seller in the deal was an LLC formed by Wessman-Gonzales (John Wessman, Mario Gonzales, Principals).  The project is known as Campanile, and the deal closed escrow on June 25, 2009 according to recorded information.

Global Investment has been an active player in the vulture market.  We previously reported Global’s acquisition of 95 acres located in the City of Palmdale, which was purchased from a consortium of banks.

Global can be reached at 213-365-0005.

Trumark Homes has closed a deal for up to 75 planned residential units on 11.84 acres of land in Lake Forest.  The property was acquired from the Whisler Family Trust and closed on August 3, 2009.  According to a press release on the deal, Silver Oak Investors provided the equity to close the transaction.  We previously reported Silver Oak acquiring 29 finished lots in Lake Forest that are located within one mile of Trumark’s acquisition.

The total purchase price for the transaction was $4.8 million.

Trumark has been an active player in the vulture market and acquired a development deal in Upland earlier in the year.

The deal for the land in Lake Forest was brokered by David McSwain of the Hoffman Company.  McSwain represented both Buyer and Seller and can be reached at 949-553-2020.

Trumark can be reached at 949-788-1990.

An LLC controlled by KeyBank has selected Randy Coe, Michel Faris, and Winn Galloway of Park Place Land Advisors to market a multiple property portfolio in the Victor Valley.  The portfolio consists of a mix of finished lots and final mapped lots in Hesperia, Victorville and Adelanto.  The REO portfolio consists of broken builder loans for partially complete projects.

KeyBank was among the first major banks to circulate portfolios of distressed assets to the market in early 2008, though very little was sold at that time.  IndyMac Bank was the other major player with large portfolio of distressed assets last year, though IndyMac failed and was taken over by the FDIC before any significant amount of that portfolio was sold.

Interested parties seeking details on the KeyBank High Desert portfolio can contact Randy Coe.  Randy is available at 949-852-8288 x 18.

Al Rattan, President of Continental East Trading (Truong Pham, Chairman), reports that the company is still interested in the Inland Empire. Continental East has already acquired three deals this year and continues to look for opportunities in Corona, Chino, Rancho Cucamonga or Fontana.

We previously reported Continental East acquiring 108 paper lots in Menifee from RC Hobbs. In addition to the lots in Menifee, CET has acquired a controlling interest in the Sweetwater Ranch project in French Valley, as well as a mixed use development project in Temecula.

Distressed opportunities can be directed to Al Rattan at 951-340-9292.

An LLC formed by ING Bank has disposed of 17 units of standing inventory, 51 finished lots, and 36 rough graded lots in Victorville.  The Buyer is rumored to be the Nejedly Trust of Riverside, CA.  Recorded information shows that the the deal closed escrow on July 10.

The project is located east of 7th Avenue and south of Ottowa Street in Victorville.

We previously reported ING disposing of a mix of standing inventory and finished lots in Palm Springs.

The deal was brokered by Justin Esayian and Aman Lal of the Hoffman Company.

Esayian and Lal can be reached at 949-553-2020.

American Property Enterprises has closed another distressed asset deal.  The property consists of 294 paper lots located in Victorville.  The seller was Bank of America.  The land is located east of Aster, 1/2 mile north of Bear Valley, in Victorville.  The site is +/-80 acres.

We previously reported American Property Enterprises having re-purchased one of their former deals (see this link).

The deal for the Victorville lots was reportedly for $775,000, which works out to be $2636/lot.  The deal closed on July 13, 2009.

Howard Hamlin of Hamlin-Gooding was the broker for the bank on the deal.  Howard can be reached at 562-537-5840.

American Property Enterprises can be reached at 858-546-7474.

Sperry Van Ness – Mimi Song Realty Group is pleased to announce the successful closing of another REO land deal.  RY Properties (Robert Yu, Principal) has acquired 206 approved condo units (TTM lots) from Sterling Savings Bank in a deal that closed on July 23.  The land is located on Foothill Blvd, south of Redhill Country Club.  The deal was for all cash and closed at original contract price.

RY Properties has been an active Buyer of distressed assets dating back to last year.  RY acquired a number of finished lots in Victorville from Richmond American Homes. 

The deal for the 206 TTM lots in Rancho Cucamonga was brokered by John Reeder of Sperry Van Ness.  It was the fifth deal this year in which Reeder represented Sterling Savings in a sale of land or finished lots.  Mimi Song Realty Group has partnered with Guardian Management (Karlin Conklin, COO) in representing Sterling Savings in several Southern California deals.  MBK Consulting (Mohammad Kashani, Principal) provided consulting services to the Bank during the sale.  First American provided title and escrow.

RY Properties can be reached at 626-282-3100.

John Reeder can be reached at 951-847-6928.

An LLC formed by ING Bank has sold 13 finished lots and 2 production homes to a private investor operating as Dos Palmas Development, LLC.  The lots were located in the Country Club Estates development in Palm Springs.  A number of the lots are golf course view lots.

The sale of the lots closed on June 12, 2009.  Recorded information shows that ING took title to the lots through foreclosure in January of 2009.  The bank bid $2.5 million at trustee’s sale, though the full amount of the note was in excess of $7.5 million.  The sale amount to Dos Palmas Development is unknown.

The deal was brokered by Steve Bari and Erik Christiansen of the Hoffman Company.

Bari and Christiansen can be reached at 949-553-2020.

Los Angeles-based Colony Capital has been the #2 buyer of FDIC auctioned loans through the first half of the year.  Colony has also made news in recent months for being a potential rumored Buyer of troubled Corus Bank, likely due to Corus’ portfolio which is heavily weighted towards condo development deals.

Colony paid on average 67 cents on the dollar for the commercial real estate loans which are for the most part performing.  Only $8 million out of Colony’s $112 million spent in the FDIC auctions was for loans noted as non-performing.

Royal Investors Group (Jim Goltche, Ebby Shakib, Members) acquired 107 finished lots and six units of standing inventory/model homes from Vineyard Bank prior to the Bank’s failure.  The project is located on HWY 18 in Adelanto.

Royal has been extremely active in the vulture market, having closed deals in the Antelope Valley, Victor Valley, and lower Inland Empire.  Royal completed several acquisitions from builders at year end 2007 and 2008.  In addition to finished lots and raw land, Royal has also been a buyer of standing inventory and model homes.

Nick Emsiek of Whittlesey-Doyle brokered the deal for the Adelanto subdivision.  Emsiek can be reached at 949-789-4555.

Royal Investors can be reached at 310-553-2552.

A Sacramento-based homebuilder, Sycamore Homes, has acquired 208 finished residential lots in three bank transactions since April, 2009. Each deal closed at the original contract price. The acquisitions consist of the following:

28 finished lots in an in-fill subdivision in Visalia, commonly known as Kirkwood Estates, purchased for approximately $27,000 per lot. The seller was West America Bank.

109 finished lots in a major subdivision in Atwater, commonly known as The Claremont Reserve, purchased for approximately $11,000 per lot. The seller was Guaranty Bank.

71 finished lots in Southport in West Sacramento, in a subdivision known as River Landing, purchased for approximately $37,500 per lot. The seller was the receiver for the previous builder, with approval from Wells Fargo Bank.

Sycamore plans to build out the projects in line with demand. It is seeking other finished lot opportunities in both northern and southern California.

The acquisitions were financed by private investors. The financing for each transaction was arranged and structured by Thomas C. Dashiell.

Mr. Dashiell can be reached at (510) 919 1969 or at tcdashiell@gmail.com.

American Property Enterprises reports that they have re-acquired a 21 acre residential site that they sold to Pulte in 2005.  The re-purchase was a year-end closing for 2008.  Details from APE:

American Property Enterprises has completed its acquisition of a 21 acre residential development site that it previously owned, after re-acquiring the site from the homebuilder that bought it. The site is approved for 210 triplex style townhomes, on a view-oriented hilltop location just southeast of the intersection of Interstate 15 and Rancho California Road in Temecula, California.

In 2003, American Property Enterprises acquired the site, and sold it at a profit in 2005 to Pulte Homes. On December 24, 2008, American Property Enterprises closed escrow on its purchase of the property from Pulte Homes, for a $3 million purchase price, which is less than what the company originally paid for the property in 2003.

“Everything we originally liked about the location and physical attributes of the property is still attractive,” commented Steve Quinn, President and CEO of American Property Enterprises. “It is an A+ property within the city of Temecula, and we believe it will be one of the first sites to regain its value in the Inland Empire when the housing market stabilizes and begins to recover.”

American Property Enterprises signed the purchase contract with Pulte Homes on December 1^st, waived feasibility on December 19^th, and closed escrow on the 24^th. “The transaction moved fast, because we realize that in order to take advantage of attractive opportunities in today’s market, we need to be able to move fast,” said Andrew Murphy, Chief Operating Officer of American Property Enterprises. “When prices reach a point at which they reflect the very difficult housing market conditions today, potential buyers and investors seem to come out of the woodwork. We want to be among the first to react when prices are right.”

American Property Enterprises is a 24 year old San Diego-based company that has investments and management capabilities in industrial and office properties, as well as multi-family rental and for-sale properties. The Company is also actively pursuing non-performing loans and debt as well as distressed commercial and residential real estate.

American Property Enterprises can be reached at 858-546-7474 or by accessing their website at

http://www.propertyenterprises.com