OCBJ: “Brandywine Going Big”
Mar. 28, 2016
By Mark Mueller
Monday, March 28, 2016
Irvine-based Brandywine Homes is moving ahead on a 15-home project in Yorba Linda that will have among its largest and most expensive homes to date.
The homebuilder, which focuses on urban infill projects in Southern California that tend to be more affordable than most builders’ local offerings, said this month that it broke ground on Newbury, a 8.4-acre community a few blocks west of Imperial Highway on Highland Avenue.
Grading is scheduled to begin in May, and a grand opening is planned for the first quarter of next year, according to the builder.
The five- and six-bedroom, six-bathroom estate homes on the property will range from 4,761 square feet to 5,046 square feet and will be built on the site of an older single-family home, the company said.
Brandywine Homes closed on the land late last year, paying a family trust about $4.2 million, or $501,000 per acre, according to CoStar Group Inc. estimates.
Brandywine got a $17.3 million loan from Wells Fargo Bank to finance the project, according to property records.
Prices will start at close to $2 million for the two-story homes, which will include attached four-car garages and yards large enough for swimming pools.
Most of Brandywine’s portfolio includes homes under 2,000 square feet and under the $1 million mark. Its next largest project by square footage, a 20-home development in Anaheim called Lake House, has homes topping out at 2,755 square feet.
Its last local development to feature homes approaching $2 million was in Pasadena, where homes sold for more than $1.6 million.
Newbury is Brandywine’s third development in Yorba Linda. It’s currently selling homes at Covington, a 51-home project on 5.1 acres near Yorba Linda Boulevard and Blair Street across from the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum. Homes there start at a little more than $600,000.
It also has a 28-home project called Provence scheduled to open for sale next month, also near the Nixon Library. That 3.2-acre project will feature three- and four-bedroom homes. Pricing hasn’t been announced.
