News

By Kevin Smith | kvsmith@scng.com | San Gabriel Valley Tribune
September 20, 2017 at 4:15 am

Brandywine Homes has broken ground on Bradbury, a gated community in La Puente that will include 45 single-family, detached homes at the former site of a Buddhist temple.

Construction on the model homes will begin in the late fall and the entire 3.87-acre project at 747 Del Valle Ave. is expected to be completed by December 2018, according to Dave Barisic, a principal in charge of sales and marketing for the company. Brandywine specializes in underutilized properties surrounded by existing development, often called infill development.

A lot between homes and De Valle Elementary School, seen on Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2017, is where Brandywine Homes’ infill project, a gated community of 45 single-family homes, is being built in La Puente. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)

Infill specialists

“Urban infill is difficult to master,” Barisic said. “We work closely with cities across Southern California to identify opportunities that allow us to provide new homes in existing neighborhoods where the demand will be strong.”

Brandywine was established in 1994.The company has found infill opportunities at sites that once housed outdated strip malls, parking lots and empty warehouses. The La Puente site used to be home to a Buddhist temple.

More homes are needed

There’s no doubt that infill properties have value.

Encouraging new housing development of vacant or under-used properties can spur economic growth, reduce monthly household costs, cut greenhouse gas emissions and help California meets its climate goals, according to a report by Next 10, a San Francisco-based organization that studies the nation’s economy and environment. Research for the report was conducted by the Terner Center for Housing Innovation and the Center for Law, Energy and the Environment at UC Berkeley.

“We think the target infill scenario makes a lot of sense,” Carol Galante, faculty director at the Terner Center, said in an interview when the study was released in March. “It has a number of benefits, but that won’t happen without some additional policy changes at the local and state levels. We made a number of recommendations about what they can do to streamline the approval process and reduce some of the requirements that are put on new homes.”

Figures from the California Department of Housing and Community Development and the state Department of Finance reveal that California will need more than 1.8 million additional homes by 2025 to keep pace with the state’s ever-growing population.

Priced from the mid-$600,000 range

The two-story homes at Bradbury will be designed with Spanish, Craftsman and farmhouse architecture and priced from the mid-$600,000 range. They will range  from 1,843 to 2,087 square feet with three bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths. The homes will feature great rooms, lofts, private yards, porches and two-car garages.

“We’re very excited about Brandywine building these homes,” La Puente City Manager David Carmany said. “Our Planning Commission approved this in December and the City Council gave final approval in January. We’re basically built out. These homes have very modern design and contemporary features, so we think they will fit in very well here.”

Carmany said the city is looking at other infill sites that could accommodate more housing.

“We have a couple in the works now,” he said. “Land-use patterns in the suburbs are changing. We have more commercially zoned land now than is required in modern times. Many people are making their purchases on Amazon these days. Brick-and-mortar stores are becoming redundant.”