Westamerica Set to Sell Land in Riverside County

Westamerica Inc., a publicly owned residential development company, said Thursday that it is negotiating to sell two vacant subdivisions in Riverside County in a deal worth $12 million to $14 million.

The prospective buyer is Griffin Homes, a privately held developer headquartered in Calabasas, according to a report Westamerica filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Officials at Griffin could not be reached for comment.

Westamerica, which moved to Orange County from Minnesota in 1987, builds entry-level single family homes, mostly in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, said Theodor Nickolas Bodnar, firm chairman and chief executive.

He said the company often buys land at low prices years before there is a local market for homes, obtains the necessary zoning and building clearances and then, when a market does develop, sells the undeveloped subdivisions to other builders “at a big profit.”

The properties Griffin is interested in, Bodnar said, fall into that category. One is a 156-lot subdivision in Rancho Temecula and the other is a 147-lot subdivision in Lake Elsinore.