REAL ESTATE : Builders Looking Beyond O.C. for New Business

Many of the Southland’s premier builders are headquartered in Orange County, but most are doing more and more of their building in other areas.

A case in point takes us to the Los Angeles County community of La Mirada, where the site of the old La Mirada Mall is being turned into a mixed-use development of homes, offices and commercial buildings.

Hopkins Development is building the 36-acre commercial and retail portion of the project and Larry Webb, president of A-M Homes’ Southern California Region operation, said he has just closed a deal for an additional 22 acres on the site at the intersection of La Mirada Boulevard and Rosecrans Avenue.

The upscale home building company bought the parcel from J.M. Peters Co. and plans to build a gated community of 144 homes in the mid-$200,000 to low-$300,000 range, Webb said. Peters still owns about 14 acres in the project, zoned for 92 homes.

Peters, A-M and Hopkins all are headquartered in Newport Beach.

Webb said the La Mirada acquisition is the first in what will become “an aggressive land acquisition program” for A-M. “We will still be an active builder in Orange County, but our plans also include branching out more and more into the Inland Empire, northern Los Angeles County and other areas,” he said. A-M is building in Coto de Caza and plans to start a new development in Placentia later this year.