Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Developer Buys 163-House Project : Growth: Kaufman & Broad plans to begin construction at Saugus site within a month, reflecting its positive view of the community’s future.

In a decision that will double its presence in this rapidly growing city, Kaufman & Broad Home Corp. has purchased a 163-house project in Saugus from an Orange County developer for an undisclosed price.

The company owns another project in the area, a 171-unit Canyon Country housing tract called California Summit, which is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

Kaufman & Broad officials expect to obtain building permits and begin construction at the Saugus site within a month, said Mark Beisswanger, president of the company’s coastal valleys division. The first phase is scheduled to be completed by December, and construction will continue through 1994, he said.

The construction activity in Santa Clarita reflects the company’s positive view of the community and its ability to continue to attract new residents to the 5-year-old city, Beisswanger said.

“I view Santa Clarita as an excellent community with a safe environment where houses are still built and sold at affordable prices,” Beisswanger said.

The Saugus project also reflects a strategy the company is using all over the state: purchasing inland properties and offering homes at entry-level prices, said Robert Curran, an analyst with the Merrill Lynch brokerage firm.

The publicly held company can raise capital through stock and debt offerings and purchase partially developed projects at a time when small and mid-sized developers find loans difficult or even impossible to obtain, Curran said.

“It’s land they could not buy at such an advantageous price in the past and it’s land that’s ready for the market,” Curran said. “As credit becomes available for builders, they will get into the bidding for these lots.”

In the meantime, in the current fiscal year Kaufman & Broad expects to double to 600 the number of homes built in its coastal valleys division, which stretches north from the Los Angeles area to Santa Barbara, Beisswanger said.

Industry analysts and company officials estimate that the company increased its home building in California from 4,000 to 6,000 in fiscal 1993.

The Saugus project already has streets and lighting, sewers and infrastructure in place, Beisswanger said. Asking prices for the Saugus homes will be in the $200,000 range, he added.

Since January, at least 150 of the city’s 183 building permits have gone to Kaufman & Broad, said Ruben Barrera, a building official.

From a total of $7.4 million in June building permits, $5.7 million was issued to the company for 55 single-family homes as part of the Canyon Country project, city officials said.

The remainder went for roof repair, fire sprinkler installation, and sign and wall construction. Remodeling and additions accounted for another $627,000, city officials said.

“I don’t know of anybody doing as much building out here as they are right now,” Barrera said.

The company, the largest home builder in the state, has outstripped the rate of building permits for the first half of last year, when 128 permits were issued, Barrera said.

The company has built more than 450 homes in the Santa Clarita Valley over the last two years, Beisswanger said.

Rancho Financial Associates Ltd., the original developer, sold the Saugus project earlier this month. Rancho Financial is a unit of Sunnyglen Corp., a Newport Beach development concern. Escrow on the deal closed last week, Beisswanger said.

It is unclear why the original developer sold the project, and company officials couldn’t be reached for comment.