REAL ESTATE : J.M. Peters Pays $17.8 Million to Buy 216 Lots in Rancho San Clemente

J.M. Peters Co., the Newport Beach home builder, flush with cash from a $100-million junk bond sale in May, has acquired two major Southern California properties this week.

On Wednesday, the company said it had purchased a 216-lot property in Rancho San Clemente, a master-planned community in the coastal hills above San Clemente. Peters bought the lots for $17.8 million in cash from Richland Interests of Texas. The fully finished lots range in size from 5,000 square feet to 6,000 square feet.

“A rapidly dwindling supply of finished lots in Orange County has already created a significant decrease in new-housing supply at precisely the moment that Orange County enters its post-recessionary period of recovery and increasing new-home demand,” said Hadi Makarechian, chairman and chief executive officer of J.M. Peters.

The company on Tuesday announced that it had paid $26 million for 175 estate-sized housing lots in Tarzana, where it plans to build homes ranging in size from 3,500 square feet to 5,000 square feet on lots ranging from 10,000 square feet to 17,000 square feet.