Koll Real Estate to Take Over Home Builder : Development: Buying Kathryn G. Thompson Co. will aid in construction of major subdivisions.

Koll Real Estate Group, making its first major push into home building, agreed Wednesday to buy Kathryn G. Thompson Co., a prominent Orange County home builder, for about $7.5 million.

In exchange for her privately held home construction company, which has built 8,000 homes and condominiums, Kathryn Thompson and her partner, former Koll Co. executive J. Harold Street, will receive $1.7 million in cash, 2 million shares of newly issued Koll Real Estate Group stock and warrants for an additional 2 million shares. Koll Real Estate will also assume nearly $5 million of Kathryn Thompson Co. debt.

Under terms of the deal, Thompson, 53, will remain chairman and chief executive of the Aliso Viejo-based subsidiary, which will retain the Kathryn G. Thompson name. Thompson will also become a director of Koll Real Estate, which is 15%-owned by the management of Koll Co., a developer in Newport Beach.

*

Thompson will help Koll Real Estate develop its large landholdings, which include 1,200 acres of controversial coastal property near Huntington Beach known as the Bolsa Chica wetlands and 870 acres already zoned for more than 550 homes in northern San Diego County. The company will build mostly entry-level homes priced below $200,000.

The acquisition, which includes partnership interests in a 230-acre project in Aliso Viejo where 1,435 homes are planned, is a perfect fit for the two companies, Thompson said.

“I’ve known Don for a number of years. . . . Koll is commercial, we’re residential--it’s a wonderful blend,” she said.

Thompson, a longtime Republican activist, attracted attention in 1992 for her open support of Democrat Bill Clinton.