Standard Pacific, Olson Co. Setting Up House Together

Adding a new specialty, home builder Standard Pacific Corp. agreed Friday to buy the Olson Co., which builds small new-home projects in older cities.

Olson will retain its name and keep its staff, which has many former city planners who are experts in the company’s specialty of building in rundown areas, former industrial sites and cramped urban parcels.

Stephen Olson, chairman of the Olson Co., will receive about $16 million in Standard Pacific stock for his Seal Beach company. As an incentive, he and his top executives have large options to buy more stock later on favorable terms.

Olson, founded in 1988, has expanded beyond Southern California to projects in Northern California, and plans to build out of state. Standard Pacific will be a reliable source of funding as Olson completes a “significant backlog” of work, including up to 400 homes this year, Stephen Olson said.

“I feel very proud,” he said. “We’ll be associated with a quality, growing company--a great parent.”

Standard Pacific, based in Costa Mesa, typically builds large tracts in master-planned communities in California and Texas. Its common stock, which trades on the New York Stock Exchange, has a total market value of about $500 million.

The Olson deal positions it in a future growth area as home building land becomes scarce on the fringes of greater Los Angeles, San Francisco and other metropolitan areas, said Ken Agid of the Marketing Department, an Orange County real estate consulting firm.

Standard Pacific has been a favorite of investors recently. Its stock moved up from the $6 level last year to as high as $18 recently. Shares closed Friday at $16.87, down 25 cents.