MBK Sells Senior-Housing Unit
In a move that should raise its profile, MBK Real Estate Ltd. said Friday that it sold its senior housing division for more than $100 million, and that it will plow the sale’s profits into building more homes and retail centers.
Irvine-based MBK, the real estate development arm of Mitsui & Co. Inc., expects to triple its production of homes in the Southland over the next three years, to 550 units.
In addition, the company said its plans for developing shopping malls also could rise soon by more than $300 million, Michael Voss, the company president, said.
MBK is jointly designing and constructing Pointe Anaheim, a $500 million retail and entertainment complex in Anaheim. It plans to build or acquire more than $200 million worth of retail properties over the next year, including several in Southern California, Voss said.
The company also is developing seven new-home projects throughout Southern California, including Soleil in Aliso Viejo, an 86-home development where prices range between $225,000 and $250,000. The company, currently ranked 54th among a recent survey of Southland home builders, has raised the number of homes it plans to complete next year to 300, and to 550 by 2002.
With new homes in short supply, and prices at record highs, MBK should be able to reach its goals, said David Chapman, a housing analyst at Haskell & White, a Newport Beach accounting firm.
“If they can buy good quality land in Southern California, they’ll have no trouble selling homes at a good clip,” Chapman said.
“It wouldn’t be unrealistic to see them build 500 or more in a few years. This restructuring and the use of significant capital in their home-building operations should allow them to make that happen.”
Voss said MBK sold its senior housing division, which consists of 12 complexes totaling 1,884 units in Southern California, to Renaissance Senior Living LLC. Renaissance was recently launched by a pair of MBK executives who formerly headed MBK’s senior housing division, J. Scott Reid and Scott McNutt.
Three Orange County complexes were part of the sale: The Wellington at Laguna Hills, 223 units; Inn at the Park in Irvine, 137 units; and Huntington Terrace in Huntington Beach, 161 units.
