Investor Pumps $69 Million Into Senior Care

A former owner of a savings and loan that failed during the industrywide debacle in the 1980s has agreed to infuse $69 million into Senior Care Industries Inc., the Laguna Beach company said Tuesday.

The builder and owner of residential and commercial properties also said in a press release that the investor, Mervyn Phelan Sr., was named chairman and chief executive, effective immediately. He replaces Stephen Reeder, who resigned.

Senior Care said Phelan’s capital would raise the company’s net worth--assets minus liabilities--to about $42.2 million. It said it has assets of $92 million.

Phelan bought the failing Camino Real Savings Bank in 1985 for $2.5 million in cash and $16.3 million worth of equity in three hotels and an apartment complex. He changed the name to First California Savings and moved its corporate office from San Fernando to Orange.

But the thrift, plagued by bad loans and foreclosed real estate, was seized four years later by regulators and shut down.