D.R. Horton Plans Anaheim Hills Homes

A national home builder bought an interest in an Anaheim Hills ranch from a shopping center developer that has scrapped plans to build a retail project on the site.

D.R. Horton, an Arlington, Texas-based residential builder, paid $15.2 million for nearly 19 acres at Maag Ranch. The sellers were Regency Centers, a national owner, operator and developer of grocery-anchored shopping centers, and its local partner, GME Anaheim.

Horton plans to build 106 single-family homes on the site, said Tom McDonough, a senior vice president at Regency Centers. A Horton spokesman could not be reached.

Regency Centers, a Jacksonville, Fla., developer of shopping centers, and Irvine-based GME Anaheim had hoped to build homes and a retail center at the ranch.

But McDonough said a series of meetings with city officials and local residents convinced the developers that they would not earn community support for their project.

“They like the bucolic nature of Anaheim Hills,” he said, “and prefer not to have retail there.”

On the New York Stock Exchange, Regency’s shares closed at $29.10, up 15 cents, while Horton finished at $42.10, down 25 cents.

Daryl Strickland