El Toro Auction Stays Open

Bidding continued Friday on two parcels at the closed El Toro Marine base, extending the auction to at least Monday.

Last-minute bids for the parcels means the U.S. Navy, which owns the 3,700-acre former military airfield in Irvine, will collect at least $79.5 million more than the $525 million it had set in minimum bids.

Two other parcels fetched only minimum bids when they were sold Wednesday to a homebuilder.

The sale revenue will help pay for environmental cleanups at closed military bases nationwide, including El Toro.

About one-quarter of the Orange County base is still undergoing cleanup. The Navy has said that environmental issues will not hinder efforts to redevelop the base into the Orange County Great Park, a master-planned community of 3,700 homes, commercial development and a vast park system.

However, uncertainty about whether there will be enough funds to clean the base, and the complexity of developing the Great Park around and through the environmental hotspots, might have dissuaded bidders, some observers said.

In the end, three parties participated in the silent auction, which is being conducted on a secured website. But that was enough to stimulate a bidding war on two parcels.

Lennar Corp. -- one of the nation’s largest homebuilders, with projects in Orange County -- announced Wednesday that it was bidding on all four parcels. The company won after placing minimum bids of $125 million and $60 million on two of the parcels totaling 1,100 acres.

But the auction deadline, originally set for Wednesday, was continued on the other parcels because of late bids from other parties. Offers entered on the cut-off date automatically postpone the deadline to 3 p.m. the next business day to allow a response to last-minute bids.

As of early Friday evening, Lennar’s $277-million bid was the highest for Parcel 2, a 1,750-acre lot on the north side of the base. The bidding started at $220 million. Two other bidders, identified only by monikers, were vying for that parcel. Federal officials said they will only release the names of winning bidders.

Lennar also had the highest bid -- $142.5 million -- for Parcel 3, about 860 acres at the southeast corner of the base. One of the two bidders from Parcel 2 also had bids for Parcel 3.

“We believe that it makes much more sense for one developer to be in all four parcels,” said Emile Haddad, Lennar’s regional president for California.

Under Irvine’s plan, most of the housing would be concentrated in Parcels 2 and 3, the ones still being contested.

Parcel 2 is zoned for 1,200 single-family homes, including 250 units in a 366-acre area with a golf course. Parcel 3 includes a 213-acre area zoned for 1,500 high-density residential units and commercial space tailored around a Metrolink station. In contrast, Parcel 1 has 80 acres dedicated for 800 homes and Parcel 4 has no zoning for housing, only commercial space.

The latest bids can be seen at www.auctionrp.com/auctions2/