Lennar Communities Buys El Toro Property

Development of the Orange County Great Park reached its most significant milestone to date with the conclusion of the Navy’s auction of the El Toro property on February 16.

Miami based Lennar Communities, one of the nation’s leading residential and commercial developers, bought the entire El Toro property for $649.5 million. Proceeds from the sale of the property will be used by the Navy to complete the environmental cleanup of El Toro and other closed military bases.

The purchase of the El Toro property by Lennar Communities marked the beginning of a unique partnership between the City of Irvine, the federal government and a private landowner that will result in the creation of America’s greatest park at no cost to local or federal taxpayers.

Under the terms of a development agreement offered by the City of Irvine, Lennar Communities will be able to develop approximately 16% of the property. In return, Lennar must pay $200 million in development fees and an additional $200 million in property assessments to be used for the development of the Great Park.

Development of the Great Park will be the responsibility of the Orange County Great Park Corporation, a non-profit organization charged with the responsibility of designing, building and maintaining the Great Park. As land use authority and zoning rests with the City of Irvine, all five City Councilmembers serve as directors of the Great Park Corporation. Four additional independent directors ensure representation for all of Orange County.

Working closely with the City of Irvine, the Great Park Corporation has been hard at work creating plans for the basic infrastructure of the Great Park, including roads, lights, utilities and communications.

The Board has also started the process of conceptualizing the design of the Great Park, inviting some of America’s leading design experts to give a series of public lectures. Speakers for the Great Park Symposium Series have included Dr. Hamid Shirvani, Provost of Chapman University, Yale University Professor Alexander Garvin, Harvard University Professor Niall Kirkwood, and Paul Schimmel, Curator of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art.

During the next six months, the Great Park Corporation Board will conduct a series of public hearings throughout Orange County to determine what features Orange County residents would like to see in the Great Park.