When I saw this post back in Aug. it got me interested because I used to know the owners.
Kept an eye on the property out of curiosity and now it’s off the radar. Last I saw they’d knocked the price down to 19.5 Mil (still a tidy profit off the 14.5 Mil they bought if for). Did it sell? Or did they just take it off the market?
Looks like the Mrs. bought a place in Del Mar. http://lajolla.whoboughtwhat.com/m/1015911-2362–lozana-road
Per the county web site Grantor/Grantee Index it looks like Ron and Amie bought it, then Ron quit-claimed it to her…Hmmm…Nearest I can tell this property was a tear down then rebuilt in its current grand fashion. Check out the address on Zillow…it’s for SALE for 2.99 Mil. It even says the last sale was 9/27/2008 so it’s been listed since the last sale? All the homes around this one are older and much smaller. This place looks like a fish out of water in this ‘hood but maybe it’ll sell? It makes me wonder if this is something they built as they are in the biz.
Per the County grantor/grantee index Meadowlark Canyon has has some easements and licences granted recently…do you suppose they’re still plugging along and builing these places?
Any of you out there know what happened to these developments? Did they get built or do builders sometimes just pull the plug and not spend any more money. I also noticed that each devlopment is called by its own LLC. Quail Meadows Properties LLC and Meadowlark Canyon LLC, is this a thing most builders do, create LLCs w/in the parent company just to keep the money straight?
The Baldwins are small builders (and private I believe) compared to Pardee and the like and I was just curious how those of you in the know thought small companies like this were doing. Do they have lots of reserves from their sales in Otay, hole up for 5-10 years and come out swinging again or do times like this wipe them out because they are constantly spending their profits to play their next hand?
OK, last question..what do you all suppose it REALLY costs per square foot for these builders to build these places? I’ve always wondered how they make such an obscene amount of money. The Baldwins alone have piles – the parents who started the biz back in the day live in some grand palace in Laguna Beach, Ron and Amie scored the La Jolla estate and then there is brother Steven who’s also part of the company and lives in grand style. What is the profit margin on these homes? Their one devlopment in Encinitas was to have 34 homes – each selling for what, say 700K, that’s about 24 Mil…I guess a big chunk of the costs is the land and depending on when you bought the land you could make a KILLING on this project but how much do they really pay in labor and materials do you suppose? I remember when we were in Temecula, they were finishing one devlopment in Crowne Hill behind our house. We’d go up there on Sundays to nose around..trash was literally shoved in the walls between the studs and the drywall (eww, gross), not a right angle in the place, the cheapest shower pans you’ve ever seen (my tupperware is stronger). Oh, it just makes me ill how much money these builders make for such cheap fixtures and crappy work..I’m going to England where I can find a nice stone castle that’s been standing a few hundred years..we really do live in a disposable society, homes are built to be torn down every 15 years. Reminds me why I don’t buy American cars anymore, they’re built to blow their tranny every five years (I worked for Aamco – I saw it first hand)!
OK, I’ll shut up now..Would love to hear anyones feedback who cares to chime in.
