San Francisco Business Times
From the article:
In a twist of deja vu, SunCal is back to redeveloping the Oak Knoll project in the Oakland Hills — a 167-acre, former naval hospital site with the potential for more than 900 homes.
Irvine-based SunCal has now bought the same site twice: once in 2005 for $100.5 million and again last week from the Lehman Brothers estate. SunCal declined to comment on the second sale price, but industry sources told me it was $76 million.
SunCal originally partnered with Lehman to buy the site and turn it into housing, but those plans fell apart after Lehman declared bankruptcy in 2008 — a watershed event during one of the worst economic recessions in U.S. history.
“We’re excited to resume our involvement with this very special site and we look forward to again working toward making this a new community,” said Frank Faye, SunCal executive vice president in a statement. “This is one of the most significant master-planned community opportunities in the San Francisco Bay Area, and it is particularly satisfying to once again be at the helm of Oak Knoll’s development.”
SunCal’s previous design for the site included 960 homes, 82,000 square feet of commercial and retail space, and 50 acres of parks and open space. ( Read more here).
“We’re looking to take the foundation of the past plan and update it to meet current market and community needs,” Faye said.
After Lehman’s collapse, SunCal remained involved in the property, performing some maintenance and demolition of buildings, but since the property was partly owned by Lehman, it was tied up in bankruptcy proceedings and any new development stalled.
"If not for the Lehman Brothers collapse in 2008 and the loss of their funding for this project, we would have continued working to develop Oak Knoll," said Joe Aguirre, a SunCal spokesperson.