Lehman Brothers’ $700M Land Portfolio Liquidated

Ruckle: “Because of a finely tuned process and our knowledge of the West Coast market, we were able to dispose of these complicated transactions at the most opportune time to maximize the value for our client.”

IRVINE, CA—GlobeSt.com has learned exclusively that Land Advisors Organization, California Division, has completed the sale of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s residential-land portfolio for its western region following the latter firm’s bankruptcy, which was declared in 2008. The total consideration for the asset liquidation was more than $700 million.

After Lehman Brothers declared the largest US corporate bankruptcy in history on September 15, 2008, LEHMQ’s Chapter 11 trustee overseeing the real estate projects hired LAO-CA in 2009 to liquidate three master-planned communities in Southern California. Terry Ruckle, principal at LAO-CA, has a long-standing professional relationship with the LEHMQ team, and that relationship, coupled with LAO-CA’s land-market knowledge, apparently proved key for the trustee. Over the course of the next eight years, Land Advisors sold 19 assets in the portfolio, which represented approximately 37,000 total residential units over 20,000 acres.