Rancho Mission Viejo Development To Create 16,000 On-Site Jobs

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SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, CA-GlobeSt.com has learned that at build-out, development on the Rancho Mission Viejo Project, which broke ground here recently and will continue in phases over the next 20 years, is projected to create nearly 16,000 on-site jobs—nearly 14,000 from commercial uses, 1,150 from neighborhood retail and 715 from civic/public employees. This figure does not include regional indirect and jobs created during the construction phase.

“If we look at just the first village of Sendero and its enclave of Gavilan, we estimate that nearly 400 on-site jobs will be created,” Dan Kelly, SVP of governmental relations and corporate communications for Rancho Mission Viejo LLC, tells GlobeSt.com. “In addition, we expect that Sendero will lead to the creation of an addition 1,000 construction jobs—again, jobs created during the construction phase. That’s another 2,400 jobs created, thereby allowing for more than 4,000 jobs to be created from this first village of Sendero on Rancho Mission Viejo.”

Sendero will feature approximately 940 attached and detached homes and 200 apartment units on 690 acres, currently scheduled to open in Summer 2013. Sendero and Gavilan will be constructed by several homebuilders including Meritage Homes, Ryland Homes, SeaCountry Homes, Shea Homes, Standard Pacific Homes, The Pulte Group, TRI Pointe Homes, William Lyon Homes and Western National Group.

The new community is composed of more than 17,000 acres of permanent open space and approximately 6,000 acres of future residential and mixed-use development. Encompassing nearly 23,000 acres owned by the O’Neill/Avery/Moiso family since 1882, Rancho Mission Viejo is Orange County’s last working ranch.

The multiple villages planned to be developed by the Ranch over the next two decades are expected to include the following:

• 14,000 homes (including 6,000 residences dedicated to active adult homebuyers)
• A wide variety of attached and detached homes as well as apartment homes designed and priced for a broad range of age groups and life stages
• Sites for clubhouses, schools, civic uses, child-care centers and places of worship
• Five million square feet of non-residential uses including shopping, dining and employment centers
• Community and neighborhood parks linked by inter-community trails
• Miles of hiking/biking/equestrian trails networked with regional trails adjacent to Ranch Mission Viejo
• An arterial roadway system designed to address both future Rancho Mission Viejo and other regional transportation needs.

“Rancho Mission Viejo will provide many benefits to the region, including jobs, a range of new homes for different life stages, thousands of acres of open space, new parks and school sites, as well as an approved, long-term (20 to 30 years) and phased open-space preservation and land-use management plan for the last active ranch in Orange County,” Kelly tells GlobeSt.com “The Rancho Mission Viejo family has been creating new communities in South Orange County for nearly 50 years. During that time, the family has retained its ranching operation and contributed important open space. This practice of land stewardship will be perpetuated with the community of Rancho Mission Viejo, the steady enrollment of land into The Reserve at Rancho Mission Viejo and the continuation of historical ranching and farming on the land.”

The Ranch is located 2.3 miles from downtown San Juan Capistrano and five miles from San Clemente and Dana Point Harbor, with easy access provided to the employment and retail centers of Ladera Ranch, Mission Viejo, Rancho Santa Margarita and other Orange County areas. It is a development partnership between Rancho Mission Viejo LLC (managing partner) and DMB Associates, an Arizona-based, diversified real estate company with holdings in Arizona, California, Hawaii and Utah. Financing for the project has been provided by Union Bank as lead arranger for the transaction, with California Bank & Trust and Bank of the West also participating, a spokesperson for Rancho Mission Viejo tells GlobeSt.com.