Even Unentitled Land Sites Fly

LOS ANGELES—Storm Properties has purchased a 3.4-acre parcel of unentitled land in Van Nuys, from the Church of the Foursquare Gospel. The developer plans to build a community of 58 detached homes on the site. Although the entitlement process will take 12 to 18 months, the developer expects to break ground before the end of the year and deliver the homes in mid 2017. The purchase price for the land site was not disclosed.

This is the second site the developer has purchased from the church, which has been selling its excess land. Storm Properties competed with several other buyers for the site, and brought in an all-cash offer to when the deal. "Van Nuys is very geographically desirable," Alan Kwan director of acquisitions for Storm Properties, tells GlobeSt.com. "It is close to major job centers and yet it is really affordable. There are several other new communities in the area that help pave the way, and it has become a great infill market. We jumped at the chance to redevelop this site into a really unique detached home community."

The unentitled site posses an additional risk to the developer, but Kwan says that they did quite a bit of community outreach to ensure that they had support before taking the plunge. "There is a lot of concern about that and a lot of risk as a developer," he adds. "We worked loosely with the community to get their input, and we took it to the Van Nuys neighborhood council, and they voted to support our project unanimously, and we took it to other stakeholders to make sure that we had everyone's buy in before we proceeded forward."

Located at 14700 Sherman Way in Van Nuys, the completed project will have 58 three-to-four bedroom homes with 2 1/2 -3 1/2 baths and a backyard. Residences will range in size from 1,662 square feet to 1,822 square feet, and, as a result, will only utilize 40% of the maximum allowed density for the site.