5,000 Great Park-Adjacent Houses For Irvine

The Irvine City Council yesterday granted final approval for 5,000 houses next to the Orange County Great Park. The houses will be built on the old El Toro Marine Corps base--the federal government sold the land to Lennar Corp. for $1 billion in 2005, but Lennar was unable to move forward with the project until it received a $400 million cash infusion from State Street Bank & Trust Co. Under the terms of Irvine's approval, developer Five Points Communities will pay $40 million in exchange for building on a smaller portion of its property--a partnership between Five Points and Lennar owns another 1,000 acres of unplanned land. [OC Register/Wall Street Journal]