THE LATEST: The New York-based investment firm D.E. Shaw has made a $195-million bid to purchase a number of SunCal California projects, including the lucrative 247-acre oceanfront Marblehead Coastal property, the Orange County Business Journal reports. According to the OCBJ story in its Aug. 10-16, 2009 issue, D.E. Shaw has connections to Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., SunCal’s lender who filed for bankruptcy in October 2008.
The report says that the Marblehead property has close to $258 million in loans tied to it. Lehman’s latest appraisal says the property is worth $188 million now; SunCal—which supports the D.E. Shaw bid—values the property at only $74 million. Lehman apparently opposes the D.E. Shaw bid and values the nine properties D.E. Shaw has bid on at closer to $500 million.
WHAT’S NEXT: A hearing on the D.E. Shaw bid was postponed in late July until October. As of last week there were no other known bidders on the projects.
FIND OUT MORE: www.suncal.com, www.ocbj.com
—Norb Garrett
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