Taylor Woodrow

Taylor Woodrow Homes, a London-based residential builder with substantial operations in the United States, said Monday that it has promoted longtime executive Gordon Tippell to serve as chairman of a new subsidiary, Taylor Woodrow Homes USA. Tippell, 53, had been president of two other units, Taylor Woodrow Homes California and Taylor Woodrow Homes Nevada. He said Taylor Woodrow Homes USA has been established to serve as the administrative overseer of those two firms and the company's third U.S.

Taylor Woodrow Homes Inc. has launched an Internet experiment that could change the way the company sells houses. The Laguna Hills home builder has put 17 model units up for competitive bidding on an Internet Web site, http://www.buildermodelsales.com. Those homes, prized because they are upgraded and fully furnished, are usually the last ones that builders put up for sale.

Koll Real Estate Group Inc. has formed a joint venture with Taylor Woodrow to develop a 390-acre residential property known as Fairbanks Highlands in North San Diego County, the companies announced Monday. A unit of Koll Real Estate contributed its land at market value in exchange for an initial cash payment and a continued partnership interest in the venture. Taylor Woodrow will manage the day-to-day operations of the venture and expects to build the majority of homes on the site.

Koll Real Estate Group Inc. has formed a joint venture with Taylor Woodrow to develop a 390-acre residential property known as Fairbanks Highlands in North San Diego County, the companies announced Monday. A unit of Koll Real Estate contributed its land at market value in exchange for an initial cash payment and a continued partnership interest in the venture. Taylor Woodrow will manage the day-to-day operations of the venture and expects to build the majority of homes on the site.

The California State University Board of Trustees on Tuesday approved a $7.9 million development agreement between Taylor Woodrow Construction Ltd., Cal State Fullerton and the City of Fullerton, to build the Titan Sports Complex. The trustees' action came at a time when Taylor Woodrow is involved in a lawsuit against Orange County and embroiled in controversy surrounding its work at John Wayne Airport.

Taylor Woodrow Homes Inc. has launched an Internet experiment that could change the way the company sells houses. The Laguna Hills home builder has put 17 model units up for competitive bidding on an Internet Web site, http://www.buildermodelsales.com. Those homes, prized because they are upgraded and fully furnished, are usually the last ones that builders put up for sale.

Orange County supervisors have elected not to fire the chief contractor in the beleaguered John Wayne Airport terminal expansion, but they may strip the company of a $25-million contract on an adjacent parking garage and impose strict new conditions on the terminal work, county officials said Thursday. The parking garage is more than eight months behind schedule, and the contractor could be facing heavy fines as a result.

Taylor Woodrow Construction California Ltd.--a company that recently filed a lawsuit against the county and is embroiled in controversy surrounding its work at the John Wayne Airport terminal--is one step away from building a $7.9 million sports complex at Cal State Fullerton.

Taylor Woodrow Homes California Ltd. filed suit Friday to force Laguna Niguel to lift a building moratorium imposed in July when it was disclosed that the district attorney was investigating a land transaction in the developer's Marina Hills planned community. The suit also asks an Orange County Superior Court judge to enforce a quit claim deed in which public control over the land--96 acres of open space--was deeded to Taylor Woodrow.

Stung by embarrassing delays at the new John Wayne Airport terminal expansion, county supervisors Tuesday unanimously stripped the primary contractor of a $25-million parking garage and road job. The action left Taylor Woodrow Construction California Ltd. with the airport's $60-million terminal contract, but supervisors warned that it too could be in jeopardy if problems persist. Supervisors and other county officials insisted that the firing would not affect the airport's scheduled Sept.

Counting on better days for Orange County's real estate market, home builders have agreed to pay hefty prices for a chance to build on coastal land in Huntington Beach once owned by Chevron Corp. After highly competitive bidding, Polygon Communities Inc. in Irvine and Taylor Woodrow Homes in Laguna Hills have signed letters of intent to buy some of the 500 housing lots for sale in the 450-acre master-planned Seacliff development.

* Michael Wentink has been appointed executive vice president and chief financial officer of Taylor Woodrow, a Laguna Hills home builder. He has been with the company since 1992 as chief financial officer. Before that, he was chief financial officer for Newport Pacific Group, a Newport Beach-based real estate conglomerate.

* Thomas Redwitz will join Taylor Woodrow Homes California Ltd. in Laguna Hills as a senior project manager today. He succeeds Adrian Foley, who left Taylor Woodrow in January to open a new division for another home builder. Redwitz will be responsible for all projects and development at Taylor Woodrow. He was formerly a vice president of development for the Irvine Co., where he worked from 1984 to 1987 and again since 1990.

Home builders as a rule tend to be more like flocks of sheep than maverick cattle when it comes to housing design. But Taylor Woodrow Homes California Ltd. has blazed its own trail in recent years, taking architectural risks to produce some of the most talked-about tract homes in Southern California.

Your editorial "A Bargain at $9.6 Million" (July 6) misses the mark. It is important that the citizenry of Orange County have correct information regarding the building of our impressive new John Wayne Airport facility. The job was the largest public works project ever completed by our county. Taylor Woodrow California Construction Limited takes justifiable pride in its building of the new terminal, the upper roadway and the northwest parking structure. There is no question about the quality of the construction or the professional manner in which Taylor Woodrow completed the terminal, advancing significant funds to do so. Considering the circumstances under which the company was working, it was no small accomplishment to complete the task in the manner and in the time that it did. For the record, Taylor Woodrow and its subcontractors were paid approximately $74.3 million by the county for the building of the terminal.

The three-year legal battle between Orange County and the company hired to build the John Wayne Airport terminal ended this week when county officials agreed to pay $9.6 million to settle more than a dozen lawsuits over that massive project. Supervisor Thomas F. Riley, for whom the terminal was named, claimed victory for the county, saying the settlement amounts to a little more than what the county still owed the builder, Taylor Woodrow California Construction Ltd.

A settlement was reached Wednesday in a longstanding dispute between Oceanside and a building contractor over $2.1 million in purported construction defects at the city's new $33-million Civic Center. The City Council, meeting in a private session, approved a settlement with Taylor Woodrow Construction California Ltd., the contractor blamed for leaking ceilings, a flawed exterior finish, cracked walkways and other problems at the 133,000-square-foot civic complex.

Lawyers for one of Orange County's most prominent developers and one of its youngest cities will face off today as a Superior Court judge takes up a civil suit over how 96 acres once set aside for parkland ended up with more than 100 homes on them. After months of pretrial maneuvering, Judge Floyd H. Schenk is expected this afternoon to hear the first round in a dispute that has pitted Taylor Woodrow Homes California Ltd. against the City of Laguna Niguel.

Taylor Woodrow Construction California Ltd., a subsidiary of a British-owned company best known locally for building the $64-million Thomas F. Riley Terminal at John Wayne Airport, will complete a planned phaseout by July, officials said Monday. The closing of the construction firm will have no bearing on its residential sister company, Taylor Woodrow Homes California, which will continue operations. Both are subsidiaries of Taylor Woodrow plc. in London.

A number of top building industry executives have been playing musical chairs, the result of a recession that has damaged some companies, brought new investors with new ideas into others and put bankers in charge of more than a few. Gordon Tippell, chairman of British-owned Taylor Woodrow Group's home-building companies in California and Nevada, is the latest to move, handing over his day-to-day management roles in Newport Beach-based Taylor Woodrow California Ltd. and Taylor Woodrow Nevada Ltd.