EMPIRE PURCHASES KB ANAVERDE STAKE.

Byline: JIM SKEEN Staff Writer

PALMDALE -- The Empire Cos. has bought out KB Home's share of the Anaverde master-planned community, giving the Ontario-based company control of the 5,000-home project.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. KB Home had owned just under 50 percent of the project.

``We are pleased to take control of this sterling master-planned community and look forward to working with city leaders to make the community one of the finest in the region and raise the bar for all that follow,'' said James Previti, president and chief executive officer of the Empire Cos.

Initially proposed by KB as City Ranch on what was then cattle-grazing land in southwest Palmdale, the project had stalled during the 1990s as a result of the economic downturn. The project was revived by the Empire/KB partnership in 2002.

``We're looking at this in terms of years of commitment to that region,'' said Steve Walton, chief operating officer of the Empire Cos. ``There's no question we believe in that region and believe in that project.''

In addition to the homes, the Anaverde project is slated to include schools, a Jack Nicklaus-designed public golf course, a regional park, several smaller parks and a new fire station.

Anaverde, however, has ground to a halt in recent weeks over a dispute between the city and Empire over a flood-control dam that city officials want downstream from the project.

City officials refuse to issue building permits for about 500 homes yet to be built in Anaverde's 1,400-home first phase and forbid grading for the second phase until the developers make significant progress on both financing and designing a dam to control normally dry Anaverde Creek.

The buyout of KB Home does not alter the discussions on that issue, Assistant City Manager Steve Williams said.

``As far as we're concerned, the people we have dealt (with) will be the same as (we) have dealt with in the past,'' Williams said. Empire and city officials continue to discuss the dam and other issues at weekly meetings, he said.

``Hopefully, we'll get it done in the near future,'' Williams said.

Empire officials say city officials are unfairly burdening them with the dam, which is to be built more than a mile downstream from the community in an existing earthen flood-control basin adjoining the Antelope Valley Freeway near Pelona Vista Park. They accuse the city of arbitrarily rejecting the developer's proposal to finance the dam with a tax on new Anaverde homeowners.

Anaverde officials said the dam was not mandated in the original approvals and that retention basins built into their project will actually reduce storm runoff into Anaverde Creek. ``We continue to collect data to support our position and talk with senior city officials about where we think they are mistaken,'' Walton said. ``We have proposals we want to get before the City Council to relieve the city of their dam problem. It's their problem, not ours.''

The buyout of KB Home's interest should also lay to rest rumors that Empire is not able to meet its financial obligations, Walton said. Those rumors are ``lunacy,'' he said.

Empire officials said the company has invested more than $160 million in improvements to the project area, including parks, roads, water, sewer systems, communications and power.

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