Hunts Sell Carlsbad Site to Pittsburgh Industrialist

CARLSBAD — The high-profile Texas Hunt brothers, Nelson Bunker and W. Herbert, have sold their 1,400-acre holding on the northern shore of Carlsbad’s Batiquitos Lagoon to low-profile Henry Lee Hillman, a Pittsburgh industrialist ranked by Forbes Magazine as one of the 20 wealthiest men in the United States.

Larry Clemens, who headed the Pacific Rim Country Club and Resort project for the Hunts, said Friday that he will remain as operations chief of the development with the title of vice president of Newport Beach-based Hillman Properties.

Clemens refused Friday to confirm the purchase price of $72.2 million indicated by transfer tax stamps. He said the buyer and seller had agreed to keep the financial details private.

However, Clemens said, the resort-residential project will remain exactly as planned by the Hunts and approved recently by Carlsbad city officials and the state Coastal Commission. The sale won’t affect the restoration of Batiquitos Lagoon, he said. The Port of Los Angeles and Pacific Texas Pipeline Co. have agreed to pay for a $20-million dredging and cleanup of the coastal lagoon as mitigation for destruction of sensitive wetlands by a landfill project in San Pedro Bay.

About $1 billion in housing, a resort hotel, convention rooms and Olympic athletic facilities will be built on the property over the next decade. The first phase of development by Hillman Properties will include 1,500 homes, a 254-unit hotel, an 18-hole golf course to be designed by Arnold Palmer, aquatic sports facilities and public improvements, including a $12-million east-west access road, school and park sites.

Terms of the sale include Hillman Properties’ agreement to stick to the development agreements approved by the Carlsbad City Council and state Coastal Commission, Clemens said. Eventually, he said, 2,836 residential units will be built.