Presley Cos. Closing 2 Division Offices

NEWPORT BEACH — Home builder The Presley Cos. said Thursday that it is closing two division offices in California and laying off an undisclosed number of people.

The company is shutting down its Inland Empire division headquarters in Yorba Linda and an office in Sacramento because of slumping sales.

The two markets have been slower to recover from the state’s prolonged housing slump and are less profitable, Presley Chief Executive Wade Cable said.

Over the past year, the company has been pulling back from these areas and acquiring land for new developments in other regions, such as Los Angeles County and San Diego, he said.

“We are redeploying staff in areas that make sense,” Cable said.

Some of the staff in the closing branch offices will be shifted to offices in the Bay Area and Newport Beach. Others will be let go.

Company officials said fewer than 5% of its 366 full-time employees have been given pink slips.

Among them was Bob Albertson, former Southern California division president, who had been demoted a few months ago to president of the Inland Empire division. That office oversees just two projects--Sun Lakes, a retirement community in Banning, and Horsethief Canyon, a planned community south of Corona.

Unlike most home builders, Presley’s bottom line has not improved substantially as the housing market has picked up.

Cable attributes its string of losses to high debt levels and slow sales in some areas.

In the first quarter this year, Presley’s losses widened. The company reported a net loss of $3.6 million, compared with a loss of $2.3 million for the same quarter a year ago. Sales rose slightly to $67.8 million from $67.3 million.

Presley is selling homes in more than 40 communities in New Mexico, California, Nevada and Arizona. Fifteen of those communities are in Southern California.