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Publication Date: Friday, May 17, 2002

Greenbriar starts work on 122 new homes on Bernal

With the Pleasanton housing market improving, Greenbriar Homes started work this week on two multi-million-dollar communities of homes on the west side of I-680 on Bernal property it bought nearly two years ago.

At the same time, company officials met with city planners Tuesday on a 22-acre site on Vineyard Avenue as part of Greenbriar's bid for approval of a new development there. Greenbriar wants to build 18 luxury homes on farmland owned by Sharen and Robert Heinz just west of the Ruby Hill fire station.

"We're seeing sales doing very well throughout the area, including at our Sycamore Creek development, so we believe it's time to start construction again," said Patrick Costanzo Jr., Senior Vice President of Greenbriar Homes Communities Inc.

He said underground utilities, including sewers and water lines, will be installed in the coming weeks on the Bernal west side property, along with a road that will open onto Bernal near the bridge, and then will connect to a new Valley Avenue extension near the Union Pacific tracks and Junipero.

Called the Knolls and Carlton Oaks, the two west side developments will include 119 million-plus homes on 12,000-square-foot lots just north of the Castlewood Country Club golf course, and 103 homes on 6,000-square-foot lots closer to Bernal, with projected market values of under $1 million. Model homes in both new communities will be open to prospective buyers at year's end, with the first homeowners to move in next spring.

Greenbriar is also building 100 apartments in two-story buildings that are nearing completion on the central portion of the Bernal site. Adjacent to the apartments are homes on 4,000-square-foot lots with alleys that are being built by KB Homes.

Greenbriar bought the 500-acre Bernal site from its longtime owner, the city of San Francisco, two years ago. The downturn in housing starts at that time postponed the development of most expensive housing in Pleasanton as well as an office park at the west end across from the apartments that will eventually house eight four-story office buildings. When completed, Greenbriar and its associates will have built 750,000 square feet of office buildings and 581 homes on the acreage they own on Bernal. The rest of the property - about 318 acres - was given to the city of Pleasanton by Greenbriar as part of its sales and development agreements.

On Vineyard, Greenbriar is planning to build 18 luxury homes on the Heinz farm site next year as part of an overall Vineyard Corridor development that includes other developers and landowners. A specific plan approved in 2000 by the City Council after several years of deliberation calls for a total of 189 homes and a realigned Vineyard Avenue that will create a European-style corridor linking Pleasanton to the Livermore wine country.

However, all of the construction projects were postponed and some were cancelled as the housing market collapsed just as the plan was finally approved. In recent months, several of the developers, including Greenbriar, have resumed discussions with city and school district officials on financing the new Vineyard roadway and utilities that would serve their developments and are also critical to construction plans for the planned Neal Elementary School in that neighborhood.

In other action at its meeting Tuesday, planning commissioners: ¥ Approved extending current land use proposals for 10 years for Vineyard landowners and developers to allow for early construction of the new roadway. ¥ Asked the school district to reconfirm its intention to build Neal School and to submit a specific construction timeline.