After years of legal battles, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. has sold two large California housing developments for $60 million to one of its main real estate partners during the boom years, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The deal is the latest sign that Lehman, little by little, is extricating itself from the soured real estate deals that helped bring the bank to its knees, resulting in the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history in October 2008. Lehman's sale of the Fairway Canyon and the Delta Coves master-planned projects to SunCal Cos. also comes as major land developers are moving ahead with housing projects again. SunCal plans to finish out the projects along the lines of their original plans, using funds from private-equity firms Colony Capital LLC and Dune Capital Management LP, according to Stephan Elieff, SunCal's president.
