The bankruptcy filing by Lehman Brothers on Sunday (view article here), while striking a huge blow to the nation's financial industry, had a very profound effect on San Clemente as well.  SunCal's major financial backer with regards to the Marblehead Coastal development is Lehman Brothers, leaving many questions to be answered on how SunCal plans to complete the residential and commercial development.  According to an article in Monday's Orange County Register, the San Clemente City Council hopes that answers will come soon from SunCal, as the city has a lot invested in the coastal development.  As of Monday, SunCal continued infrastructure work along Avenida Pico and had not yet responded to San Clemente City Manager George Scarborough.

This is the latest in a series of setbacks for SunCal and the Marblehead Coastal development.  In July of this year, SunCal halted sales at the development and closed the sales center.  As we showed in a previous entry, it seemed that SunCal was getting back on track with a new round of funding that allowed them to continue work on the development's infrastructure.  Now that Lehman Brothers has gone belly-up, who know what the future holds for this prime piece of coastal real estate?  There is no doubt in my mind that the development will come to fruition, it will just take longer than originally planned, and whether or not SunCal will be involved remains to be seen.

San Clemente Coastal Living will continue to provide updates on Marblehead Coastal stories as they develop.  For more information, please do not hesitate to contact us.