This series of articles is about plans by two developers to re-zone the commercial space in the Portola Auto Center and build 200+ new homes. The subject has been covered previously. Click here if you want more info.
At some point during the recent discussion at the Planning Commission, the issue came up of how much to trust a developer. New Commissioner Brower, on the one hand, said – “If we ask our developers to come in with a perfect plan, we’ll never get anything done.” In fact, he said it two or three times. On the other hand, long time Commissioner Verplancke said “Experience shows giving developers the benefit of the doubt can come back to haunt you.”
The thought occurred to me that moving forward comfortably was probably a function of how much we can trust that Brookfield is a good citizen and a good prospective neighbor (putting aside, for a moment, that all of the Brookfield executives and partners who appeared at the Planning Commission don’t actually live in Lake Forest and therefore can’t really be considered “neighbors”, good or not). Judging from the comments from the Brookfield employees, partners, and associates, Brookfield is a model citizen. Unfortunately, people who get their paychecks from Brookfield are hardly dependable sources.
We do have some information about Brookfield –
ATTEMPTS TO INFLUENCE ELECTIONS
We know that Brookfield spent tens of thousands of dollars trying to influence recent elections for City Council. We know they teamed up with Trumark Group (their partner in trying to develop the Portola Auto Center property in question) and gave money to the Republican Party of OC to launch attack ads against Marcia Rudolph and Terry Anderson, and to support Adam Nick and Dwight Robinson.
We know they appeared before the Council several times and never once mentioned the fact that they made “campaign contributions” directly in their own name to Scott Voigts, Marcia Rudolph, Peter Herzog, and Dwight Robinson. There’s more info from my series “Is Lake Forest for Sale? It’s depressing, but you probably should acquaint yourself with this information.
Depending on your POV, you might consider this behavior on the part of Brookfield sleazy, or you might consider them good Americans contributing to the political process. I’m inclined to go with “sleazy” but I’m open to other interpretations.
CITY STAFF RESEARCH
If you read through the City Staff report you’ll find that Brookfield isn’t exactly a model of truth. They claimed that tandem parking was a tried and true process used at one of their projects. Brookfield described it as a “recently developed community”. But research by City staff revealed (1) the project was still under construction and (2) the project used “reduced parking standards”. It looks like Brookfield was not being entirely truthful.
A few months ago, Brookfield argued that the commercial center currently at Auto Center Drive would not be sustainable, and based their analysis on the past decade which was a bad one for that area (and many other areas too). But, despite requests from City staff, they refused to do an analysis of how the commercial center would function if another 2,000 new homes were added to the immediate area, which is what is going to happen as a result of the City’s actions.
INDIVIDUAL COMMENTS
Next step. I searched on the Internet using the term “Brookfield Homes” for comments I could find about Brookfield. Here’s a sample -
“I bought a beautiful Brookfield home only to complain about leaks in the basement. Since they only used a handy man, he kept telling me it was condensation as it was a new home. Well guess what? After 3 attempts to fix the leak, I ended up with a $16,000 mold problem and am now fighting them in court as they are saying the statute of limitations has run out for the 2-year homeowner’s warranty, but yet they were trying to fix it for 5 years.”
“We accepted the new price countered to us and asked to move forward; however, the sales team got back to us again next day indicating the management wants to increase the price again by $8,000. All this process took about three weeks which was very painful as we lost on other opportunities.”
“In the Summer of 2012, I purchased a home in Brookfield's Saranac Community. I would take the decision back in a second because of their sales manager, who can be best described as a liar and a bully.”
“I don't know if this is the norm for house vs condo builders? My last 2 pre-con homes condos by Daniels Corporation and Concord Adex build qualities were great, customer service was great. Build quality, customer service by Brookfield Homes was horrific.”
“I purchased a Brookfield Home in Bowmanville. This is my second home from a builder and could not believe the difference in the two builders. My nightmare started in the Decor Centre, the staff were rude and not helpful.”
“I recently bought a brookfield home and it is turning out to be one of the biggest mistakes of my life. They are building along side another builder and we where told they offered the same finishes. We later find out that this is not the case and that the other builder is offering over $14,000 of upgrades that Brookfield is trying to get us to pay for.”
Hmmm.
Not a pretty picture. And this is just a sample.
I suppose you could say that Brookfield is a big company (in fact it’s a multi-billion dollar company) and they build hundreds of homes every year, so a few bad reviews is meaningless. You could say that. But wouldn’t it be nice if they didn’t have so many bad reviews?
ORGANIZATION REVIEWS OF BROOKFIEELD
So in addition to looking at individual’s comments I looked at organizations.
Consumer Affairs rates Brookfield 1.5 stars out of 5 based on 10 ratings. That’s not good at all.
The BBB of San Diego rates Brookfield A-. In the past year they had only 1 complaint (it was unresolved). That’s pretty good.
Homestars rates Brookfield 5.3 out of 10 based on 4 reviews. That’s not good.
J.D. Power listed the top builders in 17 different markets across the U.S. based on quality and satisfaction ratings by 16,400 consumers. Shea Homes, Standard Pacific Homes, and Pulte Homes were the clear winners. Brookfield came out as #1 in only 1 of the 34 top spots. Nice to see they made the list, but a 3% outstanding rate is not an eye-opener.
All things considered, Brookfield doesn’t have a terrible record, but it’s hardly a quality company from what I can see.
BOTTOM LINE
Here’s a summary of my investigation of Brookfield’s character –
· They spent thousands of dollars trying to influence our elections, and then appeared before the people they helped elect and asked for special treatment, which they got.
· When they did this, they did not reveal their “campaign contributions” recently made to the very people they now asked for a favor. Nor did our council members say anything.
· Brookfield not only made direct campaign contributions, they gave money to a third party for attack ads, establishing a new low for Lake Forest politics.
· Their presentation to the City was found to be less than truthful in their description of how well tandem parking works.
· Despite requests by City staff, Brookfield refused to conduct a valid analysis of the viability of the commercial space they wanted to replace.
· Comments from home owners of Brookfield Homes show many complaints about truthfulness, quality, service, and dependability.
· Reviews from various organizations show that Brookfield Homes has a spotty record.
You can judge for yourself whether or not this presents a picture of the type of neighbor we want in Lake Forest. Going forward, the Planning Commission and the City Council need to deal with Brookfield and take into account the findings here. In my next article I will discuss the recent Planning Commission meeting.
