The 12-acre residential portion of Carpinteria’s Lagunitas mixed-use project recently sold for $10 million, a move the seller says frees it up to focus on what it does best.

“I am not as enamored with building as I am with entitling and getting things approved,” Ken Slaught, president of Investec Real Estate Companies, told the Business Times. “Actually building is where the risk is. It’s treacherous; you’ve got to go out and get a loan.”

With the residential portion of the fully entitled, 25-acre project now off its hands, Investec will focus on developing the 13-acre commercial site. Lagunitas is a 25-acre mixed-use project on Via Real in Carpinteria, off Lomita Lane near Highway 150. The residential portion is entitled for 73 single-family homes and now belongs to buyer ResCal Lagunitas 73, LLC, which is expected to begin infrastructure construction as early as spring 2011 and actual building next fall.

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