McMillin Legacy

1960s

 In 1960, Corky and Vonnie McMillin began their construction business – working out of their home -- doing business and home remodels in San Diego’s South Bay. 

Their first ground-up construction was Greaser’s Garage in National City, which was followed by a liquor store, an ice cream parlor, apartment buildings, auto dealerships and dozens of custom homes.

A small office space behind Greaser’s Garage served as the company’s first headquarters outside Corky and Vonnie’s home.

1968

Corky formed MLM Development and began work on his first large residential development, Bonita Glen, comprised of 168 homes. 

Bonita Glen was a joint venture with Home Federal Savings and Loan. Corky’s relationship with Home Fed would later span decades and hundreds of homes.

Corky also founded a separate grading company, Co Mac, as an additional revenue source.

1970s

McMillin Realty was founded in 1972 to help McMillin customers sell their current homes. 

Construction started on MLM’s second large-scale project, Bonita Highlands, in 1973. Bonita Highlands encompassed 624 homes. 

In 1976, McMillin began building a 321-home community in Scripps Ranch in a joint venture with Great American Federal. This was the company’s first venture outside of San Diego’s South County.

Throughout the decade McMillin built 1,987 single-family homes and 464 condos and townhomes in a variety of neighborhoods throughout San Diego County.

By the end of the decade, McMillin built its third new company headquarters building on Hoover Avenue in National City to accommodate its growing staff.

1980s

McMillin continued to build neighborhoods in Scripps Ranch, eventually building 1,218 single-family homes and 120 condominium homes in 15 neighborhoods as well as a community recreation center and 2 retail centers in the master-planned Villages of Scripps Ranch North community.

A new corporate entity, McMillin Communities expanded this model and began developing complete communities. Bonita Long Canyon, comprised of 747 homes in 9 neighborhoods, was its first complete master plan. The project included a church, a community park, and a daycare center.

In addition, McMillin began work as the master-plan developer of the 1,600-acre, 4,000-home community of Rancho del Rey.

The McMillin organization added several companies to its portfolio in the 1980s including Laurie Ann Interiors, a model-home interior design and flooring firm, as well as Westar Escrow and McMillin Mortgage, which bolstered the company’s real estate services.

Diversified Builder Services was formed as the general contractor for McMillin Homes.

Additionally, McMillin launched Diversified Turnkey Construction Co. to service the government contract, military and education markets. DTCC won 21 contracts worth more than $230 million over the next 13 years and built 673 student and apartment dormitories on three college campuses, 2,002 residences for seven military bases, the Center for Magnetic Molecular Research at UCSD and an entire retirement facility for the United States Air Force.

1990s

In the 1990s, McMillin branded its 5 distinct lines of business as McMillin Land Development, McMillin Homes, McMillin Commercial, McMillin Realty and McMillin Mortgage, all operating under the umbrella of The Corky McMillin Companies.

In 1990, McMillin Land Development began work on Scripps Ranch Villages, one of its largest master-planned communities to date. The 1,200-acre master plan comprised 2,750 homes, three schools, fire station, regional shopping center and 550 acres of open space including three large community parks, lighted playing fields, a recreation center and numerous botanical gardens.

After a decade of planning, McMillin also began construction on the 1,031-acre, 5,000-home community of McMillin Lomas Verdes in Otay Ranch. The master plan included 20 neighborhoods in a mix of attached and detached homes and apartments, more than 100 acres of parks and open space, three schools and the Otay Ranch Town Center.

The company also began work on the 457-acre golf course community of Temeku Hills in Temecula. Temeku Hills comprised 1,600 homes centered around a 168-acre golf course and extensive recreation facilities.

McMillin Commercial was formed in 1995 and work began on the 23-acre, 164,000-square-foot Scripps Ranch Marketplace anchored by a 56,000-square-foot Vons Super Store. Two years later, McMillin Commercial began work on the 340-acre Parkway Business Centre comprised of more than 700,000 square feet of commercial and R&D space.

1998

In 1998, McMillin secured a $35 million loan that would grow into a $162.5 million corporate bond. This capitalization enabled the continued growth of the McMillin organization into the next two decades 

2000s

At the end of 1999, the city of San Diego awarded The Corky McMillin Companies the contract to transform the shuttered Naval Training Center San Diego into a mixed-use community. The project is comprised of 349 attached and detached homes, 380,000 square feet of Class A office space, 600,000 square feet of renovated retail, office and professional space in existing historic buildings, a 9-hole golf course, 2 hotels, an arts and cultural district, and a 46-acre waterfront park. Dubbed Liberty Station, the NTC redevelopment has become a national model for base redevelopment and for public/private partnership. 

The company brought the master plans of Calavera Hills (589 acres, 1,100 homes), StoneBridge Estates (2,650 acres, 849 homes, 106 apartments, 1,800 acres of dedicated open space), Morgan Hill (478 acres, 1,126 homes), and Rolling Hills Ranch (1,200 acres, approx. 2,300 homes) online in this decade.

In the early 2000s, McMillin purchased the Imperial Valley and Central Valley divisions of Allen Homes as well as Kyle Carter Homes in Bakersfield. These purchases added substantial new land holdings to the company outside of San Diego and Temecula and development began immediately. 

In 2004, the company purchased Gordon Hartman Homes in San Antonio, Texas, giving McMillin its first business division outside of California.

2005 was the company’s most successful year to date with 1,975 homes built and closed across all of its divisions

2010s

Planning began for the organization’s most innovative and ambitious land development projects ever. Dubbed Millenia, the mixed-use urban center on 210 acres in the center of the 23,000-acre Otay Ranch is comprised of 3,000 attached homes, 300,000 square feet of Class A office space, 3 million square feet of commercial and retail space, and 6 parks.

McMillin broke ground on Millenia in September 2013.