Green to come home to

Costa Mesa housing developer Steve Jones is all about recycling.

He fashioned his business cards from a deck of playing cards with a sticker on one side advertising his housing business, Bettershelter.

The eco-friendly landscaping for Bettershelter’s latest venture, a quasi-village of 12 bungalows in Eastside Costa Mesa, was just going into the ground Wednesday.

Bettershelter is hosting a launch party at 6 tonight for 12@Elden, 2381 Elden Ave., a remodeled condominium complex targeted at the young, cool and environmentally conscious home buyer.

“We wanted to address a group of people that we feel were being ignored in the housing market,” Jones said.

Several big-name surfing companies call Costa Mesa home, such as Hurley, Quicksilver and Volcom. The market is ripe for a developer who caters to the hip young people who work in the industry, Jones said.

Jones and his partner, real estate developer and entrepreneur Pete Zehnder, hope to ride that wave.

“If you’re young and cool and work for one of these places, then where are you going to live in Costa Mesa,” Jones said.

Jones and Zehnder are both veterans of the surfing and skate industry. Jones worked for Quicksilver for 18 years, and was vice president of visual arts for the company. He still acts as a consultant for the firm.

Zehnder founded Alva Skates Inc., one of the leading skateboard manufacturers in the United States, in 1976.

Units in Zehnder and Jones’ first development, 1.7 Ocean, a condominium complex in Westside Costa Mesa at the corner of Harbor Boulevard and Bernard Street, have all sold, primarily to single professionals in their 30s, Jones said. The first 10 units sold in a matter of months after the complex of remodeled condominiums went on the market in summer 2007.

“There’s 12 happy people living there now — I think it’s proof that people are looking for something different,” Jones said.

The 12@Elden complex is made up of a clutch of earth tone-painted bungalows just east of the 55 Freeway in Costa Mesa. The units feature recycled hardwood floors and numerous other “green” amenities, such as tankless water heaters, double-paned windows and low-flow toilets. The bathroom tiles are made from recycled glass.

The homes are priced at $499,000 to $589,000. Buyers also can upgrade to solar panels for the homes.

The houses are small by Orange County standards at 1,000 square feet, but small in a good way, Zehnder said.

“We could have torn all of this down and built two-story condominiums here, but we didn’t want to do that,” Zehnder said.

The idea was to create a small, village-like community, Zehnder said.

“We wanted to take something that was already here and make it better, improving the community,” he said.

The developers were attracted to the 1960s-style bungalows because of their community feel — all the units open up into a shared courtyard. A community garden on the property will provide fresh, organically grown produce to homeowners at 12@Elden.

Jones decorated a model home on the property with vintage furniture and other recycled, thrift store finds, like his collection of second-hand ocean scape paintings. Tiki-themed knickknacks and 1970s-chic light fixtures adorn the model. A vintage surfboard from the 1920s, a hulking piece of varnished wood, adorns one wall in the bedroom. A recycled beer sign hangs above a couch in the living room.

“I’ve been collecting this stuff for years,” said Jones, who calls the 12@Elden units “hybrid homes,” because of their use of recycled elements.

The homes at 12@Elden all feature fireplaces. Zehnder and Jones had the paint stripped off the mantles to reveal the natural brick underneath.

“It’s a sort of a different aesthetic,” Jones said. “It’s not new. It’s something that’s been recycled because you don’t have to scrap everything, because there’s something here that’s good. We created a new energy here.”

For more information on purchasing a home at 12@Elden, visit www.bettershelter.com or call Casey Lesher at Surterre Properties at (949) 702- 7211.

BRIANNA BAILEY may be reached at (714) 966-4625 or at [email protected].