Mike Atherton and Antone Raymus will cross paths again in the form of what will eventually be a key intersection in south Manteca.

Thursday’s Manteca Planning Commission approval of the 738-home Hat Ranch project coupled with development plans submitted for the next phase of the 1,301-home Griffin Park endeavor means within the next few years Atherton Drive and Raymus Parkway will intersect.

In a bit of irony, Richland Communities that outbid Atherton and his partners nearly 15 years ago to purchase the 183-acre Hat Ranch and its namesake 30,000-square-foot mansion in a bankruptcy auction on the steps of the county courthouse will pay to extend the western half of Atherton Drive southward.

Richland also will build the northern half of Raymus Parkway between Atherton Drive and South Main Street that runs along the southside of the Hat Ranch project.

Development plans submitted to the city are now under review for constructing part of Raymus Parkway west of the South Main Street intersection as part of the next phase of Griffin Park

That would will also include installing a roundabout at the South Main and Raymus intersection.

The late Antone Raymus launched Raymus Development in 1945. Daughter Toni Raymus and son Bob Raymus continued what their father started with their company dubbed Raymus Homes.

So far, the Raymus family has designed 96 neighborhoods and built 5,667 homes in Manteca along with several developments in Ripon and Linden.

Raymus helped launch the Boys & Girls Club nearly 40 years ago with a $100,000 donation.

He also founded the free community-based Give Every Child a Chance tutoring service by bringing together community members to help carry out his vision and bankrolling it with $300,000

Raymus viewed GECAC as his greatest accomplishment on a long list of community endeavors. It was because  he wanted a way to pay forward the help he received as a young immigrant student struggling in classes that allowed him to succeed in life.

His daughter and son have also carried out their father’s commitment to building the community as well as building homes. They matched his efforts in providing housing facilities for HOPE Family Shelter with Bob serving on the board.

Bob is among those involved with the effort underway to open the Thomas Toy Community Center to serv teens.

Toni  has been active in a number of community endeavors as well as founding the Great Valley Bookfest.

Atherton and his partners have built more than 4,000 homes, mostly in Manteca.

He led efforts to turn the shuttered sugar beet processing plant into Spreckels Park, a 362-acre multi-use commercial, business park, and residential endeavor.

Atherton and his partners put together the land deal that led to the Promenade Shops at Orchard Valley that is anchored by Bass Pro Shops and the Union Ranch plan that snagged Del Webb at Woodbridge.

Raymus’ first houses that he built instead of buying as rentals were custom homes in Lincoln Estates in the 1950s. He partnered with Ed Pine to build the homes that are on the two southern blocks of Mylnar and Raylow Avenue east of Powers Avenue.

Atherton’s first venture into home building took place in Manteca.

He bought acreage on the north side of Louise Avenue west of the Highway 99 freeway back in the late 1980s when the interest rate was pushing 20 percent.

Raymus had everything on the south of Louis Avenue. Atherton recalled in a 2006 interview that he and his partners got land north of Louise and west of Highway 99 because no one else wanted it.

Atherton started a home construction venture with his partners.  

The first year they sold six homes in Springtime Estates and Raymus sold 60 across the street.

“I asked Antone Raymus what I was doing wrong,” Atherton recalled in the 2006 interview. “He told me, ‘son, you’ve got to make a few changes’, and then proceeded to delineate all of the insights he had gleaned in nearly 35 years of home building at that time.”

Atherton’s admiration for Raymus runs deep. He looked at what Raymus has contributed to the community as well as solid business decisions to emulate.

He also learned another lesson the hard way — greed is not a good thing.

During the go-go days of the late 1980s and early 1990s, AKF got a bit too aggressive and when the downward slide of 1991 hit, he was one of those builders that came precariously close to the edge because they kept building inventory like there was no tomorrow.

Since then Atherton monitors market trends much closer and does get ahead of the curve. As a result, you will rarely see Atherton Homes with standing inventory.

The push to name Atherton Drive was to actually honor his grandfather, Warren Atherton who authored the GI Bill of Rights. Atherton Auditorium at Delta College in Stockton is also named after his grandfather.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com