REAL ESTATE : Well-Heeled Group May Finance a Development if It Can Buy Project

Where do you go if you’re building, say, 500 homes or a strip shopping center and for some reason your lender backs out on you?

Since the crash of the savings and loan industry, getting people to invest in your project or lend you money is as tough as it’s ever been.

The big boys will always be able to find money. But if you’re a small developer, you may have to turn to somebody such as the Eaton Group in Costa Mesa, which will gladly help--for a price.

The group is a loose collection of well-heeled business people who will throw their financial muscle behind a project in return for the right to buy it. The builder walks away without losing his shirt and the Eaton Group ends up with the project. Eaton is also looking to buy real estate portfolios from banks or thrifts that need to get out of the business. “We aren’t pioneers,” said William C. Warmington, the group’s new president. “We’re looking for projects that have already been approved (by local governments) but that have run into problems with financing.”

Warmington, who specialized in turning around troubled projects in the 1980s, takes the first look at deals submitted to Eaton. Members can then invest, together or individually, in those he likes.