Irvine Co. certainly isn’t among the ranks of OC companies looking to relocate to Texas.
Instead, the area’s largest real estate company is grabbing talent from the Lone Star State to bolster its executive ranks.
The Business Journal has learned that the closely watched Newport Beach-based developer and property owner has made some noteworthy hires of late, including a pair of Texas natives, as well as one exec with deep ties to OC’s homebuilding scene.
The privately held company’s website disclosed the new additions to the exec team last Friday, just prior to the Business Journal going to press.
Irvine Co.’s new president of its office division is Jonathan Brinsden, previously CEO of Houston’s Midway, a developer responsible for some of that region’s more notable mixed-use projects and master-planned communities in recent years.
He takes over the Irvine Co. office position—which oversees a 53 million-square-foot portfolio, a bulk of it in OC—from Doug Holte, who stepped down from the post around the end of last year.
Brinsden left privately held Midway earlier this month, for what local reports described at the time as an “unannounced opportunity in California.”
Also from Texas: Jason Maxwell, Irvine Co.’s new SVP, general counsel and secretary. He leads the company’s legal, risk management and records management groups.
Maxwell was previously SVP and co-head of the global legal department at another Houston real estate giant, Hines, where Holte had worked (in the OC office) prior to joining the Irvine Co.
He takes over the GC role from Clay Halvorsen, who has retired.
One Irvine Co. appointment with more local ties: Dave Prolo is now the president of its land sales and home building division, as well as president of the company’s active in-house homebuilding arm, Irvine Pacific.
He takes over the posts from Dan Hedigan, a longtime Irvine Co. vet who has also retired.
Prolo previously led regional homebuilding divisions for Lennar, which counts its West Coast base in Irvine, and CalAtlantic Homes (based in Irvine prior to being bought by Lennar three years ago), and also headed the SoCal operations of one-time Irvine builder John Laing Homes.
While relocation of Irvine Co.’s HQ isn’t in the cards, the same can’t be said for other home builders most recently based in Irvine.
New Home Co. (NYSE: NWHM) disclosed in regulatory filings it had moved its “principal executive offices” to Scottsdale, Ariz. It’s the company’s second-biggest market, after California. The builder still counts an office at an Irvine Co.-owned location in the Spectrum.
New Home Co.’s moves echo that of Tri Pointe Homes (NYSE: TPH), which earlier this year moved its principal executive offices to Incline Village, Nev., next to Lake Tahoe. It still has its main operational base in Irvine.
The largest public homebuilder now based in OC, Newport Beach’s Landsea Homes (Nasdaq: LSEA), is getting bigger: last week it announced the $54.6 million buy of Florida’s Vintage Estate Homes, giving the company entry into the Florida—and Texas—housing markets.
For more on Landsea CEO John Ho’s other job, see our CFO Special Report, starting on page 21.
