Dan Young plans to go big with his next development venture.
The former president of Irvine Company’s community development division is in the early stages of ramping up operations at Camino Enterprises, a Newport Beach-based real estate entitlement and development company he started with a focus on large projects along the California coast.
The company plans to work on sizeable land deals, as well as apartment development projects “from San Diego to San Francisco,” Young said last week.
“I’ll be focusing on value-add opportunities” that call for his entitlement, land development, and apartment development skills, he said.
Projects are likely to include multifamily deals with at least 500 units, as well as large-scale land development projects, he said.
Bigger is better when it comes to scouting out potential opportunities, he said.
“I think the marketplace has a good, efficient development (sector) when it comes to small- and medium-scale projects,” Young said. “But there’s not as many who are good at large projects.”
Young said he currently is working on four or five potential deals, and hopes to finalize at least a couple of them by year-end.
Orange County is expected to be an area of emphasis for Camino Enterprises, as is Northern California, a market where Young helped Newport Beach-based Irvine Co. grow significantly through ground-up development.
Silicon Valley represents “a big long-term opportunity, not just a short-term one,” he said.
A few area businesses that Young has worked with at Irvine Co., such as Western National Group, an Irvine-based apartment builder that has worked on a number of multifamily projects for the developer, are expected to be involved in the new deals, he said.
Patience Needed
The details of the new venture come a week after Young left Irvine Co. following a 16-year career when he rose to the No. 2 position at Orange County’s dominant real estate company—and arguably the country’s most successful master developer of large-scale communities.
He’ll remain an adviser to Irvine Co. Chairman Donald Bren—and has set up shop next door to Irvine Co.’s headquarters near Fashion Island at the 520 Newport Center Drive office tower—but his venture isn’t expected to co-develop any projects with the firm.
Irvine Co. “has had the ambition to move very fast” on most of its recent development projects, Young said. “Some deals need a little more patience and time.”
Young, who prior to Irvine Co. had his own real estate company and served as the mayor of Santa Ana, said he’s talking to “four significant land owners” in California about potential projects.
Finding equity partners shouldn’t be an issue, considering his contacts from Irvine Co., he said.
“A lot of developers have come to me who have had no problem attracting capital but haven’t been able to get their projects moving ahead,” he said.
“That’s the goal, to unlock projects, or to create value (for them),” he said. “Raising capital is the least of the problems.”
Young announced his departure from Irvine Co.—where executive moves are closely watched by the area’s real estate community—four weeks ago. A replacement for him has not been announced.
His role heading Irvine Co.’s community development division made him responsible for all residential development on the Irvine Ranch and for helping guide the community planning and development process for the privately held company.
His work grabbed the spotlight in 2010, when he spearheaded Irvine Co.’s executive builder program, whereby homebuilders were paid by the developer to put up homes on land it owned in seven Irvine neighborhoods.
The program helped to kick-start a handful of new local homebuilders and resulted in more than 850 home sales in less than a year, helping to resuscitate a largely dormant local homebuilding industry.
The Business Journal named Young its Businessperson of the Year in real estate in 2010.
The Irvine Ranch has been the best-selling master-planned development in California since then and the second best-selling development in the country.
Young also oversaw Irvine Pacific LP, the in-house building division of Irvine Co.—the largest homebuilder in OC by sales the past few years—as well as the company’s nearly 57,000 apartment units.
