Irvine Company

The Irvine Company is a privately held real estate development company based in Newport Beach, Orange County, California. Donald Bren is its Chairman.

Operations

The Irvine Company develops suburban master-planned communities throughout central and southern Orange County.

The 94,000 acre (380 km²) Irvine Ranch, of which the company retains 44,000 acres (180 km²) for development and the remainder as wilderness and recreational preserves, remains its core holding. The Ranch encompasses almost one fifth of Orange County, from the Pacific Ocean and Newport Bay, Laguna Beach, and Santa Ana Canyon, to the boundary of the Cleveland National Forest.

A partial list of cities within the boundaries of the Irvine Ranch includes:
*Laguna Beach
*Anaheim (Anaheim Hills)
*Irvine
*Tustin (Tustin Ranch)
*Orange
*Newport Beach

The Irvine Company also owns several commercial areas, such as The Tustin Market Place, Fashion Island, which Newport Beach's Newport Center district surrounds, and the Irvine Spectrum Center.

History

The Irvine Company grew out of the 185 square mile (479 km²) ranch James Irvine, Benjamin and Thomas Flint, and Llewellyn Bixby founded in 1864 from Mexican and Spanish land grants.

Irvine and his partners began by purchasing the Rancho San Joaquin, which constitutes the coastal half of the present-day ranch, from the Mexican aristocrat Jose Antonio Sepulveda. A drought that killed his livestock forced Sepulveda to foreclose his ranch. The partners purchased the second half, Rancho Lomas de Santiago—largely unfarmable due to its steep, hilly terrain—in 1866 from the Santa Ana-based agricultural entrepreneur William Wolfskill, who had used it largely as a sheep ranch.

In 1894, Irvine's son, James Irvine II, incorporated the land holdings as the Irvine Company.

In 1953, the National Scout Jamboree was held on Irvine Ranch land in the area of what is now Fashion Island Shopping Center. Jamboree Road, running from Newport Beach to Orange, was built to allow people to travel to the jamboree from nearby train stations.

In 1959 the company donated 1000 acres (4 km²) and sold 500 acres (2 km²) near Newport Beach to the University of California for construction of a new UC campus ( [http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=33.641705,-117.841673&spn=0.017614,0.030770&z=2&hl=en map] ). The university and company together designed the Irvine Ranch Master Plan for developing the surrounding area. The city of Irvine, whose citizens officially incorporated it in 1971, grew around the campus.

Fictional accounts

* The Irvine Company is the model for "The O.C."'s The Newport Group, Orange County's most-powerful real estate developer.

External links

* [http://www.irvinecompany.com/ The Irvine Company website]
* [http://www.irvineranch.com/villages/map.asp Map of new homes from the Irvine Company]
* [http://www.irvineranchconservancy.org Visit the wildlands and parks on The Irvine Ranch] , where The Irvine Ranch Conservancy provides public access and environmental restoration.
* [http://www.goodplanning.org/themasterplan/ Map of the Irvine Ranch and information on its master plan]