Fieldstone Co.’s Peter Ochs Also Sits on SCR Board : Developer Builds Homes and an Art Collection

When Peter Ochs lends one of his soothing California Impressionist paintings to a gallery or museum, he says he feels as if “a friend has gone away.”

Ochs, chairman and president of the Fieldstone Co., a Newport Beach residential real estate development company, has become passionately attached to his collection of about 90 Impressionist paintings. The paintings, all muted yet colorful outdoor scenes, reflect Southern California’s simpler, undeveloped past from the 1900s to the 1950s.

Since founding his own company six years ago, Ochs has divided his limited free time between developing his art collection and working hard as a board member for the South Coast Repertory Theatre. These volunteer efforts have earned him a reputation as one of Orange County’s most visible patrons of the arts.

“I have to appreciate what others do, because I don’t have that sort of talent myself,” said Ochs, who is tall, lean and sandy haired. He said his interest in the theater stretches back to a short-lived high school acting career: “I discovered I did not have talent up front (on the stage).”

So instead he became a devoted theatergoer and supporter who eventually joined the SCR board and made a six-figure donation to the theater. He was president of the board in 1984-85 and is on the board of the Orange County Business Committee for the Arts Inc.

“He first became involved with a community-wide drive to build our present facility,” said David Emmes, SCR’s producing artistic director.

Emmes said Ochs is the ideal board member--active, devoted, but “sophisticated enough to leave the production to professionals.”

He said Ochs is a “wonderful fund raiser--very generous personally and through his company.”

Ochs, 43, also heads the theater’s long-range planning committee, a group working on a plan to move the theater into the next century.

Ochs’ other artistic interest is the early California Impressionist art collection he began about 2 1/2 years ago.

“For a long time I had wanted to develop an art collection,” he said. “These paintings capture California as it was and allows us to have a link back to our past.”

His executive assistant, Mary Hendrickson, devotes a large part of her time to improving and expanding the collection, meeting with art dealers, arranging loans and coordinating exhibits. In April, 11 of Fieldstone’s paintings were included in a corporate art exhibit at the Laguna Art Museum.

It was a particularly fitting place for the exhibit, Ochs said, because in 1918 many of the artists represented in Fieldstone’s collection formed the Laguna Beach Art Assn.

Last month, the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce awarded Fieldstone a “Medici Award” in recognition of its major contributions to the arts.

Ochs acknowledged that his company’s financial success provides much of the economic incentive for his support of the arts in Orange County.

The privately held company expects to post $200 million in sales this year, compared with $175 million last year. Fieldstone, which specializes in residential housing, has about 15 projects on the market and 30 others on the drawing boards. Ochs said Fieldstone has invested in income properties but has no immediate plans to build office buildings.

Ochs’ interest in real estate was inherited: He comes from a long line of builders. He spent nine years with the William Lyon Co., eventually becoming its president. Then Ochs decided it was time to create his own company.

“I had a dream of wanting to run something on my own,” he said. Ochs left Lyon with good feelings on both sides.

“My favorite area is management,” Ochs said. About a year ago he took a risk many managers would have avoided by hiring a consulting firm to poll his employees and find out what they really thought about Fieldstone.

Employees, who responded anonymously, were asked 65 questions about working for the company. One of the employees’ biggest complaints was inadequate medical benefits.

After further research into what other Orange County companies provided, Fieldstone began offering better medical insurance. When the review was completed, Ochs said, employee morale increased dramatically.

All 105 Fieldstone employees are also expected to abide by a credo of “six Fieldstone values” that Ochs has printed on cards that he passes out: excellence in everything we do; value of each individual employee; commitment to our home buyers; executing details well; the importance of a profitable operation, and integrity in the conduct of our business. When asked to reflect on where the company is headed, Ochs said Fieldstone’s first five years focused on “top-directed growth.” He said the next phase will be growth in directions inspired by the staff.

“We set some broad ranges and then encourage people to do what they can within the ranges,” he said. “I would rather see things emerge from below rather than me imposing (them) from above.”

Several Fieldstone housing projects have been built on the Irvine Co.’s land. “We do a good job for them,” Ochs said.

Thomas Nielsen, vice chairman of the Irvine Co., said he is familiar with both the business and artistic sides of Ochs: “I’m impressed with his deep commitment. Once he has committed himself to something, he is an active participant.”

Nielsen said he has known Ochs about nine years, working with him on both the Lyon and Fieldstone developments.

“I see a lot of businessmen who have similar (artistic) interests, but Peter combines them in a way that is somewhat unique,” he said.

A native of Bethlehem, Pa., Ochs majored in economics at Princeton University. He graduated from Stanford University with a master of business administration degree in 1967. He, his wife, Gail, and their four daughters live in a custom-built home in Corona del Mar.