Broker Gets His Own Firm

John Donovan, a former vice president of John Burnham & Co. commercial real estate brokerage, has joined with former Burnham broker Craig Irving to start the Donovan/Irving Group, a brokerage company specializing in downtown office leasing.

Donovan joined Burnham in 1978 and over the next 11 years was involved in lease transactions totaling more than $200 million and 1.3 million square feet.

“All the things I depended on someone else to do (at Burnham), all of a sudden I have to start doing,” Donovan said of his business, which began operations last month. “It’s not a lot of fun, and it can be very time-consuming, but it’s enjoyable to know that if something goes wrong, we can change it. We didn’t have that luxury with a large company.”

Donovan said he’s not out to be the next Burnham or Koll, nor does he want to have brokers spread throughout the county. He prefers to stay in the downtown niche he carved for himself when he was at Burnham’s.

“For the time being, we will just continue to be a firm that works downtown and hopefully continues in high-profile projects like in the past,” Donovan said. “I don’t want to get to the point where I manage 50 brokers. You lose control of the service that’s provided and I don’t want to lose control of that.”

A graduate of Boston University, Donovan has lived in San Diego since 1977. Before joining Burnham’s, he was an energy management consultant for Honeywell.

Donovan lives in Coronado with his wife and two daughters.