Mitsui to Buy Half of Developer Birtcher : Investments: The $100-million sale signals a growing trend by the Japanese--to get more actively involved in their purchases.

The big Orange County developer Birtcher said Monday that the giant Japanese conglomerate Mitsui & Co. had agreed to acquire half of its real estate and construction business for more than $100 million.

The deal combines one of the nation’s largest developers with the world’s largest trading company. The investment is thought to be the largest yet by a Japanese firm in an American real estate developer.

It also represents a significant shift in Japanese real estate investment strategy in the United States. Until recently, Japanese firms simply bought buildings or at most were passive investors in American developers’ construction projects. By acting as a developer, they gain significantly more control over their investments.

“This is part of a trend where the Japanese are moving from purchasing completed, fully leased buildings to getting into the development process,” said Michael L. Meyer, a managing partner at the accounting firm Kenneth Leventhal & Co., which worked on the Birtcher acquisition.

A family-owned company with a relatively low profile, Laguna Niguel-based Birtcher is one of the West Coast’s oldest developers. It was founded 51 years ago.

Mitsui is an even more venerable company. Founded in 1876, it has diversified into a dozen industries, from canned seafood to computer chips.

Mitsui’s relationship with Birtcher goes back three years, to about the time that Mitsui formed its U.S. real estate subsidiary. Mitsui and Birtcher built four projects together, with Mitsui putting up most of the money and Birtcher most of the expertise.

“About two years ago, we were looking for a way to expand our business,” said Birtcher President Michael Voss. “What we liked about Mitsui was that they were very entrepreneurial. And our management styles were similar. This is a family company, and we make decisions based on consensus, much like a Japanese company.”

“We were taking a very passive role in our real estate investments,” said Hiroyuki Saito, a senior vice president at Mitsui & Co. U.S.A. “We had accumulating exposure and we were dependent on our partners’ expertise. So we decided we’d like to evolve into a developer.”

Mitsui gets a stake in 31 Birtcher projects now under construction. They are run by a collection of partnerships similar to operating divisions in other companies. It also gets half of Birtcher’s construction company, which once worked mostly on Birtcher’s own projects but is now doing more outside jobs.

Not included in the deal is Birtcher real estate worth up to $3 billion.

“Not only is developing their own buildings another way of creating value,” said Meyer. “It’s also more politic for a Japanese company to enter the market by backing a highly (regarded) domestic developer than to purchase outright a property or a development company under a Japanese name. Japanese investors are sensitive to the backlash in this country.”