Irvine Co.’s Top Residential Sales Official Resigns

The Irvine Co.’s top residential marketing official said Monday that he is resigning to begin his own consulting firm.

John Martin, corporate vice president of residential marketing since 1986, said his resignation is effective June 30.

His departure comes at a time when the Irvine Co. has completed major marketing studies for its Tustin Ranch project and initial studies for the East Orange and Newport Coast planned communities.

An Irvine Co. spokeswoman said Martin’s duties would be assumed by research director David Kovach as the giant land development firm continues marketing programs for the 12,000-home East Orange community and the 2,600-home Newport Coast project.

Martin, 55, is a Southern California native with 30 years in the residential marketing and development business, including a decade as head of his own building firm.

Since graduating from UCLA with a degree in marketing and real estate, Martin has been vice president of marketing at several of Southern California’s largest construction and development firms, including the Lusk Cos., the William Lyon Co., the Mission Viejo Co. and J.M. Peters Co.

He said he is leaving the Irvine Co. because of the consulting opportunities he sees in the current residential sales slowdown “and in the dramatic change in the whole nature of the market in the next decade.”

That change, driven by economic, environmental and political concerns, means that there will be less land available for development and that land costs will continue increasing at the same time pressures increase for lower home prices.

The result is that developers must find ways to increase the number of units on each acre of buildable land while providing buyers a comfortable environment with ample floor space.