Birtcher Returns to Commercial Construction

LAGUNA NIGUEL — Less than three years after selling control of its 57-year-old commercial development business to Japanese trading concern Mitsui & Co., the Birtcher family has reentered the arena with a new building firm.

Birtcher Commercial Development Group will compete in the same market as the former Birtcher Real Estate Ltd., which is 80% owned by Mitsui and was renamed MBK Real Estate Ltd. early this year. The Laguna Niguel-based Birtcher family remains a passive investor with 20% of MBK’s stock.

A recovering market for commercial, retail and industrial buildings throughout the West prompted the family’s decision to reenter the market, said Brandon Birtcher, co-chairman of Birtcher Enterprises, a holding company that started the new building firm.

“Their timing is excellent,” said Alan Beaudette, senior vice president of CB Commercial in Newport Beach. “After five tough years, the market is coming back.”

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The move also will allow the family to accommodate Asian clients’ increased interest in commercial developments in the U.S., Birtcher said. The holding company, Birtcher Enterprises, has been an active player in the Asian commercial development market.

“We decided that the time is right after years of quiet” in the commercial development business, Birtcher said. “Commercial development is going to be an important part of the development business again.”

Birtcher co-owns Birtcher Enterprises and its subsidiaries with his brother, Baron Birtcher, and Bob Anderson, a cousin by marriage. Brandon Birtcher and Bob Anderson are co-chairmen. Baron Birtcher remains at MBK as head of the company’s development of housing for senior citizens.

Richard C. Lutzky, a 10-year veteran of the Birtcher businesses who stayed with MBK when control passed to Mitsui, has been brought back into the fold and will be executive vice president and principal operating officer of Birtcher Commercial Development.

The new company has major construction projects in California, Oregon and Colorado, and is negotiating several land purchases for its own acreage to build on.

Grading is scheduled to begin later this month for a 700,000-square-foot warehouse distribution center near the new Denver airport, and a 217-acre business center near Portland is being expanded. The company will also be involved in codeveloping and leasing a 150,000-square-foot retail center in Laguna Niguel, Birtcher said. He declined to identify the property owners in the three deals.

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Over the years, various Birtcher companies have developed, built and sold about 50 million square feet of industrial, commercial, retail and residential properties.

Birtcher founder Fayette E. Birtcher began the business as a small Santa Ana-based home builder in 1939. He quickly got into commercial building and was a pioneer in the development of the concrete tilt-up method of construction used around the world today. Under his sons, Art and Ron Birtcher, the company became one of the largest commercial builders on the West Coast. Its signature development is the huge, blue-hued Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood.

Birtcher Enterprises operates several development, property management and real estate investment and advisory services firms. They include Birtcher Property Services, Birtcher Venture Capital and Birtcher-Hobbs Communities, a home builder and developer of master-planned communities.