Top O.C. Home Builder Plans Layoffs, Changes

Orange County’s largest home builder, California Pacific Homes, plans an unspecified number of layoffs and is replacing its longtime president.

The company, owned by real estate tycoon Donald L. Bren, is elevating Bren’s son, Cary, to the top managerial position.

The layoffs, announced to the firm’s 200 employees Tuesday through an internal memo, are related to the company’s decision to phase out home building activities in San Diego and Northern California to focus entirely on its Orange County operations.

Jeff Slavin, 54, California Pacific’s president since 1991, said in the memo that he was stepping down at the end of the year. “It is a change that best fits my career goals given the new focus of our operations solely in Orange County,” he wrote.

Cary Bren, 38, has worked as a home builder for 17 years, most of them at California Pacific, and is the firm’s second-ranking executive. It had been widely assumed in the industry that he was being groomed for the top managerial spot at the company.

His father is the billionaire developer whose Irvine Co. has helped transform the landscape of Orange County through the development of its vast Irvine Ranch holdings.

California Pacific is run independently from the Irvine Co. but has been one of the major home builders on the Irvine Ranch. It has several current projects in Irvine and Newport Beach, and will soon begin developments in Bonita Canyon and Newport Coast.

The younger Bren started with California Pacific--then called the Bren Co.--in 1981. In 1987, he left to become president of Baycrest Development, returning to California Pacific in 1991. His current position is Orange County division manager.

Cary Bren “has played an increasingly integral role in the development of some of our most successful villages in Northwood, Westpark, Tustin Ranch, Newport Coast and Newport Beach. In short, Cary is very well suited to lead this company at this time,” Slavin wrote.

Neither Slavin nor Cary Bren could be reached for comment.

Irvine Co. spokesman Larry Thomas said he believes the number of layoffs at California Pacific hasn’t been determined.

Real estate consultant Jeff Meyers said California Pacific jumped to one of Orange County’s top home builders in the early 1990s, during the region’s real estate recession. While other home builders’ projects were stalled, California Pacific continued putting up homes as a means for Irvine Co. to reap some profit from its land, said Meyers, principal at the Meyers Group.

Now that the market is rebounding and land prices have begun to soar, Meyers said, it makes sense for California Pacific to scale back its building activities and focus on selling lots to other, land-hungry home builders.

Kenneth Agid, a real estate marketing consultant based in Irvine, said California Pacific’s decision to cease its Northern California operations was not surprising, given that the firm had been winding down its building activity in the Bay Area the last few years.

The reasons for pulling out of San Diego are less clear, he said. Under the leadership of Sherman Harmer, the division had been “a growing and vital operation,” Agid said.

“My guess is their intent is to be more focused on operations in and around the Irvine Ranch, which is very efficient for them to operate,” Agid said. “It’s their home court.”

Thomas said California Pacific’s decision to stop building homes in San Diego might be related to escalating land prices there. The firm recently sold some of its parcels in the area, he said.