Sim Promoted to New Position at Irvine Co.

Real estate developer the Irvine Co. said Wednesday that it has promoted Dick Sim, who was instrumental in developing the 5,000-acre Irvine Spectrum business park, to the newly created post of chairman of the Investment Properties Group.

Sim, who had been the division’s president, also becomes one of the three members of the newly created Operations Management Committee, which will direct the planning and development efforts of its two major operating groups. Irvine Co. Chairman Donald L. Bren and Vice Chairman Mike McKee are the other two members.

The Newport Beach firm also said it is consolidating its Irvine Apartment Communities with the investment properties division as part of a move to bring together the parts of the company that generate income as investment properties.

“This is part of a more efficient organizational structure,” said Rich Elbaum, a company spokesman.

Clarence Baker, formerly president of Irvine Apartment Communities, has been promoted to replace Sim as president of investment properties. Barker and Joseph Davis, who heads Irvine Community Development Co., will report to the committee.

The community development group, the residential planning division, is the Irvine Co.’s other major operating arm.

The Irvine Co. is Orange County’s biggest real estate developer and controls about a fifth of the county’s acreage. It developed the city of Irvine, the world’s largest master-planned community, and has residential and commercial holdings in San Diego County and Northern California.