Bren family dogged by real estate slump.

Bren family dogged by real estate slump

Today's real estate market takes no prisoners, and even Orange County's most prestigious homebuilding family is feeling the pinch.

In recent weeks the Donald Bren Co., a mid-size homebuilding firm owned by Irvine Co. chairman Donald Bren, has absorbed Baycrest Associates in an effort to cut back on costs associated with the two companies' Tustin Ranch developments. Baycrest Associates is owned by Carey Bren, Donald Bren's 31-year-old son.

According to local real estate observers, the merger is a marriage of necessity between billionaire Bren and his son's struggling company.

The consolidation of Bren and Baycrest follows the Irvine Co.'s separate decision last week to lay off 40 of its 370 people, cut overhead expenditures and delay planned capital expenditures with new land development and infrastructure activities. In an executive memo to Irvine Co. employees, company officials said they were forced to pare down because of the "sobering consequences of the onerous credit restrictions that are quickly bringing the nation's real estate industry to its knees."

Following the Bren-Baycrest merger, Bren Co. employees were laid off. But just how many employees have been let go is unknown.

Newport Beach-based Baycrest Associates also has indefinitely delayed opening its second Tustin Ranch project, called Montecito, as a result of the real estate market slowdown.

Carey Bren's Baycrest Associates already has completed one development called Maricopa in Tustin Ranch, a sprawling 1,740-acre masterplanned community in Tustin being built on Irvine Co. land. The Bren Co., which operates separately from the Irvine Co. but is ostensibly viewed as the company's homebuilding arm, also has completed one development called Arcada and is currently building another called Corte Villa.

Neither Michael Toohey, president of the Bren Co., or Carey Bren, president of Baycrest Associates, would return phone calls to comment on their companies' consolidation.

But Tustin city planners as well as sales-people at Tustin Ranch confirm Baycrest's absorption and the subsequent layoffs.

"We were told that from now on we'd be dealing solely with the Bren Co.," said Dan Fox, senior planner for the City of Tustin. Fox said Carey Bren informed him of the company's merging with the Bren Co.

Christine Shingleton, Tustin's community development director, said city officials were informed about the merger 45 days ago and that since then several project managers from the Bren Co. have left the firm.