"The Irvine Company" is the official denomination of the proprietary company of Irvine Ranch, a territory covering over ninety square miles (around one sixth of Orange County) and comprising six towns and cities as well as numerous scattered settlements. The area includes thirty million square feet of office and commercial space and the same amount for industrial activities, along with sixty-five thousand housing units. At present almost two hundred thousand people work in the territory The Company is split into four main divisions: "Land & Residential Development," "Investment Properties," Corporate Affairs and Legal," and "Finance." The first group, in charge of planning and urban development, is in turn subdivided into five concerns: "Coastal Community Builders," responsible for the areas of Newport coast and Newport Ridge; "Irvine Community Builders," responsible for the settlements of Irvine and Tustin; "Irvine Land Management," which markets and sells land for residential, institutional, and community use, as well as carrying out research and development activity on interventions of social interest; the "Residential Marketing Division," which is in charge of the development of real-estate investments and the direct sale of buildings constructed by the company; and finally, "Investment Properties," which is also involved in the planning and development of real estate through the promotion of manufacturing and commercial activities.

Through these divisions, the Company operates in all the main sectors of business, works alongside the municipality on territorial planning, and is directly involved in the design and construction of numerous complexes for offices, hotels, and shopping centers. Among the most significant of the latter are the business district of Newport Center at Newport Beach, which covers 600 acres, and the Jamboree Center at Irvine, which consists of forty-six acres used for service and commercial industries. However the highest concentration of businesses is to be found in the southeastern part of Irvine. At the junction of the San Diego and Santa Ana Freeways, the Company has created Irvine Spectrum, an area of 2,600 acres with about 30 million square feet of space for offices, industrial activities, hotels, and shopping centers. At present it houses 550 companies with about 15,000 employees. Another important sector of activity is the planning and construction of residential settlements, which are grouped into villages, the so-called communities. The Company owns sixteen residential communities and the associated shopping centers of Newport Center Fashion and Tustin Market Place. Since 1993 operations in the real-estate market have been conducted through "Irvine Apartment Communities," a concern that manages forty-three complexes with a total of 11,300 housing units and that has a turnover of 129 billion dollars. In its first year of activity the IAC founded five new villages and started work on the construction of 2,207 housing units. (A.R.)

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