If you were to run a search on the Irvine Company you will find that they have had many historical issues with tenants in the City of Irvine. The Irvine Company is privately owned by one man, Donald Bren and he owns a majority of the city’s real estate which includes housing, retail centers, schools, and parks. The organization seems like a corporate conglomerate but they operate more like an organized group of extortionists. They have used tactics to control their tenants and feel that they have the right to change the rules on their tenants and bypass government regulations whenever they deem fit for their own advantage. Of course, they have high-powered attorneys and government officials working for them. They even have their paid lobbyists to work the system so that they can make their own rules on city policies. Many of the Irvine tenants feel like they were misled or controlled by their leases and can never fight for their rights because they don’t have the money, time, and energy to go through the legal battle against one of the wealthiest real estate companies in America.
In a case of a business tenant operating in Irvine with multiple salon locations, a tenant of over 10 years in Irvine, Images Luxury Nail Lounge wanted to sell one of their locations after coming out of the pandemic in order to pay their debt. The Irvine Company would not allow them to reassign their lease and rejected all new tenant applications, even when the applicants had great credit but were told by the Irvine Company, “We just don’t like the applicants.” The reason the Irvine Company wants to hold Images hostage, is because they want to force Images to payout their entire lease terms before they would transfer the lease. They are bullying Images into staying so that they can guarantee their rent, otherwise, the Irvine Company would take over the business and Images would walk away with nothing. Just like any business owner, one would want to have the freedom to come and go and move into or out of a city but the Irvine company is making it challenging.
When Images first signed their lease at the Eastbluff location with the Irvine Company, Images was not informed of parking construction delays so this caused the grand opening of their salon to be postponed for over a year.
Then during COVID, Governor Gavin Newsom had required complete closures of salons but the Irvine Company told Images that they could go ahead and reopen and that the City would allow it. Images was informed that the Sheriff and city officials will not shut the business down but Images was afraid to open due to the fear of the Governor’s order, the County reopening guidelines, and safety for their patrons and employees so they remained closed, but this shows how The Irvine Company would disregard Government orders and public safety so that they can collect rent from their tenants. Irvine did not really help the businesses or tenants in their city during the pandemic by establishing a “rent relief” which was really only a deferral of rent of 90 days that made it difficult for many businesses to pay both the current rent and deferral in such a short period of time.
There are plenty of blogs, websites, and social media stories written by first-hand incidences of tenants similar to Images Luxury Nail Lounge complaining about the Irvine Company. Irvine tenants, whether they are business tenants or housing tenants feel extorted or misled into thinking that Irvine is one of the most “desirable” places to live and work but if you see the endless complaints on BBB’s website, and blogs by tenants being kicked out of their properties even when they have leases in place or an entire website dedicated to Irvine Company violating building codes and trying to cover it up, you’ll see that Irvine is not a desirable place to live or work and the Irvine Company is to blame.
