Bren owns Irvine Co., one of California's largest private landowners. The Newport Beach-based company owns New York's MetLife building, more than 550 office properties, over 125 apartment communities and 40 shopping centers. It also controls marinas and hotels around southern California, Chicago and Silicon Valley.
Donald Bren's net worth of $15.0B can buy ...
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The majority of Bren's fortune derives from his ownership of Irvine, California-based Irvine Co., a closely held real estate investment business.
The company controls more than 550 office properties, over 125 apartment communities, 40 retail centers, five marinas and three hotel resorts, according to the company website.
Occupancy rates, rent per square foot and cap rates for Bren's properties were aggregated from Bloomberg Intelligence, REIS, Real Capital Analytics and CBRE. Each property has been individually valued, and a debt level of 55% is used on Irvine's office, retail, and residential properties. No debt has been applied to his raw land.
Bren's U.S. office and industrial properties have a combined net asset value of about $7 billion. His residential rental properties encompass more than 53,000 housing units spread out over Orange County, San Diego, Los Angeles and Silicon Valley, and retail properties cover 40 shopping centers in Orange County and Silicon Valley.
A liability of $3.4 billion is included to reflect a line of credit that Irvine Co. holds through bonds tracked by Bloomberg.
Scott Starkey, a spokesman for Irvine Company, declined to comment on Bren's net worth in July 2020.
Bren was born in Los Angeles in 1932 to naval officer and entertainment executive Milton Bren and his wife, Miriam Newbert Bren. Donald attended the University of Washington on an athletic scholarship and graduated with a bachelor's degree in business administration and economics in 1956. Following his graduation, Bren served as an officer in the Marine Corps. In 1958 he founded the Bren Co., which built homes in Orange Country, California.
He and two partners started the Mission Viejo Co. (MVC) and purchased 10,000 acres to plan and develop the city of Mission Viejo, California, in 1963. He sold his stake in MVC in 1967 to focus on the Bren Co. and sold his namesake firm to International Paper in 1970 for $34 million, only to buy it back in 1972, following a recession, at a lower price.
Bren and a group of investors bought a 34% stake in closely held Irvine Co. in 1977. The company owned the Irvine Ranch, which was founded by James Irvine in 1864 and consisted of 93,000 acres of land stretching from Newport Beach to the Cleveland National Forest. When the U.S. housing market stalled in the early 1980s, Bren started buying out his partners. He became chairman and majority shareholder in 1983 and sole owner in 1996.
The billionaire has donated more than 50,000 acres of the Irvine ranch to Orange County parks and the state of California. The other 43,000 acres have been developed into the largest suburban community between Los Angeles and San Diego. He serves on the board of trustees at California Institute of Technology and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and is a fellow with the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
Bren alternates between homes in Newport Beach, Los Angeles and Sun Valley, Idaho. He's been married three times and has seven children.