Sobrato controls the Sobrato Organization, a closely held real estate developer that owns about 7.5 million square feet of office space in Silicon Valley. The Cupertino, California-based company's projects include Apple's former headquarters as well as about 30 apartment buildings along the West Coast.
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The majority of Sobrato's fortune is derived from the real estate he controls through closely held Sobrato Organization. The properties encompass more than 7.5 million square feet of commercial space and about 30 apartment buildings along America's west coast, according to the company's website.
The value of the commercial holdings has been indexed to the performance of West Coast commercial property prices compiled by researcher RCA since December 2014. The base valuation was calculated using the average selling price per square foot of offices owned by Sobrato, according to three Silicon Valley property brokers in 2014.
The value of the residential properties has been indexed to the performance of West Coast residential property prices compiled by researcher RCA since December 2014. The base valuation was calculated using the median list price for homes in California as of December 2014, according to Zillow, an online real estate database.
A 40 percent discount is applied to the properties to account for debt, according to a person familiar with the holdings who asked not to be identified because the information is private. Projects under construction aren't included in the net worth calculation.
Sobrato Capital, the investment arm of Sobrato Organization, has been funded by cash flow from the real estate operations. Its holdings are valued using the asset value of the securities held by its funds, which was confirmed by Sobrato in a June 2019 e-mail.
Sobrato said his family's net worth was $8.1 billion in a June 2019 email.
John Albert Sobrato was born in San Francisco on May 23, 1939, the son of Italian immigrants John and Ann. His mother sold the family's restaurant business after his father died in 1952, and used the proceeds to invest in real estate. After graduating from Santa Clara University in 1960, Sobrato founded property developer Midtown Realty.
He partnered with his mother a year later to construct his first development, a 14,000 square foot office for Lockheed in Sunnyvale, California. The next year, broker Carl Berg joined Midtown. The pair developed 2.3 million square feet of property in Silicon Valley before they split, after which Sobrato established Sobrato Development Companies.
By 1985, Sobrato's commercial real estate holdings had surpassed 5 million square feet. He began to diversify into residential property, developing his first apartment project in San Jose. A year later, Sobrato began to construct Apple's new headquarters in Cupertino, California.
Sobrato is married with three children. He passed the daily operation of the company to his son, John, in 1997. He focuses on his philanthropic giving through the Sobrato Family Organization.