RICH, TOO
Some Other Rich Notables: Tile King, Horseman, Stargazing Financier, Dental Fixtures Fixture
Larry Bedrosian
Owner, chief executive, Bedrosian;
real estate owner
Larry Bedrosian is a tile king and industrial property magnate.
He recently bought a 500,000-square-foot industrial building in Tustin that was part of Steelcase Inc.’s former campus. Bedrosian has leased the building to the tile company that bears his name, Bedrosians.
Bedrosian owns industrial space used by his tile business and has other real estate in Anaheim, Corona, the San Fernando Valley and Las Vegas.
His focus: industrial space. We peg his portfolio of industrial space at 2 million square feet.
Bedrosian imports tile from Europe and Asia and sells it wholesale to designers, homebuilders and Home Depot Inc.’s Expo Design Center. The family business is based in Fresno, where it started. Bedrosian lives on Newport Beach’s Linda Isle.
The company employs 500 people in California, Washington, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado and Florida. About 150 workers are moving to Tustin from Anaheim and Corona, with plans to add another 50. Bedrosian recently leased the freed-up 243,000-square-foot Corona facility to Michigan’s Dart Container Corp.
The Tustin building is set to be the primary distribution hub for Bedrosians, which imports 85% of its products. Tiles and slabs of stone are set to come in through the Port of Long Beach to Tustin.
Bedrosian’s parents, Ed and Alice, started the company in 1948, selling tile and setting materials to contractors and builders in the central part of the state.
The company hit a growth spurt in the 1970s and today has 30 facilities in six states.
Bedrosians remains in family hands. Bedrosian’s brother, Gary, and sisters, Janice and Linda, are involved in the business.
,Mathew Padilla
R.J. BRANDES
Founder, Belgravia Capital Corp.,
Belgravia Financial Services;
Chief executive, Blenheim EquiSports of
California LLC
R.J. Brandes made an initial fortune by selling Belgravia Capital Corp., a lender to mobile home park developers, to Finova Group Inc. in 1997, reportedly for $90 million. At the same time, he sold another business, Belgravia Finan-cial Services, to Ford Motor Credit Co. for an undisclosed sum.
These days, Brandes’ passion is the ponies,but not at the track. His Blenheim EquiSports of California LLC runs the 80-acre Oaks Blenheim Rancho Mission Viejo Riding Park in San Juan Capistrano, which hosts equestrian events. The company, named after the Blenheim Palace in England, is as much of a passion as a business venture.
“A lot of other things I’ve done in my life have now allowed me to do this,” he said.
Brandes’ earlier ventures have been many, including a leather and hide business in Argentina, where he lived for 10 years. He’s spent time in several other South American countries including Uruguay and Brazil.
In 1999, Brandes brought show jumping to the West in a big way by turning 80 acres into a premier horse park. He then landed the U.S. Olympic team trials,the first time the tryouts were held on the West Coast. He took over Joan Irvine Smith’s horse shows, which were held on the property that Brandes now leases from Rancho Mission Viejo LLC.
The riding park is lavish. Among the flourishes: a mahogany wood barn and hand-built stonewalls. Brandes is building his own wireless phone tower disguised as a water tower.
Brandes owns an adjacent 18 acres of the park, a place he calls Blenheim Farms. It’s a retreat for him and his family, who live in Newport Beach. He walks his chocolate Labrador there on the weekends.
Brandes played polo in Argentina and learned to ride in New Canaan, Conn., where he grew up. He still rides but saves his body for rowing.
His wife, Gloria, owns B.B. Dakota, a clothing designer that fashions clothes for J.C. Penney Co. and others.
Brandes is a director of the Mission Preservation Foundation in San Juan Capistrano. He’s keen on preserving what history is left in Orange County. The church was turned to ruins after an 1812 earthquake.
Another cause he backs: the Washington D.C.-based Latino Coalition, which promotes economic and social development of Hispanics.
Brandes, who employs Hispanic workers and speaks Spanish, advocates better healthcare and immersion in English for Spanish speakers. Rather than border disputes, he’d like to see a work permit arrangement for those who want to work and settle here.
,Sherri Cruz
WALTER CRUTTENDEN
Owner, chairman, chief executive,
Cruttenden Partners LLC
Walter Cruttenden is rich and unconventional.
The Newport Beach financier, who started what’s now Roth Capital Partners LLC in Newport Beach, likes to stargaze.
In 2001, he launched Newport Beach-based Binary Research Ins-titute, a group that seeks to prove Earth’s sun is a binary star, curving through space around a gravitational center created by it and its undiscovered star mate.
He recently won a $16,000 online auction to spend a night of planet hunting in Hawaii with a well-known astronomer using one of the largest telescopes in the world.
Cruttenden also is the backer of Newport Beach’s Yogananda Foundation, which describes itself as a “self-realization fellowship” that makes grants to people and projects that practice the tenets of Paramahansa Yogananda, a yoga proponent and spiritual teacher of the early 20th century.
While his beliefs may be on the celestial side, Cruttenden’s money comes from more earthly endeavors.
Cruttenden’s wealth comes from his stake in the old Cruttenden Roth (which today is Roth Capital Partners), his current private equity firm Cruttenden Partners and his own private investments.
One of Cruttenden’s deals has embroiled him in controversy.
A group of unsecured creditors to bankrupt bed and bath retailer Strouds Acquisition Corp.,which Cruttenden owns through Cruttenden Partners,have launched a probe into whether management, lenders or secured creditors engaged in self-dealing prior to the company’s bankruptcy filing.
Cruttenden says he has the most to lose in Strouds’ downfall and calls the probe sour grapes: “We have winners and losers, but rarely do we have whiners,” he said.
,Andrew Simons
JAMES GLIDEWELL
Founder, owner, chief executive, president,
Glidewell Laboratories Inc.
If you have ever been to the dentist for artificial teeth or oral prosthetic devices, it’s likely that you’ve had an encounter with Jim Glidewell’s Glidewell Laboratories Inc.
Glidewell, from its Newport Beach headquarters, makes dentures, crowns, bridges and dental products. The company serves more than 10,000 dentists around the country.
Besides his chief executive and president duties, Glidewell runs the company’s research and development efforts. He also owns real estate.
Glidewell Laboratories has more than 250 workers and annual sales of more than $20 million.
Glidewell’s work has extended beyond the dentist’s office.
The company created special-effects dental appliances worn by Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and Robin Williams in films such as “Interview With the Vampire” and “Mrs. Doubtfire,” among others.
Glidewell, who was born in Las Vegas, is a military veteran who served in Southeast Asia in the mid-1960s. Upon returning to the U.S., he attended a two-year dental technology program at Orange Coast College, graduating in 1969.
He opened Glidewell Laboratories in 1970. The company’s annual sales were $39,000 that year. By 1981, Glidewell Laboratories was operating nine facilities in Southern California.
That number later was consolidated down to three, with the advent of overnight delivery systems.
Glidewell Laboratories also includes Glidewell Direct, maker of the Capture impression system and Erkodent, which can be used to make protective mouthpieces for athletes. There’s also BioTemps, an Irvine company described on its Web site as “a rebellious little division of Glidewell Laboratories.”
BioTemps’ products include transitional crowns used in dental restoration procedures.
Among Glidewell’s real estate holdings is a 73,000-square-foot industrial building at 18651 Von Karman Ave. in Irvine. In March, FedEx Corp. renewed its lease for the building for five years in a deal valued at $3.7 million. Glidewell bought the building last year for $8 million.
Glidewell’s been involved in community functions and fundraisers. His hobbies include flying, boating and golfing,he’s played in the Jaguar CEO Tour and many charity golf events held at the Newport Beach Country Club and at Big Canyon Country Club.
,Vita Reed
