Just about any year, a case could be made for Donald Bren as the Business Journal’s businessperson of the year.
In 2006, it was no contest.
The chairman of The Irvine Company undertook a major office expansion, starting construction on three Irvine towers and spending $1 billion to buy trophy high-rises here and in San Diego.
Bren also started work on low-rise Irvine office buildings and continued with masterplanned developments of homes, apartments and shops.
He expanded shopping centers and attracted companies and developers to the Irvine Spectrum, where they paid top dollar for land. And he made headway toward completing his crown jewel, Pelican Hill Resort at Newport Coast.
The federal government honored Bren for his conservation efforts. The Los Angeles Times named him the most powerful man in Southern California. BusinessWeek named him one of the nation’s most generous philanthropists.
It was one of the Irvine Co.’s busiest years since Bren took control of the company in 1977.
“Dramatic may not be the best description,” Bren said of 2006. “Demanding may be better. And certainly satisfying. It was an extremely busy year for us because of continuing demand across our business lines,especially office, retail and apartments.”
For more on this story, see the Jan. 1 edition of the Business Journal.
