THE WEALTH: Donald Bren heads Orange County’s largest real estate company, with the largest portfolios of apartments and offices in California, as well as notable property elsewhere, including the MetLife Building in New York City. Holdings consist of 129M square feet and include 590 office buildings, 125 apartment communities with 65K units, 40 retail centers, one coastal resort, three golf courses and five marinas, according to Irvine Company. Buildings largely in OC, with about 35% of the portfolio in Silicon Valley, San Diego, West Los Angeles, Chicago and New York City.
BIG BREAK: Bren grew up in Los Angeles and attended the University of Washington. After spending three years as a U.S. Marine Corps officer, returned to OC and built his first house in Newport Beach at the age of 25. The same year, founded the Bren Company to build more local homes. In 1977, was part of a group that purchased Irvine Co. from the founding family, the successor to the 93K-acre ranch bought by James Irvine in 1864. Bought out most of his partners in 1983. Became sole owner in 1996. Has been the steward of the Irvine Ranch Master Plan, professionally planning and building the City of Irvine and Newport Coast.
PROPOSING MORE HOMES: Plans to build more than 8.5K apartments and single family homes over the next 20 years. Major current projects include as many as 2.5K new housing units to be built near the UCI. The Newport Beach developer also announced plans to convert the privately operated Oak Creek Golf Course and two adjacent commercial parcels into a 235-acre residential neighborhood with 3.1K housing units. The proposed developments would help Irvine, which is already home to 117K housing units, meet its state-mandated goal of building around 58K new houses and apartments by the year 2045.
MAJOR LOCAL HOLDINGS: Fashion Island, office buildings and apartment communities in Newport Center, Irvine Spectrum Center, half of the 185-acre UCI Research Park, Jamboree Center, MacArthur Court and large parts of the 5K-acre Irvine Spectrum.
PHILANTHROPY: Lifetime giving estimated at more than $2.1B with over $265M going toward education. Directed more than $70M to UCI, in addition to other schools. The 41st Donald Bren Honors Concert was held at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in April, supported by Bren’s $50M commitment over 20 years to support the arts, music and science programs at Irvine Unified School District. Also set aside 57K-plus acres—more than half of the 93K-acre Irvine Ranch—as open space and parklands in perpetuity. The U.S. Department of the Interior and the state formally designated the lands as Natural Landmarks.
QUOTABLE: Tony Moiso, chairman of Rancho Mission Viejo, told the Business Journal in March that Bren encouraged the company to become developers rather than sellers of their properties. “A lot of the Irvine family and the Moulton family were selling to developers, so we decided, with Don Bren’s encouragement, who was the first president of our development company, to be developers and to stay,” said Moiso, whose company master planned the cities and communities of Mission Viejo, Rancho Santa Margarita and Ladera Ranch.
