Chairman
Irvine Co.
THE NUMBERS: Company’s holdings exceed 125 million square feet. It includes more than 560 office buildings, 125 apartment communities, 40 retail centers, the Resort at Pelican Hill, two hotels, three golf courses, and five marinas. 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 got his start as a homebuilder in 1958. In 1977, he was part of a group that purchased Irvine Co. from the founding family, the successor to the 93,000-acre ranch bought by James Irvine in 1864. Bren bought out most of his partners in 1983. Became principal shareholder in 1996.
KEY METRIC: $15.3 billion (Forbes estimate); $15.9 billion (Bloomberg estimate). After lowering our estimate by $1 billion a year ago, a few months after the onset of the pandemic, we’ve upped our figure by $1.3 billion this year. Our figure is higher than other estimates of Bren, which tie much of their estimates to the performance of REITs in the office, apartment and retail sectors. While the office and retail sectors are still a mixed bag, large apartment REIT stocks are up by 25% or more this year, and Irvine Co.’s apartment division is considered the company’s biggest moneymaker. The comparison to REITs only goes so far. Unlike REITs, which pay out most earnings to shareholders through dividends—a 3% payout isn’t uncommon—Bren is known to reinvest most of Irvine Co.’s earnings, thereby boosting his wealth correspondingly. And of course, Irvine Co. rarely sells its assets. Bren is also believed to have a large and highly profitable family investment office.
LAST YEAR: Irvine Co.-owned OC land remains among the West Coast’s best-selling area for new homes, and land values remain strong. Irvine Co.’s commercial portfolio continues to grow via development and upgrades to portfolio properties. Its recent office additions have been focused on the Irvine Spectrum area, with the low-rise Innovation Office Park. The company has an “A+” credit rating and a stable outlook from Fitch Ratings Inc. When it uses debt to fund properties, it does so at historically low interest rates, according to recent rating agency reports. Apartment rents in OC are up some 10% year-over-year, and occupancy remains high.
LOCAL HOLDINGS: Fashion Island, Newport Center, half of 185-acre UCI Research Park in Irvine, Jamboree Center, MacArthur Court, the Resort at Pelican Hill, and large parts of the 5,000-acre Irvine Spectrum.
PHILANTHROPY: Bloomberg Businessweek magazine ranks Bren as one of the country’s most generous philanthropists, estimating his lifetime giving at more than $1.3 billion. Over $265 million of that went toward education. He’s directed more than $70 million to the University of California, Irvine, in addition to giving to other schools. Bren also set aside 57,000-plus acres—more than half of the 93,000-acre Irvine Ranch—as open space and parklands in perpetuity. The U.S. Department of the Interior and the State of California formally designate the lands as Natural Landmarks. In 2014, Irvine Co. donated 2,500 acres of land in Anaheim Hills and East Orange where it once planned more than 5,000 homes. The land will be permanent open space.
Bren has also endowed over 60 permanent distinguished professor chairs at the University of California and California Institute of Technology. He’s also founded one of the nation’s first graduate-level environmental schools, the Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, at University of California, Santa Barbara.
• NET WORTH: $18 billion
• LAST YEAR: $16.7 billion
• AGE: 89
• RESIDENCE: Newport Beach
• SOURCE OF WEALTH: real estate
