Donald Trump is not America's richest real estate tycoon, it's another Donald who's worth almost $17 billion
When it comes to real estate wealth, one Donald is the clear winner.
California native Donald Bren is the wealthiest real estate baron in America, with an estimated net worth of nearly $17 billion, according to Bloomberg's Billionaires Index, nearly six times President Trump's fortune.
Unlike Trump, whose wealth is inherited according to Bloomberg, Bren is a self-made mogul who turned a $10,000 bank loan into a multi-billion dollar empire.
Bren's privately-held real estate investment company, Irvine Company, is the largest landowner in California.
Irvine Co.'s portfolio of properties exceeds 110 million square feet and includes office buildings, apartments, marinas, and hotels, most of which is located in picturesque Orange County. Bren also has a footprint in Trump's native New York City as the majority owner of the New York Met Life building.
In total, Bren owns one-fifth of Orange County, an area five times the size of Manhattan, according to Bloomberg.
At 85 years old, Bren, a former US Marine, is still running the show as chairman of Irvine Company — here's the story behind his success.
Donald Bren was born in Los Angeles in 1932. His father, a movie producer, and his mother, a patron of the performing arts, divorced when he was 10. His father remarried to an actress and his mother to a well-off industrialist.
AP
Bren and his brother attended Beverly Hills High School and spent their summers working as carpenters for their dad's real estate development business. A key lesson he learned from his father: "When you hold property over the long term, you’re able to create better values and you have something tangible to show for it," Bren told the Los Angeles Times in 2011.
Flickr/Tony Hisgett
Sources: Fortune, Los Angeles Times
Bren earned a partial athletic scholarship to the University of Washington for skiing. He was reportedly a stylish skier and an avid competitor who was set to go to the 1956 Olympics but couldn't participate because of a broken ankle.
Wikimedia Commons
Source: Fortune
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
No comments: