If we could enjoy a day with one person in the real estate industry, it would have to be Donald Bren. Bren has seemingly mastered the art of real estate investing; evidenced by his fortune which now stands at $13 billion. That figure makes him the 26th richest man in the United States, and also the wealthiest real estate mogul to reside here.
Donald Bren has a more interesting rise to prominence than most though. Born in 1932, with little to his family name, Bren is certainly considered a self-made man. After attending college at Washington University and a brief stint in the Marine Corps, Bren began his first foray into the real estate industry.
In 1958, Bren acquired a $10,000 loan and founded Bren Company, which built homes in Orange County, California. Just five years later, Bren founded the Mission Viejo Company with two other partners. Their goal was to plan and develop the city of Mission Viejo, and they were largely successful. Meanwhile, Bren Company sold for $34 million in in 1970 to International Paper. Soon after, a recession struck and in 1972 Bren bought back his namesake company at a price of $22 million. In 1977 Bren, accompanied by a group of investors, bought the 146 year old Irvine Company. Over the next 19 years, he would make countless impeccable investments, and by 1996 he was the sole shareholder of Irvine Company.
Bren Hall at UC Irvine
To this day, Bren has not stopped augmenting his already impressive portfolio. That portfolio currently consists of almost 500 office properties, 116 apartment communities with 45,000 units, more than 40 shopping centers, five marinas, three golf clubs, and three hotels. He is also very involved in philanthropy, having donated over $1.3 billion during his lifetime, mainly to educational institutions.
The Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences at UC Irvine
Now in his early eighties there are few things Bren hasn’t accomplished. We think there are definitely a few things everybody could learn from his entrepreneurial disposition and exceptional business acumen.