Founders on TRD Top 100

Here’s an additional finding from The Real Deal’s recently published top 100: the founder factor is real.

Our selection of the most prominent people in Southern California real estate has a lot of founders, who, even if they’ve stepped back on paper, still appear to be very much in.

There is no better example than founder-turned-chief-executive-turned-executive-chairman Rick Caruso. The billionaire mall developer founded his real estate empire in the late 1980s and was CEO until 2022, when he ran for Los Angeles mayor against Karen Bass and named Corinne Verdery as his successor. Verdery still runs the company on a day-to-day basis, but Caruso no doubt has a hand in decisions — and he certainly remains the very public face of the brand.

Then there’s Michael Hackman, founder and current CEO of Hackman Capital Partners, who happens to be in a legal tussle with Caruso over a billion-dollar redevelopment. Hackman hasn’t stepped back from the day-to-day, but, like Caruso, he has created one of the biggest L.A. real estate companies. Hackman did it with the entertainment industry’s production studios, and there’s another founder in the studio business who made the cut: Hudson Pacific Properties’ Victor Coleman.

Bill Witte recently ditched the corner office and was crowned chairman emeritus of Related California, the company he co-founded, which tapped two execs to fill his shoes. And, that brings us to an Orange County founder-turned-chairman emeritus Emile Haddad. Haddad was chief executive of FivePoint Holdings, the Lennar spin-off, until he was replaced … there’s more to that story beyond his top 100 listing.

Other founders include Don Hankey — who some know as the billionaire who put up President Donald Trump’s bond in his New York civil fraud case — but in L.A. created a lending business like no other; the largest private landowner in the country Stan Kroenke; controversial developer Geoff Palmer; and Cityview co-founder Sean Burton. Check out the list to see the rest.

Canceled

You’ve probably heard USC canceled its California gubernatorial debate after backlash over its inclusion of only white candidates. Matt Mahan had a very PG — or maybe PC — reaction: “California isn’t working for too many working people — the answer isn’t to cancel debates, it’s to hear all voices,” he wrote on social media.

But Caruso, a big backer of Mahan, had more to say.

“There’s no crying in baseball. The Democrat Party needs to wake up and toughen up. Candidates who’ve been campaigning for two years, can’t raise money, and remain in the low single digits need to step aside or be pushed aside by the Democratic Party. Propping up candidates like Antonio Villaraigosa, who clearly can’t read tea leaves, only helps Republicans win the Governor’s mansion. The debate should be rescheduled quickly & fairly. Lead, follow, or get out of the way,” he wrote.

There seems to be some irony in Caruso sounding like Governor Gavin Newsom, who during a recent interview at Sam’s Grill in San Francisco said: “my party needs to be more ruthless.”

Caruso, after all, is the Republican who turned Democrat to run for mayor in L.A. four years ago, while Newsom is the current Democratic presidential hopeful who’s running toward the center from his longtime perch on the left side of the political spectrum.

Internal

In L.A. company news, the Vanguard Group technically no longer owns any shares in Kilroy Realty, according to a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. But it isn’t a sell-off, rather the result of “an internal realignment,” which has various subsidiaries of Vanguard responsible for reporting on their own holdings. Vanguard and its subsidiaries and units owned a total of about 16 million shares, per a late 2025 filing, which amounted to about 13.5 percent of the company. That made Vanguard one of the largest shareholders in Kilroy before the SEC allowed the subordinate units to take on the role of beneficial owners of their respective shares rather than aggregating them under Vanguard’s banner.

Succession

On the corporate beat, David Simon, chair and chief executive of Simon Property Group, which owns the Beverly Center in Los Angeles among other malls throughout California, passed away. His eldest son Eli Simon was chosen to succeed him. The board of directors did not approve any changes to his compensation but left the door open. In 2024, per the latest proxy statement, Eli Simon as chief investment officer and a board member was paid a base salary of $575,000 and a bonus of $650,000. His father David’s total compensation was around $61 million, mostly via stock awards, but his salary was more than a million and his bonus $3 million.

Listings

What do listings on Santa Monica’s Ocean Avenue and in downtown Los Angeles’ Historic Core have in common? Almost nothing … except debt problems.

901 Ocean Avenue: It’s a receivership sale after lender Nano Banc sued owners and borrowers — entities connected to Andrew Stupin and Gerald Marcil — over a $27 million loan. The ask for the 28-apartment building is $27.5 million, that’s about a million a piece.

449 South Broadway: The Metropolitan building is on the market with no asking price after its owner — the Fallas family of the bankrupt discount retailer — defaulted on a $32 million loan, which was sent to special servicing.