Commercial real estate distress be damned, the wealthiest real estate tycoons are still plenty rich.
Twenty-five billionaires whose wealth can primarily be attributed to real estate cracked the Forbes 400 list this year, according to the publication. On the 2022 list, there was one fewer person and $5 billion less in net worth, which combined among the 25 to be worth $139 billion.
The wealthiest real estate tycoon in the country was once again Irvine Companies’ Donald Bren. His net worth surged by $600 million from last year. The nonagenarian also moved up in the overall billionaire rankings from 97th to 39th.
Related Companies’ Stephen Ross ranked second on the real estate billionaires list, but it’s a bittersweet ranking for the Hudson Yards developer. His net worth saw the sharpest decline among those who carried over on the list from year to year, seeing his estimated net worth contract by $1.5 billion; he’s still worth $10.1 billion.
There were only two newcomers to the real estate list this year. Los Angeles-based Geoffrey Palmer found his way on the ranking, accumulating a net worth of $3.1 billion. The other addition was Annette Lerner, whose real estate wealth was passed on to her following the February death of her husband, Washington, D.C. apartment landlord Ted Lerner.
Then, there’s the case of the former president. For the second time in three years, Donald Trump was absent from the Forbes list, partially due to his ties to the distressed office market. It may be difficult for Trump to reemerge on this list, especially if he’s assessed damages in his ongoing civil fraud trial in New York.
Other New Yorkers on the list include Leonard Stern ($8.1 billion), Richard LeFrak and his family ($3.3 billion), Jerry Speyer and his family ($3.1 billion) and Charles Cohen ($3 billion).
Other notable names include Jeff Greene ($7.5 billion), Ty Warner ($5.7 billion), Rick Caruso ($5.3 billion), Donald Horton and family ($4.6 billion), Donald Sterling ($4 billion) and Jay Paul ($3.7 billion).
— Holden Walter-Warner
Read more
Residential
Los Angeles
Donald Bren retains rank as nation’s richest developer with $18B
Commercial
New York
Judge rules Trump Organization violated NY state fraud law