Forbes 400: SoCal's 5 Wealthiest Real Estate Billionaires

Around Southern California, you'll find some of the top trophy assets in real estate, in addition to the billionaire's behind them. Forbes just released its famous Forbes 400 list, and here are the local real estate tycoons on it.

Worth $15.2B, Irvine Co chairman Donald Bren isn't just the richest real estate mogul in Southern California; he's the richest in the country. Donald got into real estate in the late 1950s, when he took out a $10k loan to build a house in Newport Beach. His current fame and fortune got rolling in 1977 when he and a few investors picked up a 35% stake in Irvine Co. After decades of pushing out his partners and the great-granddaughter of the family-owned business' founder, he took a more than 97% stake in the massive firm. Today, the company owns and manages nearly 500 office buldings, 50,000 apartments, shopping centers, hotels and golf clubs.

Ed Roski retains his title as LA's wealthiest real estate mogul, with a net worth of about $4B. Ed is the second-generation leader of Majestic, which has more than 75M SF of office and industrial space in the country. Around Southern California, he's most known for his role in putting up Staples Center in Downtown LA, where two teams he has stakes in, the Kings and Lakers, play. In addition, he famously attempted to bring the NFL back to LA, something heating up under Stan Kroenke today.

Rick Caruso is most known for his Americana at Brand in Glendale, though the Caruso Affiliated chief has a lot more up his sleeves lately. Worth $3.5B, Rick is working on repositioning a Masonic temple in Glendale, where brokerage giant CBRE has already pre-leased long before the work is done. His dad found Dollar-Rent-a-Car, and Rick's had some interesting jobs through his career, including serving as president of the LA Police Commission and commissioner for the LADWP.

Perhaps on the back of selling the LA Clippers for $2B, Donald Sterling's wealth is on the rise, hitting $3.1B. But much of Donald's wealth comes from decades of buying cheap apartments around LA. That's not to say he doesn't also look at trophy assets, as he owns the California Bank Building on Wilshire (now called Sterling Plaza) and Sterling International Towers in Westwood.

Worth about $2B, George Argyros and his family run Arnel & Affiliates, a 45-year-old Orange County firm that owns about 5,500 apartments and nearly 2M SF of commercial space. George has had quite the career, previously owning the Seattle Mariners and between 2001 and 2004 serving as the US ambassador to Spain and Andorra. He also was once the largest shareholder in software developer DTS, but last year sold off the majority of his family's shares.