Donald Bren

Irvine Company had no shortage of major deals in the last year, signing some of the biggest office leases in major cities.

A lot of that traction seems to come from the Newport Beach, Calif.-based company’s relationships with its tenants and business partners as well as major investments it’s made into a portfolio that spans Southern California and Silicon Valley, as well as Chicago and New York, with some of those buildings being standouts in their respective skylines.

The company is led by Donald Bren, a Los Angeles native and the wealthiest real estate businessman in the United States, who has expanded throughout the region for over 50 years and was among the investors who purchased what would become Irvine Company from the Irvine Foundation in 1977.

Bren started down the path to becoming an industry leader as president of the Mission Viejo Company, the master builder and planner behind the city of Mission Viejo. Bren also master planned the Westlake Village, Newhall Ranch and Foster City communities while later doing the same for the city of Irvine and the Newport Coast.

Aside from such large-scale development, Irvine Company retains major office ownership stakes. And it’s been busy in that realm, too. The company leased 2 million square feet total in Southern California in the first quarter of 2024. And, in May, accounting and business consulting firm Armanino reached two separate leases at Irvine Company’s 2121 Avenue of the Stars and 400 Spectrum Center, both in L.A. 

The Irvine Company ended 2023 on a high note, too, with an 11-year extension for Metlife’s 400,000-square-foot headquarters at 200 Park Avenue, commonly known as the Metlife Building, which Irvine owns in a joint venture with Tishman Speyer. CBRE also kept occupancy high in the Metlife Building, where it is the exclusive leasing brokerage, renewing its own 180,000 square feet of office there this past July.