County’s Five Richest Hold Their Leads

Despite all the yachts in Newport Harbor and lavish estates that dot the county, only five Orange County residents made the Forbes 400 list this year, the same five who made it the previous two years. They are:

Donald Leroy Bren, Newport Beach, Los Angeles and New York City. Bren’s fortune is estimated at a minimum of $525 million by Forbes, up from $500 million a year ago. The former collegiate ski star, son of producer Milton Bren and stepson of actress Claire Trevor, began his career as a home builder in 1958. He owns about 99% of the Irvine Co., which in turn is the single largest landowner in Orange County with 68,000 acres or approximately 13.5% of the county’s entire land mass. He was a co-founder, with the O’Neill family, of the Mission Viejo Co., developer of the 11,000-acre planned community of the same name. When the Mission Viejo Co. was sold to Phillip Morris Co. in 1967, Bren continued building in Southern California. He sold his construction company to International Paper Co. for $34.5 million in 1969 and bought it back in 1972 for $18 million, mostly in stock. Bren bought into the Irvine Co. in 1977, when the Irvine Foundation was forced to liquidate. In 1983 he secured control of the company with a $525-million leveraged buyout that gave him an 86% share. He since has increased that to almost 99%.

Richard Jerome (Dick) O’Neill, San Juan Capistrano. O’Neill is principal co-owner of Rancho Mission Viejo with his sister Alice O’Neill Avery of Los Angeles. Rancho Mission Viejo consists of 38,000 acres of land in southern Orange County. Forbes figures O’Neill’s and Avery’s assets, principally their holdings in the ranch, on which development has just begun, at a minimum of $250 million each, up from $200 million apiece in last year’s list. The ranch was founded by silver king James Flood in 1882 and the O’Neill’s grandfather was its first manager. Flood granted him title to half of the original 230,000 acres as advance payment for his services. The federal government purchased 160,000 acres in 1939, paying Flood’s heirs and one branch of the O’Neill family $5 million for what now is Camp Pendleton. Other sales and gifts of parkland since then have reduced the ranch to its current acreage.

Burton (Burtie) Green Bettingen, Newport Beach and Beverly Hills. Forbes estimates her fortune, derived from an inheritance, at $230 million, up from an estimated $225 million on the 1984 list. She is one of three daughters of the late Burton E. Green, Beverly Hills’ first real estate developer and co-founder in 1911 of Belridge Oil. Belridge was purchased by Shell Oil Co. in 1979 for $3.65 billion and Burtie Bettingen celebrated the sale by purchasing the late John Wayne’s Newport Beach residence for a reported $5 million.

Athalie (Joan) Irvine Smith, Emerald Bay and Middleburg, Va. Her personal fortune, derived from the sales of the giant Irvine Co. in 1977 and 1983, is at least $190 million, up from a $180 million in Forbes’ previous listing. Her ultimate wealth is undetermined because of ongoing litigation with Donald Bren over the value of the Irvine Co.’s land--acreage that includes the posh Newport Center and the various Irvine industrial parks as well as undeveloped property stretching from the Pacific Ocean to the Riverside Freeway.