Brinderson Loses Remaining Stake in Irvine Towers

Capping a lengthy dispute with construction magnate Gary L. Brinderson, a New York insurance company has taken total possession of twin office buildings in Irvine once known as Brinderson Towers.

Equitable Life Assurance Society of the U.S., which held a controlling interest in the 9-year-old buildings, carried through with its threat Friday and foreclosed on one of the towers, gaining Brinderson’s 30% interest.

Now called Newport Gateway Tower I and Tower II, the sleek buildings near MacArthur Boulevard and Jamboree Road were built by Brin-Mar I, a partnership that until the foreclosure was 70% owned by Equitable Life and 30% by Brinderson.

Friday’s foreclosure involved Tower I, which houses the offices of Brinderson’s construction company on the 14th floor. Brinderson Corp. built the towers in 1987 but was not otherwise involved in the real estate venture.

Brinderson fought unsuccessfully in court to block the foreclosure. He then offered this week to buy the building for $39 million, but the offer was rejected, according to Brinderson’s spokeswoman.

“There’s nothing he could do to prevent the foreclosure, that’s Equitable’s choice,” spokeswoman Annette McCluskey said Friday.

For the past six months, Equitable and Brinderson have held meetings in an attempt to iron out their differences. At the heart of the dispute was control of the building, which initially had financial difficulty but is now almost fully leased.

“These are not nice people,” Brinderson said. “Now that the building is profitable, they’ve made a decision, ‘Why should we give 30% to our partner?’ ”

In August, Equitable bought the note on the building from Banque Paribas for $38.5 million, a move that Brinderson has viewed as an attempt to force him to relinquish his interest in the building.

Equitable said Brinderson had to pay $11.5 million to retain his equity in the partnership, and threatened to foreclose. As a limited partner, Brinderson said, he was not required to pay anything.

Brinderson said he offered to kick in the $11.5 million if he could become a general partner and “participate in discussions” about the building’s future. He said Equitable rejected that option.

Jonathan D. Miller, a spokesman for Equitable, declined to comment on the negotiations. He said the foreclosure will have no impact on any of the tenants in the buildings.

In a 1991 restructuring of their partnership, Equitable took 100% control of Tower II, and Brinderson agreed to reduce his stake in Tower I from 50% to 30%.

In 1993, after the recession took its toll on the property’s value, Brinderson said he asked that his name be removed from the buildings.