Building on a Dream : Landscape Bears the Marks of a Driven Contractor

Three decades after he launched his business with a set of tools and a pickup truck, Gary L. Brinderson presides over one of the nation’s top construction firms.

A Learjet supplanted the pickup as Brinderson Corp. expanded, tackling heavy-construction projects across the country while competing against heavyweights such as Fluor Corp. and Bechtel Corp.

“I think you have to think of him and his company and his successes as right up there with those other major companies,” said Gary Hunt, an Irvine Co. executive and friend of Brinderson. “And he’s done it to a large extent on his own ability and his own drive.”

Since opening its first office in Costa Mesa, Brinderson’s privately owned firm has completed more than 270 projects valued at more than $3 billion. Today, his company has 44 jobs underway in California and Arizona. The company has a branch in Torrance and recently opened a 10,000-square-foot office in Phoenix.

Not everything Brinderson, 51, touches, however, turns to gold. Certainly his ventures in the Orange County real estate market have not been resoundingly successful, and one has flopped altogether.

In 1985, Brinderson bought the 10.4-acre Smithcliffs estate at the edge of Laguna Beach, hurling himself into a minefield of controversy over his plans to subdivide the property, which environmentalists said was one of the few undeveloped monarch butterfly roosts in the state.

And in a more painful financial belly-flop, Brinderson recently lost a battle with a former partner who foreclosed on half of what was once grandly known as the Brinderson Towers in Irvine.

Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States, which held a controlling interest in the two 9-year-old buildings, had insisted that Brinderson pay $11.5 million to maintain his equity. Brinderson refused, offering instead to buy outright the tower that houses his offices for $39 million.

Although the offer was rejected and the insurer has now claimed Brinderson’s interest in the building, the construction magnate said recently that he is not losing sleep. He admitted his timing was off when he made his foray into Orange County real estate but shrugged off the loss.

“We were in [real estate] at the wrong time,” he said matter-of-factly, “and we need to go on.”

The spit-and-polish Brinderson treats failure as he might an ill-fitting suit--something to step smartly out of, and as quickly as possible. Even the word “setback” somehow sticks in his throat.

It is that sort of unflappable self-confidence that has fueled Brinderson’s amazing success, his friends and family members say.

“He’ll focus on something and then, no matter what the obstacles or hurdles are, he’ll absolutely overcome them,” said Anthony Loscavio, a Brinderson Corp. vice president. “Failure is never an item on the menu.”

If Brinderson is enjoying success for the most part, it didn’t come easily.

“It’s a Horatio Alger story,” said George Argyros, chief executive of the Costa Mesa investment firm Arnel & Affiliates.

Brinderson’s roots and his drive can be traced to his grandfather, Joe Brinderson, an Italian immigrant who had earlier changed his name from Brindisi. The elder Brinderson moved to Chino in the early 1900s, where he was a machinist in a sugar beet factory and later opened a stainless steel fabrication shop next to his house.

Gary Brinderson grew up in a row of six houses, all occupied by relatives. After his mother died when he was 4 years old, family members pitched in to help rear him.

Brinderson said he was drawn to construction work after watching his uncles work in the family business. At about 16, he got a job with a local contractor, and by 19 he was bidding for his own contracts.

At 21, Brinderson opened his Costa Mesa office with about 15 employees.

While juggling a growing business, Brinderson, who then lived in Pomona, began taking classes at Citrus College in Azusa. Today, he holds a master’s degree in business administration from Pepperdine University and is a graduate of the Advanced Management Program of the Harvard School of Business.

In the late 1960s, Brinderson’s company made a breakthrough, landing a $60,000 government contract to repipe the barracks at Edwards Air Force Base--to that point his biggest contract.

By the early 1970s, he was doing excavation and structural concrete work. Soon, he was building from the dirt up, chasing jobs around the nation.

He reached another turning point in 1972 when he landed a $7-million project to rebuild a pier in San Diego. Fighting the shifting tides, his company rebuilt the structure and installed utilities to allow ships to dock and shut down their boilers.

From there, the projects became increasingly complex.

In 1980, Brinderson landed a $100-million construction project to build a desalination plant along the Colorado River in Yuma, Ariz., for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

In the late 1980s, Brinderson stepped apart from Brinderson Corp. and began buying real estate in Orange County.

The purchase of the Smithcliffs estate was a painful odyssey that included 17 public hearings and three lawsuits, said Brinderson, who calls it “probably the worst decision I ever made.”

His headaches with Smithcliffs can be traced to officials in Laguna Beach, who insisted on annexing the oceanfront parcel so that the city could have more control over its development.

Former Laguna Beach City Councilman Neil Fitzpatrick, then the city’s negotiator, described Brinderson as a smooth operator with well-placed friends who help him get his way.

“Gary is a very polished, sophisticated negotiator, and he exercises a lot of power in this county,” Fitzpatrick said. “He’s not very happy dealing with a little pipsqueak city that cares more about its environment than it does about development.”

Although Laguna Beach was ultimately allowed to annex the land, Brinderson didn’t give in until the city relinquished design review of the homes being built there, Fitzpatrick said.

In 1987, Brinderson entered the joint venture with Equitable, forming Brin-Mar I, to build the elegant office towers in Irvine.

In 1991, when the partnership ran into financial problems, Brinderson said he agreed to have his interest cut from 50% to 30% to avoid pitching in any more money. And as a limited partner, Brinderson contended, he was not obligated to pay anything. Equitable disagreed.

In the midst of the hoopla, Brinderson insisted his name be stricken from the towers, which are now called Newport Gateway I and II. In August, Equitable bought the note on the building from Banque Paribas for $38.5 million, a move Brinderson viewed as part of an attempt to eventually squeeze him out of ownership. Equitable had already taken 100% ownership of Newport Gateway II.

Equitable and Brinderson tried repeatedly 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.

Brinderson said he offered to pay the $11.5 million that Equitable demanded but only if he could become a general partner and “participate in discussions” about the building’s future. The insurer declined, he said.

Finally, on March 15, Equitable foreclosed on Newport Gateway I.

Brinderson still frets over the incident.

Then, as he so deftly does when the subject of his missteps in real estate arises, Brinderson reroutes the conversation to his construction company.

Real estate, he says, was a diversion, his “personal annuity.” Brinderson Corp, the empire he gave birth to, is still on a roll.

“I’m basically focused on the [construction] company,” he said, “and I have been for a long time.”

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Brinderson Corp. at a Glance

Founded: 1966

Headquarters: Irvine

Offices: Torrance and Phoenix

Business: Heavy construction

Areas of emphasis: Process plants, refineries, ports, energy plants, health-care facilities and industrial complexes

Ownership: Private

Past projects: Brinderson Towers office complex, Colorado River desalination plant, Travis Air Force Base hospital, Trident Submarine training center

Current projects: Oil refinery renovation; food and beverage facility expansion; Smithcliffs, an exclusive residential enclave overlooking Laguna Beach

Source: Brinderson Corp.; Researched by JANICE L. JONES / Los Angeles Times

Profile

Name: Gary L. Brinderson

Age: 51

Education: MBA from Pepperdine University; graduated from Harvard School of Business Advanced Management Program

Background: Founded Brinderson Corp., an Irvine-based construction firm, in 1966 when he was 21 years old.

Organizations: Member of CEO, an international organization of chief executive officers; former chairman of Orange County chapter of Young Presidents Organization and director of the World Presidents Organization; past president of Construction Industries Presidents’ Forum.

Hobbies: Windsurfing, skiing, dirt-bike riding.

Residence: Laguna Beach

Personal: Married, four children

Source: Brinderson Corp.; Researched by JANICE L. JONES / Los Angeles Times