Earlier this month, Forbes published its list of the 20 richest real estate billionaires in the world in 2016. Later, commercial data analytics firm CrediFi went beyond the rankings, digging into what buildings sit in these titan's portfolios—buildings that helped them make it to the top. See what they uncovered.
1. Wang Jianlin
Wang Jianlin is the world’s richest real estate baron and head of Wanda Group, China's largest commercial real estate development company. The Chinese titan has a net worth of $28.7B, making him the richest person in Asia and the world’s 18th-richest person overall.
Wanda Group owns a massive portfolio that includes many department stores, movie theaters and karaoke centers in addition to 84 hotels and 133 Wanda Plazas.
2. Donald Bren
Best known for developing Orange County, CA, Donald Bren took full control of Irvine Co in 1996. According to Forbes he is the fourth-richest real estate baron, with a net worth of $15.2B, and the richest from the US.
Irvine Co owns almost 100M SF of properties in California, along with spots in NYC and Chicago. In addition, Bren's company owns and manages 50,000 apartments, 500 office buildings and the enormous Irvine Spectrum Center outdoor shopping hub (pictured).
3. Stephen Ross
The 80th-richest person in the world and the ninth-richest real estate billionaire is Stephen Ross, founder and majority owner of Related Cos, with a net worth of $12B.
Stephen is the man behind the $20B Hudson Yards development project in NYC, and Related Cos developed the Time Warner Center (pictured), a Manhattan skyscraper that houses offices, retail, residential condominiums and the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.
4. Stan Kroenke
Stan Kroenke is the well-known owner of the LA Rams (not long ago the St. Louis Rams), and America's 55th-richest person with a net worth of $6.3B. He's also the 14th-richest real estate baron.
Kroenke founded the Kroenke Group in 1983, and he's been grabbing malls and retail centers ever since—in 2014 the group bought Louisville Plaza in Colorado for $16.7M.
5. Richard LeFrak
Richard LeFrak is No. 18 on the real estate baron list (a spot he holds with two others), and has a net worth of $6.7B.
He's the chairman and CEO of the real estate development company LeFrak, and is best known for developing 600 acres of land in Jersey City and turning it into the $10B development Newport (pictured), which houses apartment buildings, hotels, offices, schools, malls and parks. [Forbes]
