By LARRY KANTER
Senior Reporter
If there’s one thing Eli Broad can’t stand, it’s a leadership vacuum.
And that’s exactly what he encountered 16 months ago when he began investigating the stalled drive to build the Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles.
At the time, the project was millions of dollars in the hole, its future highly uncertain. Undaunted, Broad sprung into action.
First, he primed the charity pump by contributing $5 million from his own personal fortune, a donation he convinced his friend Mayor Richard Riordan to match.
Then, he set about doing more vigorous corporate arm-twisting. As the months went on, the contributions poured in $15 million from Ralphs/Food 4 Less, $10 million from Atlantic Richfield Co., $5 million from Times Mirror Co. and $25 million from Walt Disney Co.
Now, more than 90 percent of Disney Concert Hall’s $255 million price tag has been raised. Construction could begin before the end of the year.
To those who know him, Broad’s success in turning around Disney Hall is impressive but hardly surprising. He brings the same focus and intensity to just about everything he does whether it’s leading a revival of downtown L.A., collecting contemporary art, or running a $48 billion financial services empire, SunAmerica Corp.
It’s for that reason that Broad has received the Los Angeles Business Journal’s first-ever Leadership Award.
The award, which was presented last week at the Business Journal’s real estate awards event, will be given every year in recognition of significant accomplishments related to the economic climate of Los Angeles.
“Given his work in getting Disney Hall off the ground, he seemed like an ideal candidate,” said Editor Mark Lacter, who conferred with key Business Journal managers in selecting Broad. Lacter said the Business Journal plans to use the leadership award as the basis for a future business hall of fame.
“Eli Broad will be remembered as the person who re-reminded Los Angeles about the responsibility of the business establishment,” said California State Librarian Kevin Starr. Broad’s contributions, Starr added, rank alongside those of L.A.’s great businessman/visionaries, people like developer Gaylord Wilshire, 1950s downtown business leader Asa Call and former Times Mirror Chief Executive Franklin P. Murphy, all of whom left an indelible stamp on the local landscape.
In his plain-spoken style, Broad downplayed the comparison.
“The city has been very good to me,” he said. “If you’ve got the talent and energy and want to make a contribution, it’s gratefully accepted. L.A. is a city of great opportunity, a true meritocracy.”
Born in New York City to immigrant parents and raised in Detroit, Broad came west 37 years ago, after co-founding the homebuilding business Kaufman & Broad. He was a millionaire by the age of 30.
In 1971, Kaufman & Broad acquired an insurance company, Sun Life Insurance Co. of America, and began offering an array of financial and retirement services. In 1989, the company took the bold step of spinning off its core housing business. Broad sold out the majority of his interest in Kaufman & Broad to concentrate on building a new company, called SunAmerica. After making millions off the housing dreams of baby boomers, he was now betting on their retirement dreams.
The bet has paid off big. SunAmerica has been one of the fastest growing companies on the New York Stock Exchange, with the value of its shares soaring more than 5,000 percent this decade. Broad’s personal fortune has grown to an estimated $1.8 billion.
But also noteworthy has been Broad’s record of civic involvement. He is the founding chairman of the Museum of Contemporary Art, former chairman and life trustee of Pitzer College, a trustee of the California Institute of Technology, and a major donor to the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia.
More recently, he has been assisting Riordan in his efforts to reform both the city charter and the state’s education system.
“Eli is a man who likes to get things done,” said Andrea Rich, president of the L.A. County Museum of Art, where Broad is a trustee. “If there is one thing that characterizes him, it’s action.”
These days, most of that action is directed at revitalizing downtown L.A. Driven by the belief that a world-class city needs a world-class city center, Broad spends as many as 20 hours a week selling his vision to the region’s business, political and philanthropic leaders. Among those efforts: a drive to secure L.A. as the site of the Democratic National Convention in 2000.
After years of skepticism, Broad said his message of a thriving downtown finally is beginning to sink in thanks in large part to the revived Disney Hall drive, the new sports arena complex and the new Catholic cathedral.
“There’s a new spirit downtown,” Broad said. “The economy has turned around, offices are filling up. People are starting to believe it. They’re seeing things happening. It’s not just rhetoric.”
