Still a Lot Left

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Two years ago, Richard Ziman displayed remarkable timing, selling his Arden Realty Inc. real estate company to a unit of General Electric Co. for $4.8 billion at the top of the market. Ziman had spent 15 years building Arden, which had a 227-building portfolio spanning 20 million square feet. Since then, the 65-year-old businessman has immersed himself in charitable causes and continues to be a big supporter of the Democratic Party, holding several fundraisers for Sen. Hillary Clinton at his Beverly Hills home. But he’s far from given up business. Among his ventures are industrial developer and landlord Rexford Industrial LLC and AVP Advisors LLC, a real estate “fund of funds.” Ziman is the chairman of both. Ziman also travels extensively. In the last year he’s made it to exotic locales such as Kuala Lumpur, Macao and the Korean demilitarized zone. Ziman sat down with the Business Journal at his Westwood office to discuss his post-Arden life and how he finds time for it all a few days before he hopped on a plane to attend the Democratic National Convention in Denver.


Question: Now that you’ve sold Arden, what’s a typical day like for you now?

Answer: On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays I have a trainer at 6:30 a.m. for an hour and a half. Tuesdays and Thursdays I usually eat breakfast and the TV goes on with financial news the minute I get up. In the Malibu house alone there are nine flat-screen TVs. The rest of my day is a smattering of charities and politics. I’ve got four kids, two grandkids and I love to travel. In the last 12 months I’ve been to South Africa, Hong Kong, Macao, Kuala Lumpur, Melbourne, Java, Shanghai, Beijing, Xi’an, Seoul and the (Korean) DMZ.


Q: The DMZ?

A: Oh, yeah! I went with my son Todd.


Q: I didn’t know it was a tourist spot.

A: Well, it’s not really. Especially when you go down this tunnel the North Koreans had been digging on the other side and you see what they’ve dug. They could get 30,000 troops in two hours through the tunnel. I was coming from South Korea. Then with my son Todd again this year we went to Paris, Versailles, Burgundy and Bordeaux because he’s sort of a wine guy, and we had a great time. He’s a great kid. He’s in the pizza business Stefano’s on the Third Street Promenade.


Q: You timed the sale of Arden well, handing it off to GE before the market tanked. Are you pleased?

A: One man’s burden is another man’s benefit. Arden is a really good company. I think they are really good people. It is cyclical. It was cyclical for us, too. It has got great sponsorship in GE. It really does. They don’t come any better.


Q: What are you doing these days with AVP Advisors?

A: It is a real estate fund of funds. It is a very, very unique organization and one of the most unique in the country. One, we only invest with emerging managers who are sponsoring their own funds of $100 million to $500 million. We have another segment that is very important and unique. We have committed that 30 to 35 percent of the funds will be invested with minorities and women in a diversity program. It is unique in the industry and something that is sorely needed.


Q: Tell me about the diversity commitment.

A: You walk into conferences and conventions we have in the real estate business and it is 80 to 85 percent men. The rest of it is some people of color and a few women. That’s ridiculous. There is no reason for that to be. We’ve delivered for our investors big time.



Q: By the way, I’ve noticed your companies seemed to be named after streets. What is that about?

A: The investment in AVP my holding is called Camden Investment I. Camden Drive is where I lived when I first came here (to Los Angeles). We were way south of the tracks, south of Olympic Boulevard. It’s a fun way to name things. Arden was where I lived (when I started that company) and Rexford is where I live now. It is very difficult to get a name in California because they are all taken. But for some reason, the street names in Beverly Hills are treated as public domain. So if you don’t copy someone else’s name exactly, you can use the name.


Q: Seems like it could lead to confusion.

A: Gelson’s market is (owned by) the Arden Group. The Arden Group CEO Bernie Briskin lives right by me. I was Arden Realty. So when I went public, Bernie got so pissed off and he called me and said, “Ziman, I’m getting all these calls. People call information and say, ‘Arden,’ and I’m getting these calls and my receptionist is getting tired of giving your number when they call her.” Bernie is a good friend. His wife is the designer of the last three homes that I’ve owned.


Q: Talking about homes, tell us about your current one.

A: It’s this big English country house; you can’t see much from the street but you can see it. It’s on an acre and a half with a perfect north-south tennis court, rock pool and a kids playground in the back with trampolines and swings. It has a koi pond. I bought it in 1996, and moved in February 1998. I estimate 60,000 to 70,000 people have come through the front gate for charity and political events.


Q: What kind of political events?

A: We were one of Al Gore’s biggest supporters in Southern California. We were one of the biggest if not the biggest for John Kerry. President Clinton has been to the house at least three times. Hillary I can’t even imagine how many times she’s come to the house.


Q: As a big Hillary supporter, are you behind Barack Obama?

A: Absolutely. He’s going to have two and maybe three Supreme Court appointments. There is a 200- to 300-person backup in federal court and federal circuit court of appeals for nominations or appointments. Who am I going to vote for, McCain? There’s no way. My father accused me of being a communist. I think he was right.


Q: How do you square your political beliefs with being a businessman?

A: It’s very easy. I am committed to social, health and education projects. That has nothing to do with my side of business. Business is a means to an end. The end is progress. That’s not just for me. That’s for my children, their children and quite honestly the community at large.


Q: Have any plans for this year’s election?

A: I was with Gore the night of the election; I was with Kerry the night of the election. You don’t want me around.


Q: Tell me about your parents; have they been role models for you?

A: My mother is 92 and she lives with us in the Beverly Hills house. My father was a very interesting guy, very tough. He died in 1994. A great inspiration for all of us; so is my mother. He came over to this country when he was 11, graduated from high school when he was 20 with 35 football scholarships Notre Dame, Indiana, Ohio State, Washington, and others. But it was the Depression, and he had no father his father died in the old country so he had to go to work. So he put a premium on education. When you came home with a B, he wanted an explanation.


Q: Anyone else have a big impact on you?

A: The second most important role model was Arthur Gilbert. When my father died in 1994, Arthur called me up the next morning and said, “Young man, take good care of me, I’m the last father you’ll ever have.” He was my largest single investor in Arden before it went public. He walked away with a fortune. It all ended up in the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation. Arthur Gilbert passed away just before 9/11 and left what is now a very sizable charitable foundation one of the 20 largest in California.


Q: How heavily are you involved in it?

A: I spend 15 percent of my time with it. We are fortunate to be able now to distribute $10 million a year. We have access to education programs in South Central and the Eastside. There are middle school- and high school-sponsoring programs so (the students) can get access to higher education, so they can get access to the Cal State and UC education system. We probably have 20 (total) programs. We have research programs in stem cells, diabetes and Alzheimer’s. We have programs in Israel also. We are feeding I don’t know how many kids in south Tel Aviv breakfast or lunch, whose parents can’t afford to give them the kind of nutrition that they should.


Q: So how else do you spend your time?

A: I spend 40 percent of my day on business; I spend at least 10 percent of my time on UCLA. I am chairing their $100 million capital campaign at the Anderson School. I am the founder of and endowed the Ziman Center for Real Estate. I am heavily involved in the new Pauley Pavilion. I’m involved with the medical center and medical school. Twice a year I fill the plane up I have a nine-passenger and we go to Sacramento and have advocacy day. We start at 8 in the morning and end up at 6 at night, and we go and see anyone and everyone in the Assembly and state Senate who has to do with the UC budget. I spend another 15 percent of my time on various charities I am heavily involved in.


Q: What are those?

A: The three foremost are the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Harvard of the Middle East. It’s one of the great universities of the world. Students from 77 countries study there and unbeknownst to most people, Palestinians from the West Bank study there. It’s just not talked about because it would create problems for the students. I am there three or four times a year. Second is City of Hope and its National Medical Center in Duarte. And my wife (Daphna Ziman) and I have endowed the outpatient oncology center at the Los Angeles Jewish Home for the Aging. I chaired their capital campaign several years ago.


Q: A lot of your charitable concerns are related to Jewish causes. How important is your faith to you.

A: I consider myself a traditional Jew. I am very respectful of our heritage and a member of two synagogues. I am a huge member of the Jewish community. Behind those involvements are health care, education, access to education and the Fifth Commandment honor thy father and mother. Yes, I stand strong for the maintenance of the state of Israel, and I will defend Israel until my dying.


Q: How do you manage to run your businesses and be actively involved in all these political and charitable causes?

A: I’m on 75 to 100 flights a year some business, some pleasure and some personal.


Q: How active is your wife in charitable causes?

A: She’s doing a lot more with foster kids programs and she’s doing a lot more legislative advocacy both in Sacramento and Washington, D.C. And I think she is truly making a difference, I really do. She’s working her ass off. Sometimes she goes this way and I go that way. Sometimes our planes literally cross in the air. That’s OK.


Q: Did you ever think that you’d have the ability to create change in the way you can?

A: I had no expectations. I grew up as a kid in Williamsport, Pa. to think that I’d achieve this in my lifetime. And you track yourself as a measly kid in Williamsport to where I am today. It is shocking. There is no master plan. It’s a fork in the road and figuring it out and trying to make a difference.


Q: Are you having fun?

A: Oh, it’s the best.


Q: Is it like the good old days at Arden?

A: It’s different. I try to reincarnate myself every 10 years. That’s my game plan. I am having fun. I wish there was more time in the day.



Richard Ziman

Title: Chairman

Companies: American Value Partners, AVP Advisors LLC, Rexford Industrial LLC

Born: 1942; Williamsport, Pa.

Education: B.A., history, 1964; J.D., 1967 (both from USC)

Career Turning Point: Practicing real estate law, and then entering the real estate business in 1979

Most Influential People: His father, Charles Ziman; Arthur Gilbert, “the

consummate real estate investor”; and Frank Feder, “the dean of real estate lawyers”

Personal: Lives in Beverly Hills with wife, Daphna, and daughters, Ashley, 14, and Michele, 20. Has two older adult children: Todd, 38, and Yael, 36.

Hobbies: Travel, fishing, charities and politics

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