Silicon Valley Real Estate Billionaire John Arrillaga Dies At Age 84

John Arrillaga, an early Silicon Valley real estate developer who bought orange groves in the 1960s and turned them into office parks—while turning himself and his business partner into billionaires—has died at age 84, according to his family.

Arrillaga, who attended Stanford University on a basketball scholarship, donated generously to the university, where his family’s name appears on at least nine buildings, including the Frances Arrillaga Alumni Center and the Arrillaga Family Sports Center. 

His daughter Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen wrote in an obituary that her father “went to the Stanford campus almost every single day of his adult life, where he was renowned for walking the campus and personally picking up every single piece of trash he saw and rearranging single stones in fountains across the campus.”  In 2013, John Arrillaga made a $151 million pledge to Stanford, the largest gift from a living donor at the time.

Arrillaga grew up in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood; his father was a laborer at the Los Angeles produce market and his mother was a nurse. While at Stanford, he worked jobs washing dishes, delivering mail, gardening and cooking to cover the cost of his living expenses. After he graduated in 1960, Arrillaga briefly traveled the world with the U.S. national basketball team, then sold insurance before delving into commercial real estate. 

More than five decades ago he partnered with Richard “Dick” Peery to build offices around Silicon Valley. Their firm Peery Arrillaga eventually built dozens of buildings, housing tenants including tech giants like Google and Intuit. In 2006 the firm sold about half its real estate portfolio for $1.1 billion.  Forbes estimates Arrillaga’s net worth at $2.6 billion.

Arrillaga had two children—John, Jr. and Laura—with his first wife, Frances, who died more than two decades ago. His daughter Laura Andreessen-Arrillaga is married to Silicon Valley venture capitalist Marc Andreessen. He is also survived by his second wife, Gioia Fasi Arrillaga, and four grandchildren.