Louis Lesser was an American businessman. He developed property across the United States, predominantly around the Los Angeles area; he also purchased and managed property. He developed Barrington Plaza, at the time the largest privately built apartment development in the western United States.
Early life
Lesser was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, to a Jewish family. He attended Hollywood High School and was very successful at making extra money selling magazines. On graduation, he turned down a supervisory job offer from the magazine company, instead joining his father's women's clothing manufacturing business.
Business career
Early career
Whilst working in his father's women's clothing business, Lesser addressed the lack of merchandising and enlarged the business through bulk sales to volume dealers. He left in 1945, when he was drafted into the army. After he came out of service, in 1947 he purchased ranches which produced meat and fruit in anticipation of the removal of WWII price ceilings on fruit, profiting when they were just five days after the purchase. A couple of years later he sold the ranches and purchased a group of gas stations and associated businesses. His self-service stations were ultimately merged with the Sunset Oil Company, where he served briefly as vice-president until his retirement aged 36. Concurrent with his gas station business, in 1950-51 he was involved in Torrance Gardens, a 437 unit real estate development venture in Torrance, California.
Louis Lesser Enterprises
His retirement in 1952 lasted less than a year. Later in 1952, Louis Lesser Enterprises started trading as a partnership buying, developing and selling real estate. It incorporated in 1960/61, in preparation for a $5 million public flotation in 1962/63. By that time, Lesser estimated that he had developed $500 million of real estate across nine states and that Louis Lesser Enterprises had grown its assets from $200,000 to $60 million. Lesser made use of the Capehart Act to secure funding to build housing for military personnel, developing over 3,000 units at 14 military installations across the US, with a total construction value of $35 million. He developed an industrial centre near the Los Angeles International Airport in 1956-1957, leasing buildings worth $9 million. He began development of another $7.5 million extension to a Convair site in San Diego in 1959, also to be leased to the company. He purchased the Beckman Instrument Plant at Newport Beach, worth over $12 million, in 1958, and leased it to the Hughes Aircraft Company. In 1959, he was brought in as a partner in Ben Deane's Barrington Plaza development, subsequently becoming the sole sponsor and buying out Deane in June 1961. The plaza was completed in 1962, and comprised 712 apartments in one 27 and two 17 story buildings, making it both the largest, and the tallest, privately built apartment complex west of Chicago. The original application for a $14 million Federal Housing Administration loan was described as the largest single application for an insurance commitment under the urban renewal program ever filed in the United States; the actual initial loan was $15.2 million towards the end of 1959. Along with San Diego developer Irvin Kahn, in 1960 he developed two motels on the Shelter Island reclamation project costing $5.7 million. He participated the 1961 Casa Conejo development, in the Conejo Valley, and was the largest developer there, building 1,000 homes. In association with Irvin Kahn, and others, Lesser was heavily involved in developing bowling complexes in California, with the Los Angeles Times suggesting that he was the most active developer in this area by 1962. In 1964, he developed an $118 million off-campus student residential center for California State University, Los Angeles, which housed over 3000 students. He initiated a 22-story, 236 unit apartment structure named "Lesser Towers", in 1962, when it was budgeted to cost $7 million. Development setbacks caused by litigation caused the project to stand idle in the early stages of construction for more than three years. In 1965, a new builder was brought in to finish development. Lesser purchased the Phillips Ranch near Pomona in 1964 for $17.5 million. At 2,241 acres, it was one of the largest parcels of undeveloped land in Los Angeles County. He intended to build 10,000 homes over five years, with planning to be completed by the end of the year. Following two years of losses, Lesser resigned as chairman of Louis Lesser Enterprises in 1967 and accepted a bailout from Henry Salvatori, at which point the company was renamed Western Orbis Company.
Personal life
He was married to Jeanne Lesser, from sometime before 1945, until her death in 2006. They had four children, Craig, Therese, Kathy and Francine. Lesser died on 29 January 2013.
