Luke Brugnara

Luke Brugnara, 1996

Luke Dominic Brugnara ,(born October 18, 1963), also known as "Lucky Luke",^[1] is a San Francisco-Las Vegas commercial real estate investor and developer and president of Brugnara Corporation. Brugnara has purchased and developed over $2 billion of commercial real estate in San Francisco and Las Vegas since 1992.

Childhood

Brugnara was born in the Sunset District of San Francisco, the son of a "juvenile hall manager". He went to school at St. Ignatius College Preparatory, a private preparatory Jesuit school. During his schooling years, he was interested in sports such as track, eventually becoming good enough "in the 400 meters to run for San Diego State."^[2] Brugnara was a competitive flycaster during his teenage years and set several national accuracy flycasting records in the American Casting Association which still stand today.^[3]

Career

Brugnara earned a bachelor's degree in Communications and a master's degree in Finance in 1988, graduating from San Diego State University. Thereafter he attended San Francisco Law School. Soon after, he began working in the real estate business at a "private mortgage banking firm".^[1] Working at the firm helped him to figure out a method to succeed in real estate, which he enacted in 1992 by purchasing "a $12.5 million first TD on a property in downtown San Francisco through bankruptcy court from American Savings for only $1.5 million".^[1] Brugnara also "was able to purchase four more high-rise office buildings in 1993 after taking out a $3 million mortgage on the property".^[4] By 1999, those four extra properties had been sold for over $130 million, which Brugnara used to make larger purchases. Brugnara's high-rise office building purchases in San Francisco included: the Kress Building, 939 Market Street, 814 Mission Street, the Bulletin Building, the Westinghouse Electric Building, 171 Second Street, 450 Pacific, Fritz Plaza, 735 Market Street, 140 Sansome Street, the Royal Insurance Building, 201 Sansome Street, the Pacific Bank Building, 351 California Street, the Medico-Dental Building, 490 Post Street.^[5] Brugnara also contracted to purchase the Chevron Building at a steep discount during this buying binge.^[6] Because he had purchased more than "one million square feet" of high-rise office buildings during that time without partners, he "became the largest 100% fee owner of real estate in downtown San Francisco" and accumulated "a net worth of over a quarter of a billion dollars" ($250 million).^[1]

Las Vegas

Brugnara first became involved in Las Vegas real estate in 1999, when he attempted to buy the Desert Inn for $270 million, but was bought out by Sun International and Steve Wynn. He then proceeded to buy the Silver City Casino and the Las Vegas Shopping Plaza on the Las Vegas Strip for $40 million, which he closed in 2001 in order to turn them into a "3,000 room mega-resort casino",^[1] instead in 2001 he converted the property into a shopping center.

In 2007, Brugnara leased his 20,000+ sq ft, 11-bedroom Las Vegas mansion to Michael Jackson for over $1 million for six months.^[7] Brugnara's mansion was reported to have various amenities including a 2,000 sq ft closet in the master bedroom.^[8] That same year, Brugnara contracted to purchase the Crazy Horse Too for $40 million; Brugnara's net worth was estimated at a half-billion dollars ($500 million).^[9]

In January 2010, he submitted a $170 million bid with U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Miami to purchase the bankrupt $2 billion Fontainebleau project on the Las Vegas Strip.Carl Icahn is "expected to take over ownership", even though he had offered less money than Brugnara.^[10]

Legal

In 2001, Brugnara was sued by US Tax Attorneys in Civil Court, who claimed Brugnara owed $11 million in taxes for tax years 1993 through 1997. When the case finally went to Federal Court in March 2008, Federal Judge Haines ruled that the US Tax Attorneys were wrong and Brugnara owed no taxes ($0) to the US government.^[11]

Two days after Judge Haines ruled in favor of Brugnara, in April 2008, the US Attorneys filed a case against Brugnara for "failing to report capital gains from the sale of property in San Francisco and Las Vegas for the tax year 2001" and for "blocking the migration of steelhead trout in a creek that runs through his farm". After the forensic accounting was completed in January 2010, "it was agreed by the US Attorneys that the tax loss was not $45 million as they claimed, but was only $300,000 for the year in question; a mere 1/3rd of 1% of the $103 million income that Brugnara earned in 2001.^[11]

Personal life

After becoming acquainted with his future wife in college, they married in the 1990s and have four children.^[2] Brugnara splits residence between Las Vegas and an "expansive San Francisco Sea Cliff villa purchased for over $16M in 2000 from comedian Cheech Marin."^[12]

Philanthropy

Brugnara is a long-time supporter of charitable causes, including Catholic Charities, and $3 million to save St. Brigid Church in San Francisco in 2005.^[13]

Water

Brugnara owns and controls over 25,000 acre feet (31,000,000 m³) of appropriated water rights in California and a dam and reservoir which holds over 2,000 acre feet of water. Brugnara was in negotiations in 2008 to supply the city of Gilroy their domestic water supply.^[14]

Art

Brugnara has an art collection valued over $100 million, including one of the only privately owned paintings by Leonardo da Vinci, as affirmed by Leonardo scholar Dr. Carlo Pedretti.^[15]

References

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