Part-Time

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By JASON BOOTH

Staff Reporter

Some of the wealthiest people influencing Los Angeles today do not appear on the list of richest Angelenos because their primary residences are elsewhere.

Billionaires such as Paul G. Allen, Barry Diller and Sam Zell have at least one home in L.A. They spend considerable time here and have major investments in the area. But they are not based here.

“If someone in New York has money and does not have a house in L.A., I’m surprised,” said Harold Harrigian, a partner at L.A. investment house Crowell Weedon & Co.

More than any other industry, entertainment is the major magnet drawing part-timers to Los Angeles. And one of the biggest names being drawn is Allen, co-founder of Microsoft Corp. and reportedly the third-richest person in the U.S., at $17 billion.

While his primary residence remains Seattle, Allen’s media and technology holdings in L.A. include a $500 million stake in DreamWorks SKG. Last August he bought a 120-acre Beverly Hills estate for a reported $20 million. While that property is being renovated, he stays at a $9 million Beverly Hills mansion he bought in April 1997.

Another out-of-town billionaire is Edgar Bronfman Jr., scion of the Seagram Co. liquor fortune. Bronfman, whose primary residence is New York, also has a home in Malibu and has been spending considerably more time here since buying control of entertainment giant MCA Inc., renamed Universal Studios Inc.

Barry Diller calls New York his primary residence, but he frequently travels to L.A. Diller, who has a home in Beverly Hills, recently acquired Universal’s television assets and has other extensive investments in the L.A. area, including Ticketmaster Group Inc.

Another out-of-town mogul with long ties to Hollywood is Kirk Kerkorian, who has a net worth of $3.7 billion. Kerkorian no longer qualifies as an Angeleno because he moved his primary residence and the headquarters of his holding company, Tracinda Corp., to Las Vegas. But he still owns a controlling stake in Santa Monica-based Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. and regularly stays at his Beverly Hills mansion.

Besides entertainment, another industry that has drawn out-of-town moguls is real estate.

Denver-based billionaire Philip Anschutz, co-owner of the Los Angeles Kings ice hockey team, is a major investor in the new Staples Center currently under construction downtown, and owns a number of other L.A.-area properties.

He also is angling, with Kings’ co-owner Ed Roski Jr., to undertake a $500 million redo of the Coliseum, as well as the purchase of a pro football franchise to play there.

Anschutz’s other L.A.-area project is the controversial Pacific Pipeline, which will carry crude oil 132 miles from Kern County to refineries in El Segundo, Wilmington and Long Beach.

Sam Zell, chairman of Chicago-based Equity Office Properties Trust, the nation’s biggest owner of office space, is another part-timer. Zell’s company bought the 550 S. Hope office high-rise in downtown L.A. last year, and gained control of Saban Plaza and Oppenheimer Plaza in Westwood, along with the Media Center office complex in Burbank.

While Zell is based in Chicago, there are indications that he plans to spend more time in L.A. Earlier this year he purchased a home in Malibu for nearly $13 million.

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