Louis Lesser
| Louis Lesser | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
June 15, 1916 Los Angeles, California, United States |
| Died | January 29, 2013 (aged 96) |
| Occupation | Real estate developer |
| Spouse(s) | Jeanne Lesser |
| Children | Craig Adolphe Lesser Cathy J. Lesser Therese Ann Lesser Francine S. Lesser |
Louis Lesser (June 15, 1916 – January 29, 2013) 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.
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.
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.
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 floatation 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.
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