Silicon Valley real estate developer and philanthropist John Arrillaga Sr. dead at 84

Renowned Silicon Valley real estate developer and philanthropist John Arrillaga Sr. has died. He was 84.

Arrillaga’s son-in-law, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, confirmed the death via Twitter.

“RIP my father-in-law and hero John Arrillaga, 1937-2022,” Andreessen said a post.

In a Medium post, Arrillaga’s daughter, Laura Arrillaga-andreessen, said her father “passed away peacefully” on Monday while being held by his second wife, Gioia Fasi Arrillaga, and his two children, Laura and her brother John Arrillaga Jr.

John Arrillaga Sr. was a well known philanthropist. In 2013, he made a $151 million gift to his alma mater, Stanford University, the largest to date at that time from a living donor.

“He believed that successful philanthropy means combining financial resources with brainpower, skills, and networks to amplify the number of lives he can touch and help transform,” Arrillaga-andreessen wrote. “He believed that ‘one should always give as much as one can, for the more one gives, the more life gives one in return.’ ”

At the time of his death, John Arrillaga Sr. had built and donated more than 200 projects and buildings, including the Frances Arrillaga Alumni Center and the Arrillaga Family Sports Center, according to his daughter. He was also responsible for 38 fully endowed academic scholarships and 19 fully endowed academic scholarships at Stanford.

He also helped rebuild most of Stanford’s athletic facilities, including Maples Pavilion and the Stanford football stadium.

As a real estate developer, John Arrillaga Sr. partnered with Richard Peery for 50 years at their firm, Peery Arrillaga, according to his daughter. They produced many of the region’s most prominent corporate campuses, totaling more than 20 million square feet.

“Arrillaga was the creative visionary, while Peery was their financial and legal mastermind,” his daughter wrote. “Together they partnered on the negotiations, and John was known as ‘the toughest dealmaker in Silicon Valley,’ given his focus on construction and leasing.”

Arrillaga-andreessen said her father was also a dedicated family man.

“He never missed one of his children’s sporting events, award ceremonies and talked with both his children every day,” she wrote.

John Arrillaga Sr. was born in 1937 to professional soccer goalie Gabriel Arrillaga, who later became a laborer in the Los Angeles area, and Freda Arrillaga, a former nurse. After graduating from Morningside High School in Inglewood, he attended Stanford on a basketball scholarship and majored in geography, according to his daughter.

Arrillaga-andreessen said her father went on to travel the world while playing for the national basketball team of Spain. He also briefly played for the San Francisco Warriors, but quit when he realized professional basketball “would not afford him the family life that he desired.”

After briefly selling insurance, he saved enough money to purchase his first run-down commercial building and fixed it up himself before earning enough in rent to buy a second building, according to his daughter.