Industry mourns Edwin A. Malloy

Real Estate Weekly, Sept 23, 1998 by Lois Weiss

Edwin A. Malloy, whose long career in New York real estate and philanthropy included his role in the $405 million sale of the Pan Am Building to Metropolitan Life Insurance Company in the late 1970's, setting the price record for that time, died on September 5th in Connecticut at the age of 72 after a long illness.

Since 1985, Malloy served as Chairman of Fred F. French Investing, LLC of Stamford, CT, a diversified commercial real estate and investment management firm where his son, Timon Malloy, is president.

Malloy's background in New York City real estate is intricately connected to the growing, thriving city of skyscrapers and the executives that helped build it.

Malloy was born on May 9, 1926 in Atlanta, Georgia to Max Markeles and Ann Borochoff. After a divorce and his mother's remarriage to Barney Malloy, who adopted the youngster, the family lived in Bermuda. When they returned to the United States, Malloy attended the Brooks School in North Andover, Massachusetts, graduating in 1942.

With World War II underway, Malloy enrolled at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at King's Point, NY, graduating as an ensign in 1944. He saw active duty in the North Atlantic during World War II as a member of the Merchant Marine, and took part in convoys to Great Britain, Italy and Russia.

Subsequently, he received a B.S. from Harvard College in 1949 and an LLB from Harvard Law School in 1952. He was a member of the law firm of Brain, Cross & Hamilton in Boston, MA, and then Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton in New York City. He also served as an in-house attorney for Guaranty Trust Co.

He married Susan Rabinowitz in 1947, and Malloy was brought into the Fred F. French Company as a vice president in 1959. The company was housed in its namesake building at 551 Fifth Avenue, which they had developed in 1927. Malloy's father-in-law, Aaron Rabinowitz, had been running the company since 1935.

It was at that time that Rabinowitz retired from Spear & Co. - successor to Helmsley Spear - leaving the company controlled by his younger brothers, Maurice and Leon Spear.

"They changed their name to Spear when they were into the army in World War I," recalled Timon Malloy last week.

His father thrived at Fred F. French Co., but in 1969 he took a break to help Goldman Sachs organize, and became president of the Goldman Sachs Realty Corp.

In 1971, back at the French Co., which had earlier developed Tudor City, Malloy sold the enclave to Helmsley-Spear. He then handled a landmark lawsuit against the city, which had rezoned a portion of the property as a landlocked park and mandated the owners take transferable development rights with uncertain value in return.

As the litigation progressed, in 1973, Malloy became president and chairman of the company. By 1976, the State Court of Appeals ruled against the city's mandated scheme, but left open the idea of creating transferable development rights through procedures that would be more protective of the due process considerations of the owners.

These ideas have been used since then in both the Grand Central Terminal special district and the rezoning to create a theater air rights district, which is expected to become law.

In the late 1970's, Malloy was again center stage, as he became the broker that helped Pan Am Airways create the sale/leaseback of its Midtown high-rise to Metropolitan Life for the then record-setting price of $405 million.

Malloy also led the reorganization of the then public French company into a private firm in 1982. As the market and prices zoomed, he substantially liquidated the real estate in 1985, a feat he was very proud of, as the timing was perceived to have been the top of the market, said Timon. While 515 Madison Avenue is still owned by the company, it was instead placed under a long-term net lease to Newmark.

Malloy also led the company to invest outside of New York City, and they have held property in Illinois, Colorado, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Connecticut, where the company now has its headquarters.

"We're diversified and are still active in real estate, but concentrate in other investments, including stocks and bonds, and provide some venture capital," explained Timon last week.

The firm is currently working with Norwalk officials to become the designated developer for a 900,000 square-foot office complex near the aquarium, which is expected to include a hotel and a residential component developed by other local firms.

Along with his real estate and investment activities, Malloy was an active philanthropist, serving many organizations with both donations and time on their boards.

Patricia Frank, executive director of the Realty Foundation of New York, said "Whatever cause he undertook, whatever board he served on, he gave 100 percent of his time and attention to the tasks at hand."

Frank said he never missed a meeting of the Realty Foundation, where he was a vice president, and which honored him in 1975.

Among other boards he served on were the Union of American Hebrew Congregations; the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion; the Jewish Week; Skidmore College; Vermont Law School; Juniata College; UJA-Federation of New York, Real Estate & Allied Trades division; Marlboro Music School and Festival; and the Sun Hill Foundation, which succeeded the Tudor Foundation. He was also on the Major Gifts committees for the Harvard University Libraries and the Harvard Divinity school.