William Newman makes $25m college donation

Real Estate Weekly, Oct 6, 2004

Dr. Kathleen Waldron, the new president of Baruch College, announced that alumnus William Newman, Chairman of New Plan Excel Realty Trust, and Anita Newman, his wife, have made a $25 million gift to the College.

The gift is one of the largest in the history of private gifts to public colleges in New York State.

It will name the William and Anita Newman Vertical Campus, Baruch's award-winning building that opened in 2001 at 55 Lexington Avenue at 24th Street to house the Zicklin School of Business and the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences.

The Newmans have also provided key funding for Baruch through earlier gifts.

"Baruch is extremely fortunate to have such good friends, excellent benefactors, and strong advocates as William and Anita Newman," said Waldron.

"Their newest gifts are part of an exciting new phase of Baruch's growth.

"We appreciate their belief in Baruch's ongoing effort to provide the next generation of New Yorkers with an excellent academic background that can serve as the basis for their future success."

"First my father and my mother, both immigrants newly arrived on these shores, and then I and my late brother Joseph, as well as many of the people who would become my colleagues, all attended Downtown City, earning degrees and setting the stage for productive careers in business," said Newman.

"I'm grateful for what this school, now Baruch, has given me, and welcome the opportunity to help to do the same for a new generation of young people."

Newman's wife, Anita, who attended Hunter College and received an honorary degree from Baruch, adds: "I feel that the youth of America are our future, and education is so very important to them and to all of us. I am very proud that we can do something to help." Newman, a member of Baruch's graduating class of 1947, received an honorary doctorate from the college in 1997.

The company he founded, New Plan Excel Realty Trust, is one of the nation's largest real estate companies, focusing on the ownership, management, acquisition, development and redevelopment of community and neighborhood shopping centers. The company operates as a self-administered and self-managed REIT with a national portfolio of more than 400 properties and total assets of approximately $4.0 billion.

Newman's extensive support for Baruch includes funding for the Steven L. Newman Real Estate Institute as well as real estate programs offered through Baruch's School of Public Affairs and the Zicklin School of Business. He also provided key funding for the William and Anita Newman library, named the best college library in the nation in 2003 by the academic arm of the American Library Association.

The Newmans' gift was one of five major gifts to Baruch College totaling $53.5 million announced today by Waldron.