Members of the Wien & Malkin LLP Supervisory Services team: seated, left to right: Brendan McCarty, project manager; Richard C. Heller, director of engineering services; Anthony E. Malkin, senior director (and president of W&M Properties); Peter L. Malkin, chairman (and chairman of W&M Properties); standing, left to right: Rodney Gomes, chief accountant; Fred C. Posniak, director of marketing; and George C. Tockstein, senior asset supervisor. Behind them is a portrait of Lawrence A. Wien, founder and real estate syndication pioneer.

"This is a family-managed business that's hands-on right from the top. There have been three generations of the Wien/Malkin family at the helm since 1958 to ensure attention to business, take action on behalf of investors, and generate new ideas," says George C. Tockstein, senior asset supervisor at Wien & Malkin LLP.

Anthony Malkin, in addition to serving as president of W&M Properties, the Malkin family's vertically-integrated real estate management, acquisition and brokerage services arm, also is senior director of supervisory services at Wien & Malkin LLP. Peter Malkin is chairman of both firms.

"Our side-by-side inter-generation cooperation is very important and reflects the smooth transition process that is again taking place," says Peter Malkin. "I learned at the side of my father-in-law, Lawrence Wien, with whom it was a privilege to serve our investors for 30 years. Before Mr. Wien died in 1988, he and I agreed that Tony would join me, and so my son and I have been working together for more than 13 years. It assures a leadership continuum in which no learning curve is required."

Supervisory services for all Wien & Malkin LLP-supervised properties are provided by a staff which includes asset managers and operations supervisors, and marketing, accounting, in-house legal, and bookkeeping professionals employed directly by Wien & Malkin LLP, as well as the on-call professional talents of the entire W&M Properties organization.

The services provided by Wien & Malkin LLP include, but are not limited to, property inspections with written reports; regular operating meetings with building staffs; oversight of the managing agent in the preparation of budgets for operations, capital expenditures and proposed capital improvements; formulation of marketing strategies and pursuit of implementation; coordination and review of financial statements; and preparation of tax returns.

Wien & Malkin LLP's supervisory services are similar to asset management services provided by major pension fund managers. Fred C. Posniak, director of marketing-supervisory services, cites a variety of recent examples of the strategic thinking and implementation that supervisory staff have effected, ranging from the marketplace repositioning of the Fisk Building to take advantage of changes in the Columbus Circle district, to obtaining a variance for loading access which permitted a favorable new lease at a retail site across from Bloomingdale's.

Says Richard Heller, director of engineering-supervisory services. "Daily we demonstrate how the long-term, high-value, conservative investment philosophy of Lawrence A. Wien lives on through succeeding generations."

New cross walk in front of the Toy Center

Investors profiled by this newsletter from time to time (anonymously, to protect their privacy) have expressed their enthusiasm for such steady devotion to the stated investment objectives.

The son-in-law of a semi-retired Florida citrus grove operator, whose family has invested through three generations, noted that for decades Wien & Malkin LLP investments have been "a symbol of stability. When considering an investment of this kind, 50% of the decision is based on who the sponsors are, and there is none better than Wien & Malkin LLP."

"The Malkins really look out for their investors, just as...Mr. Wien always did," said a pediatrician who made his first investment with Mr. Wien in 1954.