A. Alfred Taubman
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A. Alfred Taubman is an industrialist and philanthropist from Metro Detroit who became rich developing shopping malls. His company is Taubman Centers Inc.
He has been on the list of Forbes 400 Richest Americans for two decades. He studied architecture at the University of Michigan and Lawrence Technological University, but graduated from neither. His wife is the former Judy Mazor (a former "Miss Israel" beauty pageant winner).
He bought the famous Sotheby's auction house in 1983, acting as a "White Knight" when the company was threatened by a hostile and unwanted takeover by Marshall Cogan and Steven Swid of General Felt. At the time he was also the owner of A&W Restaurants ([1]).
He revived the fortunes of Sotheby's, which had been slumping in the eighties, and he took the company public in 1998. He was fined US$7 million and imprisoned for a year in 2002 ([2]) for violating anti-trust laws (for conspiracy to fix commissions with rival Christie's). Allegedly, Taubman initiated the conspiracy in 1993 with then-Christies executive Anthony Tenant. When the investigations began, Christie's executives offered to cooperate, eventually implicating Taubman.
In October 2003, his real estate company survived a hostile takeover bid by the Simon Property Group and Westfield America ([3]). His family divested controlling interest in Sotheby's by September 2005 ([4]).
He has developed a reputation as a philanthropist. At the University of Michigan, the Taubman Medical Library and the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning are named after him. The university elected to retain Taubman's gifts and his name after considerable deliberation and review.
He also contributed money to The Taubman Center for Public Policy at Brown University, and The Taubman Center for State and Local Government at Harvard University. The A. Alfred Taubman Student Services Center at Lawrence Technological University was under construction in 2006 ([5]).
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[edit] Malls developed or operated by Taubman Centers Inc.
- Arizona Mills, Tempe, Arizona
- Beverly Center Mall, Los Angeles, California
- Cherry Creek Shopping Center, Denver, Colorado
- Dolphin Mall, Miami, Florida
- Fairlane Town Center, Dearborn, Michigan
- Fair Oaks, Fairfax, Virginia
- Great Lakes Crossing, Auburn Hills, Michigan
- Hilltop Mall, Richmond, California (opened 1976, sold 1998)
- International Plaza, Tampa, Florida
- Lakeside Mall, Sterling Heights, Michigan
- MacArthur Center, Norfolk, Virginia
- The Mall at Millenia, Orlando, Florida
- Northlake Mall (Charlotte),Charlotte, North Carolina
- The Mall at Oyster Bay, Syosset, New York (scheduled opening fall 2007)
- The Mall at Partridge Creek, Clinton Township, Michigan (scheduled opening October 2007)
- Regency Square, Richmond, Virginia
- The Mall at Short Hills, Short Hills, New Jersey
- Stamford Town Center, Stamford, Connecticut
- Stoneridge Mall, Pleasanton, California (sold to Mills Corp. in 2004)
- Stony Point Fashion Park, Richmond, Virginia
- Sunvalley Mall, Concord, California
- Twelve Oaks Mall, Novi, Michigan
- Waterside Shops,
- The Mall at Wellington Green, Wellington, Florida
- Westfarms Mall, Farmington, Connecticut
- The Shops at Willow Bend, Plano, Texas
- Woodfield Shopping Center, Schaumburg, Illinois
[edit] See also
[edit] Trivia
Actress Sigourney Weaver took an interest in the Sotheby's-Christie's story while the trial was under way and an HBO film version of the story was under consideration in 2002. It appeared to fall through because the key informant, Diana Brooks, refused to speak with the star ([6],[7]).
[edit] Further reading
- Christopher Mason, The Art of the Steal, 2004, Putnam (ISBN 0-399-15093-5).
- Threshold Resistance by A. Alfred Taubman is scheduled to be published in April 2007 by Harper Collins.
