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[keane]

I'm not Canadian, but thought some of you who are might find this of interest.

[Pligganease]

Leona's Large Legacy

Peter Slatin, Forbes/Slatin Real Estate Report 08.21.07, 4:24 PM ET

When somebody of note passes on to the next world (or simply dies) those of us who remain behind reach deep to measure our own life against that of the departed, to find meaning in the life gone by or simply to think of something nice to say.

The death of Leona Helmsley is no different. Interestingly, the people we spoke to seemed especially-- perhaps overly--intent on choosing the last option.

That people say nice things about her makes a certain perverse sense. Few characters provoked more of a bitter laugh from New York real estate people as well as the public at large than the Queen of Mean (we prefer to think of her as the Queen of Green), best known for being wild about her Harry (and his billions), vicious to her hotel employees and evasive of her taxes, for which she was sent to prison (leading to her famous quote: "Only the little people pay taxes").

With her infamously abrasive personality and gargantuan ambition, Leona Helmsley wielded enormous sway over the city that loved to hate her. Those attributes and the feelings they engendered were inextricable from her vast wealth and extreme visibility, embodied in hotels like the Park Lane on Central Park South or the Helmsley Palace on Madison Avenue.

But it was that personality, with its Medusa overtones, that overshadowed all else, including her significant accomplishments as a hotel-chain builder and manager of portfolio assets. The legacy of such a hard-charging persona similarly overshadows many women of power and wealth. Think Martha Stewart of prison and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (nyse: MSO - news - people )fame, another tough lady targeted and jailed by federal prosecutors.

It's not that these ladies didn't abuse their hard-won privileges. They clearly did. But it seemed that their celebrity and flinty independence drew the darts of American justice like a magnet.

Martha Stewart is still extant. But there is another recently departed New York woman with whom Leona Helmsley, according to her publicist of more than 30 years, Howard Rubenstein, had shared something very special. That something was a fierce philanthropic bent. The someone was Brooke Astor. (One wag described Leona to me as "the un-Mrs. Astor," manners and message-wise.)

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Mrs. Astor and Mrs. Helmsley both married into money, and they expanded on their husbands' accomplishments. Mrs. Astor's triumphant efforts, her much admired devotion to causes of culture and poverty, were applauded because of her tenacity and the grace, effervescence and charm that she approached them with. Mrs. Helmsley's philanthropy was accomplished in spite of the perceived absence of those qualities (other than tenacity), which also meant that her acts were accompanied with much less fanfare and genuine appreciation. Were they any less heartfelt? Hard to say, but since their deliverer was widely viewed as heartless, her acts of generosity were consistently tainted with a career of mean combativeness and presumptive entitlement that preceded them.

Leona married Harry Helmsley in 1972, and helped him manage his huge collection of office and residential properties in New York, Florida and across the country; together, they built the hotel group that she became most associated with. Not long after Harry died in January 1997, Leona launched a sales onslaught to dispose of much of an estimated $4 billion in assets. She hired Eastdil to manage the sell-off, which brought properties such as 140 Broadway, 230 Park Ave. and the Starrett-Lehigh Building to market just as the commercial property market was coming into its own ahead of the dot-com boom. Within short order, she had sold some $2 billion in properties for cash. Still partly in her possession when she died: the Empire State Building, the Fisk Building, the Helmsley and Park Lane hotels. Executives at W&M Properties, the family enterprise that was a key business partner in some of these properties as a result of an association with Harry Helmsley that predated Leona's arrival on the scene, declined to comment on her passing.

Not everyone was silent. "She was an outspoken leader of the real estate industry," said Lawrence Fiedler, an investor who taught real estate finance at New York University for nearly three decades.

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Stephen Spinola, president of the powerful Real Estate Board of New York, said that Leona's main contribution was that she "broke into an Old Boys' Club. For a woman coming into real estate, and being in charge, that was not an easy process. She opened the door a bit for women."

How she did that remains a sticking point in recalling this powerful personality. Howard Rubenstein addressed that difficult issue head on: "She always said, 'If I were a man, they would say I was a big, tough, strong leader.' " he recalled. "I'm hoping that people will remember the good things she did rather than the harshness." Ticking off her charitable efforts, he said that she had donated tens of millions to hospitals, Katrina victims and the 9/11 families. "And she built an enormously important hotel chain," he said. "She knew what she wanted and fought to get it."

Her company, Helmsley Enterprises, will remain in the hands of four people, Rubenstein said. These include her longtime adviser and companion, John Cody, as well as Harold Merriam, Abe Wolf and Sandy Frankel.

And how will she be remembered by the rest of us? That, says Steve Spinola, "depends on whether you were an admirer or friend or observer or enemy." In the end, she may not have cared, as long as she got her point across. After all, he says, "she gave everybody a chance to have strong feelings about her."

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Personal Postscript: While lunching with friends at Leona's Park Lane Hotel just before Christmas 2003, I was surprised to hear a frenzied yip-yapping sound. "That's Leona's dog," said one of my companions. "And Leona's sitting over there."

Leona's tiny, snarling fuzzball was raging at my large black Labrador guide dog, Image, who for once behaved himself and sat placidly ignoring the creature. A red-jacketed waiter raced over, scooped up the dog and carried it away.

After lunch, I asked my friends to guide me over to Mrs. Helmsley; I had spent much time reporting on the sale of her empire and her numerous entanglements with her partners. It was time we met.

She was sitting with one of her attorneys. After we were introduced, I expressed regret that, because of my dog's presence, she had not been able to dine with her dog. In a flash, she revealed the fierce no-holds-barred competitor who saw the world however she wanted it to be. "Well, your big brute attacked my little Trouble," she barked, referring to her dog by name.

Her companion demurred, noting that Image was a seeing-eye dog that was trained not to react to other dogs and hadn't moved. (Of course, on this one occasion, he actually followed his training.)

Changing the subject, I told her that I had written a great deal about her in the New York Post and Barron's. "I hope you wrote good things about me," she said. "I did my best," I replied.

[Mosley]

Leona was a babe....

[stevemcgarrett]

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