OK, this is long, but I’ve uncovered some information. I feel strongly this needs to be
discussed.
To repeat my background, I’m
a retired accountant with twenty-six years of professional experience in the
real estate industry. I’m not a lawyer,
but I’ve done extensive research on copyright and privacy rights as a freelance
writer.
On to the details.
https://www.bizapedia.com/pa/watchtower-property-co.html
The above site contains
information about Watchtower Property Company. The following is a cut and paste.
“Watchtower Property Co is a Pennsylvania Domestic Fictitious
Names filed On August 21, 2017. The company’s filing status is listed as Active
and its File Number is 6595538. The company’s principal address is 2929
Walnut Street Ste 1540 Philadelphia, PA 19104.
The company has 4 principals on record. The
principals are Andrew Eisenstein from Springfield PA, Fe304, LLC from
Philadelphia PA, Jason Friedland from Philadelphia PA, and Matthew Canno from
Philadelphia PA.”
I had never seen the term “fictitious
names” and had to look it up. It is
nothing nefarious, it is Pennsylvania equivalent of “Doing Business As,” the
more commonly used term.
Here are the bio’s for three of the four
principals, taken from Iron Stone’s website. (http://iron-stone.com/leadership-team/) I can’t find anything
about Fe203 except that it’s a Limited Liability Corporation, and it got some
money from the feds under the payroll protection plan. “Fe” is the chemical abbreviation for Iron,
so I suppose that is somebody’s clever play on the Iron Stone name.
Andrew Eisenstein is the founder of Iron Real Estate Partners. Since the
mid-1990s, he has completed over $400 million in private equity and real estate
transactions. He has established a successful business model leading Iron Stone
into opportunistic real estate development, special situations investing and
mortgage debt acquisition. Mr. Eisenstein has a background in general
contracting, historic property restoration, and construction in high-rise
buildings. As a construction manager and developer, Mr. Eisenstein has built a
solid track record of entrepreneurial and creative projects that rely on this
specialized construction expertise. Mr. Eisenstein has served on several
not-for-profit boards including Legacy Youth Tennis and Settlement Music
School. When not working, he can be found playing tennis, running in the
Wissahickon or splitting firewood for his outdoor pizza oven that he converted
from an early 18th century smoke house. Mr. Eisenstein graduated from the
University of Pennsylvania.
Jason Friedland joined Iron Stone in 2002. He is intimately involved with
the acquisition, execution, repositioning and management of the Iron Stone real
estate portfolio. He has significant experience with construction management,
financing, zoning, asset acquisition via bankruptcy, historic and new markets
tax credits, affordable housing, and property management. Mr.
Friedland is a trustee of the Academy of Natural Sciences, member of the
Prints, Drawings and Photographs Committee at the Philadelphia Museum of Art,
and a member of the Childhood Friends of The Children’s Hospital of
Philadelphia. From 2010-2019, he served as trustee and then
Chairman of the Board of The Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech, with
campuses in Northampton, Boston, New York City, Philadelphia and
Jacksonville. When not working, he can be found hiking in the Wissahickon
or playing guitar, charango or the Chapman Stick. Born in Denver, CO, Mr.
Friedland received a B.A from Washington University in St. Louis, MO.
Matthew Canno has
been with Iron Stone Partners since 2001. Mr. Canno is responsible for
acquisitions, contract negotiations and serves as general counsel. In addition
to his real estate expertise, Mr. Canno was a founding partner at the law firm
of Binder & Canno, a boutique law firm specializing in real estate and
litigation. He was featured in the February 2007 edition of Philadelphia Magazine
for his entrepreneurial success and selected by The Philadelphia Business
Journal as one of its “40 under 40. He served as the Treasurer of the
Philadelphia Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) and, until 2012, served as the
Treasurer of the Board of Directors of Self, Inc. a long-standing charity in
Philadelphia that oversees many of the City’s homeless shelters and initiatives
for people suffering from financial and social hardships. He is currently on
the Finance Committee of The Philadelphia School. When not working, he can be
found playing tennis or spending time with his family. Mr. Canno specialized in
real estate and finance while obtaining a B.S. in Economics from The Wharton
School of the University of Pennsylvania. He also earned a J.D. from The University
of Pennsylvania Law School and is a member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association.
From what I can see
cruising around the internet today, this is a typical structure in the real
estate industry. There is a senior company
(Iron Stone) with at least one subsidiary (Watchtower Property) and probably another
(Fe203). These perform separate functions
and shield the various companies from liability, such as a lawsuit) created by one
part of the company.
Here is the danger:
First, I can see no connection
to the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society.
I had thought perhaps that the owner(s) might be Witnesses and used the
Watchtower name because they liked it. However, the biographies of the three
owners look very unwitness-like to me, so I doubt that.
Now, here is where we get into dangerous territory. If Iron Stone, Watchtower Property, or Ms. Foyle
think they’ve been labeled and sue, you could be in a world of hurt, as Watchtower
Property could claim their business was hurt by a false claim of association
with the religion.
There are generally two defenses to a charge of libel: 1) I
never said that or 2) what I said is true.
“1” doesn’t apply because we have a video of what was said; if you want to
invoke “2,” you need to find a connection between Watchtower Property and
Watchtower Society.
To try to end on an upbeat note, I will repeat an offer I’ve
made in the past. I generally have time
available these days, if you have questions about subjects like this holler at
me, I will take a swing at finding the answer.
