NEW YORK CITY—The industry has lost threeiconic figures—all company founders—in a span of little more thanthree weeks, most recently with the passing of Wm. Polk Carey,chairman of locally based W.P. Carey & Co. LLC and the W.P.Carey Foundation. The sale-leaseback pioneer died Jan. 2 in WestPalm Beach, FL at age 81.

Having founded the investment firm that bears his name in 1973,Carey launched the Corporate Property Associates program in 1979with the idea of creating investment products that could performwell in both up markets and troughs. The firm's current series ofnon-traded REITs have combined assets valued at approximately $9.2billion.

Trevor Bond, W.P. Carey & Co.'s CEO, said in a statementthat Carey "was more than our founder and chairman—he was thecultural leader of our company." He added that the best way tohonor his memory is to "continue to deliver outstanding results toinvestors" and "to ensure that the standards of excellence heestablished remain intact." Two days after Carey's passing, thefirm named Benjamin H. Griswold IV as non-executive chairman.