Most of us were taught as children the adage "it is better to give than receive." But sometimes, it is possible to receive by giving. In our cover story for this issue we take a look at corporate giving and volunteerism programs at a handful of REITs and REOCs. These companies have discovered that through giving generously to the local community they can help those in need while simultaneously improving local economic conditions, developing the local workforce and showing a human face of what might otherwise be seen simply as a large corporate real estate entity. And in the long run, having properties located in thriving communities with low unemployment can only be good for the companies' bottom lines. Everyone involved—the charities, the general public, the REITs and REOCs and their stock holders—comes out a winner.

In a story with a different tone, "Crisis Control," we take a look what real estate companies can do to get back a critical measure of control when events precipitate a crisis at one of their properties. Every company needs to learn the lessons that tire giant Bridgestone/Firestone learned the hard way earlier this year: there is just no substitute for being prepared, with a well-thought-out crisis management plan already in place, when a problem arises.

In our profile story on Entertainment Properties Trust (EPT), we take a timely look at a company that has had success in a specialty area, financing the development of properties for megaplex theaters. During the late summer of this year, a number of theater operators announced bankruptcies that could have an adverse effect on EPT as well as malls and strip centers around the country. But EPT has positioned itself to weather this storm and, in a sidebar to the story, we examine how a number of other potentially affected REITs are working to do the same.

Finally, we have another in our occasional series of articles dealing with the history of real estate and finance. In this installment we examine the complex banking and real estate scheme that Aaron Burr used to engineer a surprise upset of Alexander Hamilton's dominant Federalist Party in the presidential election of 1800. The consequences of this scheme were profound: changing the balance of national political power; giving birth to the Chase Manhattan Bank; and, finally, sealing the fates of both Hamilton and Burr.

Christopher W. Murphy
Editor-in-Chief