1095 Market Street
San Francisco,
California 94103
www.shapingsf.org/grant_bldg
grantbldg@yahoo.com
Who Owns the Grant Building? || Who Represents Scott Seligman?
Selected Detroit Free Press Articles on Irving and Scott Seligman
[NB: The GBTA has attempted to discover the real owner of the Grant Building and establish the truth about his business practices and reputation. What follows is based largely on a series of Detroit Free Press articles and research in the Web sites of Crain's Detroit, the FDIC, and the Federal Elections Commission.]
Seligman Western Enterprises bought the Grant Building in August 2000--from Jon Wittemyer, who himself had purchased the building only weeks before from Nathaniel Berkowitz and partners.
Seligman Western Enterprises operates under the name of 1095 Market, LLC (registered in Nevada). Dan O'Leary and Elaine Hui, Seligman Western Enterprises employees, are "president" and "vice president," respectively, of the LLC. They have recently been joined by Allan Alberto in managing the Grant Building.
Seligman Western Enterprises shares offices with Sterling Bank & Trust and K.I.S.S. Investment Co. in the Transamerica Bldg. at 600 Montgomery St. Sterling Bank & Trust shares corporate headquarters with Seligman & Assocs. at One Towne Sq., Southfield, Michigan.
Seligman & Assocs. was founded by Detroit-area real estate developer Irving Seligman. But his fortune multiplied as he learned to manipulate HUD housing subsidies in the 1960s. His son, Scott Seligman, in charge of Scott Management, collected management fees for the very housing projects that his father's company was constructing--and defaulting on. ("Housing for Poor a Source of Wealth: Businessman Capitalized on Flawed Federal Programs," Detroit Free Press, April 5, 1995)
Seligman & Assocs. was named in an indictment of a HUD official accused of accepting "a $100,000 payoff to steer subsidies to [the] real estate developer." ("Former HUD Official Indicted," Detroit Free Press, Dec. 5, 1992) In 1984 Seligman & Assocs. formed Sterling Savings & Loan Association, which later became Sterling Bank & Trust, with Scott Seligman at its head.
Operating under a variety of business names, Scott Seligman has purchased four buildings on Market St.: 785 Market, 1035 Market, 1095 Market, and 1540 Market.
Scott Seligman also owns a residence on Russian Hill. According to the Detroit Free Press ("School Accepts Gift Despite Donor's Past," June 18, 1998), Seligman, who describes himself as a "rootin', tootin' cowboy," "has faced a half-dozen court cases dating back to 1986 accusing him of sexual harassment, misconduct or abuse." All these cases were settled out of court. In 1991, "Lauren Seligman filed for divorce from her husband, citing 'abusive and violent behavior' and his 'extramarital activities.' She accused her husband of beating her, raping her, and spitting on her...."
Seligman is represented by Barnes Clarke & Associates, whose principal partners are Evette Davis and Jessica Berg. Davis and Berg provide media advice and lobbying at City Hall, where they were particularly close to former Supervisor Michael Yaki. Barnes Clarke also represents Home Depot, another out-of-town operation, which sought unsuccessfully to build a large store in Visitacion Valley. Opponents, who preferred support for local businesses and low-income housing, finally defeated Home Depot's plan. More recently, Home Depot has shifted its attention to the site of Goodman Lumber on Old Bayshore east of Bernal Heights, where they have also encountered local opposition. As in Visitacion Valley, Bernal Heights residents fear the impact of a blockbuster store like Home Depot on small businesses in the neighborhood. Barnes Clarke also works with the San Francisco Public Library and the Friends and Foundation of the San Francisco Public Library, supporting one nonprofit while attacking the livelihood of those in the Grant Building. Barnes Clarke is particularly proud of their successful lobbying to place the giant Coca-Cola bottle in Pac Bell Park.
WEALTH UNTOLD
DETROIT FREE PRESS
By LAURIE BENNETT
Date: Sunday, January 31, 1993 ; Page: 6 Edition:
METRO FINAL ; Section: MAG
Illustration: Photo Color PAULINE LUBENS
Memo: LAURIE BENNETT is a free-lance writer in Grosse Pointe.
[excerpts:]
New York has the Donald, Texas has Ross, And in California, it seems, there are four publicity hungry millionaires for every alcoholism rehab unit. But in Michigan, rich means you never have to say you're wealthy.
Every year, national magazines publish their lists of America's wealthiest people, and every year the same Detroit names appear.
Pizza kings Mike Ilitch and Tom Monaghan, shopping mall magnate Al Taubman, oil tycoon Max Fisher, Richard Manoogian of Masco Corp., William Kelly of Kelly Services, Pistons owner Bill Davidson. And, of course, the Fords.
We read the names and nod in recognition. We tell ourselves we know where the money is.
We're wrong, though. Tucked away on wooded side streets or along unseen lakefront, hundreds of metro Detroit millionaires live in comfortable obscurity.
They're an elusive species, difficult to track or catalog. You can recognize them by their distinctive marks -- those little wipers on their car headlights or the square footage of their spare bedrooms.
But because their clubs are private, their neighborhoods exclusive and their restaurants valet-parking only, sightings are rare. Dedicated wealth watchers with restricted budgets must pursue their quarry in obscure, dusty places.
The assessor's office, for instance. A perusal of 1992 assessment rolls shows that there are more than 200 million- dollar homes in the Bloomfields and the Pointes, Bingham Farms and Orchard Lake. (These figures are conservative, since assessments are almost always low.)
The U.S. Census also provides a few glimpses. For most communities, the Census Bureau establishes an exact dollar figure for median family income. But in the five square miles of money called Bloomfield Hills, the figure is so high that it runs right off the bureau's charts.
In Detroit, the median family income in 1989 was $22,566. In Bloomfield Hills, it was "$150,000 plus."
Detroit suburbs aren't the most affluent in America. The outskirts of New York, San Francisco and Washington have many more wealthy households.
But that's part of Detroit's cover. The rich here can live better for less. A million-dollar home in Grosse Pointe Shores is something to see. A million-dollar home in San Francisco is little more than a two-bedroom bungalow.
In Southeastern Michigan, there are communities where liquor stores sell Dom Perignon by the case, where stockbrokers routinely handle portfolios worth $800,000 and up, where million-dollar divorce settlements no longer raise eyebrows.
....
Some people who don't trust strangers to handle their money stash cash under the mattress. The Seligmans took the modern approach and started their own bank.
Sterling Savings Bank in Southfield is a subsidiary of Seligman percent Associates Inc., a firm owned by the Seligman family. Irving Seligman, 71, serves as chairman of the company. His son Scott, 41, is president of the bank.
Like the Stollmans, Irving Seligman made his money in real estate, developing and managing apartments and condominiums throughout the area. With banking and real estate such close relations, it seemed only natural to launch Sterling Savings in 1984.
Scott Seligman would later say that he and his family built the savings and loan "from scratch, brick by brick, branch by branch, deposit by deposit, mortgage by mortgage." The bank now has assets of almost $380 million.
The younger Seligman doesn't fit the stereotype of the staid, pin-striped banker. Several years ago, his former secretary sued him for sexual harassment, charging that Seligman bet colleagues $2,000 that he could grab her buttocks and tear off her bra. The case was settled out of court.
He later was charged with attempted criminal sexual conduct in a separate case involving an employee of another family- owned company. The woman had accused Seligman of harassing her by touch and sexual innuendo. The charge was dismissed six weeks after Seligman and the woman reached an out-of-court settlement in a related civil suit.
Last year Seligman's seven-year marriage ended in divorce, with his ex-wife getting a settlement of $1.7 million.
Although the Seligmans are quite private about their business interests, their spending is flashier than some. Irving Seligman, 71, drives a 1992 Cadillac with the license plate, "KISS." His son tools around in a $74,000 Porsche. His license plate is spelled, "CESAR."
FORMER HUD OFFICIAL INDICTED
DETROIT FREE PRESS
By BERNIE SHELLUM Free Press Business Writer
Date: Saturday, December 5, 1992 ; Page: 10B
Edition: METRO FINAL ; Section: BIZ
A federal grand jury Friday indicted a former housing official from Birmingham on charges he accepted a $100,000 payoff to steer subsidies to a Bloomfield Hills real estate developer.
The grand jury also leveled other new fraud and bribery charges against Thomas Demery, a former developer who served as Ronald Reagan's assistant secretary of Housing and Urban Development in 1986-89.
Demery pleaded not guilty in June to an initial indictment that accused him of influence peddling, conspiracy and use of his role at HUD for personal gain. His trial on those charges is scheduled to start Jan. 21.
The new indictment accuses Demery of 19 felonies. It was announced in Washington on Friday by independent counsel Arlin Adams, who has secured guilty pleas this year from a number of other HUD officials in the Reagan administration. The indictment says an unidentified principal of the Seligman firm arranged an unrecorded $100,000 second mortgage for Demery, at a lower-than-market interest rate, in exchange for more than $15 million in HUD subsidies Demery arranged. The firm manages multifamily housing projects.
Irving Seligman, president of Seligman & Associates, could not be reached. An employee of the firm said there would be no immediate comment on the indictment.
Demery also illegally accepted the free use of a condominium in Vail and a car from another HUD client, the Denver-based Winn Group, and then lied to Congress and committed perjury by presenting a phony receipt to the grand jury, the indictment says.
The indictment contends Demery sold his Birmingham real estate business, Income Property Services, at an inflated price, then paid off the buyer, Phillip McCafferty, through HUD subsidies. Demery also steered subsidies to PM Group, of Brighton, which helped McCafferty with the transaction, the indictment says.
Demery's attorney, John Hume of Washington, D.C., denied all charges and argued that Demery fully disclosed the sale of IPS before he was confirmed for the HUD post by the Senate.
"The government is using its brutal economic power to crush Mr. Demery by successive indictments and trials," Hume said. "No individual has the resources to defend himself against such abusive prosecution."
HOUSING FOR POOR A SOURCE OF WEALTH BUSINESSMAN CAPITALIZED ON FLAWED FEDERAL PROGRAMS
DETROIT FREE PRESS
By DAVID MIGOYA Free Press Staff Writer
Date: Wednesday, April 5, 1995 ; Page: 12A
Edition: METRO FINAL CHASER ; Section: NWS
Illustration: Photo PATRICIA BECK
Memo: HUD: A VACANCY OF HOPE
Irving Seligman is an example of your tax dollars at work -- they helped make him rich.
Seligman is a millionaire with homes in Bloomfield Hills and Palm Beach, Fla., company-owned luxury cars including a 1987 Bentley and a Lexus, properties in Michigan, Arizona and Nevada, and a nonprofit foundation in his name.
The 74-year-old businessman managed to squeeze a portion of all that wealth from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The money comes from the housing he and his companies have developed and manages in Michigan and other states.
HUD officials agree that since the 1960s Seligman has artfully taken advantage of a flawed system to make every possible dollar, and the cash will continue to flow into the next century. What's also clear is that HUD helped Seligman and developers like him capitalize on its own system.
Seligman companies owe HUD millions on defaulted mortgages. He has not been charged with any crime. He and his business have been investigated at least three times. He was named an unindicted coconspirator for allegedly giving a loan to a top HUD official in return for millions for his projects. And a Justice Department investigation remains open.
Clearly a survivor, he has weathered financial crunches, government audits, lawsuits and even the harshest reviews by HUD. Federal regulators have probed other businesses with which he's involved, including a bank and mortgage company.
In the mid-1960s, Seligman was a successful home builder in the Detroit area. Then came Lyndon Johnson's Great Society programs to help the downtrodden and disenfranchised.
HUD suddenly wanted housing for the poor, lots of it. Seligman knew a good deal when he saw it, former business associates say.
"He's as good a businessman as I have ever seen," former partner Arthur Kopelman said. "Mr. Seligman did things with money that money didn't even think could be done."
Numerous efforts to reach Seligman for comment were unsuccessful. Calls were referred to Thomas Bales, vice president of Scott Management Co., which oversees most of Seligman's apartment complexes. Bales said he had no knowledge of Seligman's financial dealings.
A Detroit Free Press analysis of Seligman's dealings shows HUD rarely denied any of his requests. That was because he knew many of the right people, said HUD insiders.
Seligman appeared to have good connections with HUD officials in Washington. Former HUD employees, who asked not to be identified, said if Seligman wasn't happy with something the agency's Detroit office did, he often went to Washington in an effort to have it changed.
Seligman also had the ability to claim poverty on behalf of his companies' for not paying their government-backed mortgages. At the same time, he was continuing to increase his personal wealth. He made millions more in other business ventures. He and his wife also set up the Seligman Family Foundation, which now has assets of more than $1 million, according to HUD sources and federal tax returns.
Seligman and his son, Scott, own and operate several businesses, the basis of which is the management of more than 40 apartment complexes in at least three states -- Michigan, Arizona and Nevada. Other Seligman real estate businesses operate in Florida and California.
Most of his empire has been successful, a testament to an entrepreneur who could see apartment complexes where everyone else saw dried, cracked land.
His business acumen is best shown in the dozen complexes that his companies built with the federal government's blessing.
While the complexes appeared to go broke, Seligman still managed to make money because HUD would not let Seligman's companies fail. The reason: If those companies failed, then the agency failed.
HUD records show Seligman-owned complexes cost the government nearly $40 million in defaulted mortgages. Half of that was for four complexes alone.
"Foreclosure just wasn't an option," said Harry Sharrott, former manager of HUD's Detroit field office, now a deputy director in Washington. "It was HUD's position to do whatever it took to help mortgages become solvent," rather than foreclose and record huge losses on the loans.
So Seligman and his companies have taken advantage of every plan that HUD offered, whether it was increased rent subsidies worth millions of dollars a year, or year-long deferrals on his mortgages.
While giving HUD very little with one hand, Seligman companies were taking in nearly $6 million a year in rent subsidies with the other. Much of that money went to the managers of the complex -- companies Seligman owned or had an interest in, records show.
Seligman proved to be a financial wizard. His know-how was best exemplified when he began developing nine apartment complexes between 1970 and 1973 in southwest Taylor. The $40 million Seligman needed to build the projects came from another business he owned -- Mid-States Mortgage Co.
Records show HUD guaranteed all the mortgages. In essence, one Seligman-owned company promised to pay another one. When the Seligman-owned firm did not make its mortgage payments, HUD stepped in and paid them. And in just one more way to make money, HUD paid a fee to the Seligman-owned Mid-States for each mortgage it wrote for his other businesses.
By 1975, all the projects defaulted, costing taxpayers $40 million. HUD has been trying to collect ever since. And they'll have to keep on trying well into the 21st Century because of the long-term deals HUD struck.
Part of the collection process included payment plans devised by HUD and agreed to by Seligman's companies. Sometimes Seligman's companies kept up, other times they didn't, depending on the number of vacancies in the complexes. HUD says his firms are now current on all their federal mortgages.
Some of Seligman's projects -- including some in Michigan -- were in such dire straits in 1976 and 1986 that auditors recommended HUD foreclose and cut its losses. But HUD officials simply continued making yearly payment plans and hoped Seligman's companies could keep up.
Although HUD denied Free Press requests for financial information and details of the workout plans, a 1986 memo from HUD's regional inspector general about one of several apartment complexes in Taylor shows auditors were worried about keeping Seligman's companies in business.
Former Regional Inspector General Thomas Bannon warned that Coppertree I apartments, one of the Taylor complexes in the $40-million default -- would not regain its financial footing for at least three years, no matter how much help it got. Bannon noted that HUD regulations at the time required foreclosure if a project couldn't get out of trouble within two years.
"We believe you should critically review future requests by the owners for mortgage relief," Bannon wrote officials at HUD's regional office in Chicago.
But instead of foreclosing, HUD came to the rescue again. The agency allowed Seligman's companies to go another 14 months without making payments. Then HUD let them put the unpaid debt into a second mortgage at no interest. They wouldn't have to pay the second mortgage until the original first mortgage was paid -- in 40 years.
Seligman managed to negotiate identical no-interest second mortgages on two other complexes in Taylor as well. All three deferrals -- totaling $2.2 million -- were engineered in Washington, not the Detroit office as was customary, local HUD officials said.
HUD auditors said deferred payments were not unusual, but the plan was to defer principal payments only, never interest.
"All of a sudden we were hit with these workouts that were arranged and sealed in Washington," said a local HUD official, who also asked not to be identified. "We didn't know why, but we just did our job."
HUD never foreclosed, property records show. And the two- year grace period HUD used to give owners to regain their footing has now been extended, in some cases up to nine years.
Meanwhile, Seligman's company, S&D Management, and his son's company, Scott Management, were making millions in fees to run the complexes.
Under HUD regulations, complex managers must be paid from project funds first, so HUD had to take whatever was left. Both management companies became the topic of numerous government audits.
While they were cited a number of times for questionable activities, the companies were never sanctioned and HUD employees often ignored what auditors said about complexes in Michigan, reports show.
Both companies are still being paid an undisclosed amount to oversee Seligman complexes.
Audits of Seligman complexes showed Scott Management and S& D Management were cited for a variety of alleged violations from 1986 through 1990:
* Auditors said in 1990 that the companies were paid fees exceeding $246,000 for questionable expenditures at Clinton Plaza Apartments I & II complexes in Clinton Township.
* S&D also was cited in the same audit for charging $13,400 in excessive fees.
* Sterling Bank and Trust, where Scott Seligman is chairman of the board and CEO, was named recipient of more than $240,000 in tenant deposits, funds that were supposed to be at another bank and in interest-bearing accounts, according to the same audit.
* The 1986 audit of Coppertree I noted that another Scott Seligman company, Pierpont Morgan Ltd., was being paid nearly $53,000 each month for project insurance. While the practice was not illegal, Seligman violated HUD policies by not identifying his interest in the company.
* The 1986 audit also noted that project funds were paid to two other companies in which Seligman had an interest: Professional Information Systems and R&S Printing. Seligman failed to tell HUD of his interest in each, which auditors determined by comparing the billing addresses.
City completes deal for housing
No evictions planned in renovation project
December 25, 1997
BY JEFF GERRITT Free Press Staff Writer
The City of Taylor has agreed to pay Southfield developer Irving Seligman about $38 million for seven apartment complexes in a poor section of Taylor, officials said this week.
The agreement ends more than a year of haggling between Seligman and the city over the price of the complexes totaling 2,000 units, and will mark the first time a city has bought private, federally subsidized housing to tear it down. The city has agreed to pay the property's assessed value, as Seligman requested.
"I guess it finally dawned on them that that was the price," he said Tuesday. "We're going to cooperate in every way possible so that they can complete the transaction."
The city plans to tear down some units and renovate 1,241 others, to cut crime and improve living conditions -- at a total cost of more than $60 million. About 3,300 people live in the apartments, which make up one of the largest concentrations of subsidized housing outside a major city. City officials hope to take ownership within two months and start work on the five-year project next summer.
The city plans to offer on-site recreation, social services, job training and college courses.
"We're going to reduce the density and work to reduce the crime," said Fred Zorn, Taylor's director of administration. "The problems are caused by a small handful of people."
Some tenants fear the loss of low-income housing, but others say the apartments are rundown and should go.
"The apartment next door is full of roaches and they won't fix anything up," said James Kemp, a five-year resident of the Pine Ridge complex. "They need to tear them down and remodel."
Martha Thompson, who has lived at Pine Ridge for 16 years, also hopes the city's plan will cut crime and drug problems, and improve life for her and her 16-year-old daughter.
City officials have said that the complexes have accounted for a third or more of the city's crime in recent years.
But Thompson said most tenants don't cause problems. And she's concerned that some low-income tenants will have no place to go. "I don't see how they're going to have enough room," Thompson said.
The city has estimated that, in addition to the $38 million paid to Seligman, it will need about $25 million to demolish, renovate and landscape the property.
The seven properties consist of 2,186 units on 83 acres southwest of Eureka and Beech Daly. Seligman built the apartments in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a federal program to provide clean, safe, affordable housing for poor people.
City officials don't plan to evict tenants but raze units as normal turnover occurs. Zorn said the city will help tenants find other homes. About 300 units are now vacant.
In May 1996, Taylor residents approved an estimated $20-million tax increase to buy the units. Later that year, the City Council authorized city officials to borrow, without changing the millage, up to $30 million for the project -- $10 million more than originally planned.
In addition to the bond issue, Zorn said the project would include private sector financing and money from the sale of properties. He said the city plans to start selling the property after five years.
Price dispute threatens city's low-income housing plan
January 21, 1997
BY JEFF GERRITT Free Press Staff Writer
The City of Taylor might have to scrap a planned $30-million bond issue to buy and demolish low-income housing in the city's south end, if talks with Southfield developer Irving Seligman continue to sputter over purchase price.
The two sides, who have disputed the price of the 2,000- apartment complex since last May, are no closer to a resolution, outgoing Mayor Cameron Priebe said Monday.
Priebe said the city could use the money to buy and redevelop another high-density apartment complex in the city.
City records show the 83-acre Seligman complex is valued at about $35 million.
But Priebe has said that assessed value is not the sole determinant of the purchase price. Apartments are also valued on how much rental income they could earn.
"Those units aren't worth that much, and the city won't pay that much," Priebe said.
Seligman said he wants fair market value for his property, southwest of Eureka and Beech Daly.
"I'm shocked and surprised that a city government would intentionally overvalue something," Seligman said.
But Priebe, who is taking a job as an assistant Wayne County executive Feb. 1, said he hopes successor Greg Pitoniak will have better luck with Seligman.
"In some regards, Mr. Seligman hates my guts," Priebe said. "He was definitely taking me to school."
Taylor voters overwhelmingly approved the one-mill, 20-year tax for the project in May.
Plans called for tearing down half the more than 2,000 apartment units owned by Seligman and renovating the rest. But Priebe said a consultants' report, due early next month, will show it's cheaper to raze nearly all of the units and build about half as many replacements. Priebe said renovation costs would run roughly $53,000 a unit, compared to about $40,000 to build. The city would have to replace roofs and windows, add air conditioning and install new heating systems in the units.
Seligman said $53,000 a unit seemed too costly for low- and moderate-income units. "It appears they want to change the makeup of the area" to attract higher-income tenants, he said.
"Absolutely not,' said Susan Miller-Anderson, Taylor's community development director. "Just because people are low- income doesn't mean they shouldn't live in decent, safe and sanitary housing. Our goal is to make these units indistinguishable from market-rate apartments."
The seven apartment complexes were built in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a federal program to provide affordable housing for poor people.
Priebe said Seligman had been uncooperative and "largely unwilling to allow us to do the necessary inspections" of the buildings.
Not so, said Seligman, who said he held no ill will toward Priebe.
"I think he's done a good job for the city," Seligman said. "I didn't go asking anybody to buy this property, but I'm more than willing to cooperate, as I have in the past."
Priebe said he continues to support the redevelopment project to cut crime and improve living conditions.
"The people there are living in an unsafe, crummy community," Priebe said. "There's drugs, prostitution -- that's not acceptable, either for the people who live there or for the rest of the city."
Priebe said he hopes the city can buy the property and start work on the three-year project by July.
"But if Seligman wants to drag his feet for a year and a half, we can wait," Priebe said. "We're going to pay a fair price. We realize he has money invested, but we're also going to a guy who has used the system to his advantage and it's made him even richer."
Cynthia Dunlop, 23, a mother of four who lives in Seligman's Pineridge town houses, said she believes that crime in the complexes has gotten worse since she moved in two years ago.
"I'd like to get out of this part of Taylor, but right now I'm stuck," she said. "I don't leave the house after 5 p.m."
School accepts gift despite donor's past
Country Day hadn't known of legal problems
June 18, 1998
BY DAVID ZEMAN Free Press Staff Writer
When Detroit Country Day School raised millions for a new performance hall, there was little debate about whose name would go on the building.
After all, Scott Seligman, a wealthy banker and real estate manager, had given $1 million for the center. Next week, the school will hold a ground-breaking ceremony for the Seligman Family Performing Arts Center.
What school officials did not know -- because, as they say, they never checked -- was that Seligman has faced a half-dozen court cases dating back to 1986 accusing him of sexual harassment, misconduct or abuse.
"I know zero about it," headmaster Jerry Hansen said Wednesday of the cases. "I'm hearing it from you for the first time."
Still, Hansen said he had no second thoughts.
"We're honored to have the Seligman family name on our auditorium," Hansen said. "How come? Because they donated $1 million."
Seligman, 47, who described himself to an interviewer Wednesday as a "rootin', tootin' cowboy," denied the charges raised in the suits. "They're unproven allegations," he said, "and nobody should make a decision based on unproven allegations."
Indeed, each of the lawsuits accusing Seligman of sexual impropriety has been settled out of court with no finding made that the accusations were true. In most of the cases, the parties involved say they are forbidden to discuss the cases publicly, or reveal what -- if any -- money was paid to the plaintiffs.
In addition, a 1989 criminal sexual-assault charge raised by a woman who worked for Seligman was dismissed in 1990, weeks after the woman settled her civil suit. The reason for the dismissal is unclear.
Still, the decision by the private Beverly Hills prep school to put the Seligman name on a building disappointed some people involved in the suits. Because of gag orders they said were tied to settlement of their cases, they spoke on condition of anonymity.
"I'm offended to hear that," said one attorney. "If this is in recognition of Scott Seligman and all of his fine contributions in life, it's sickening."
One plaintiff, a former Seligman employee, sighed and said: "The school ought to go to court and look at those cases."
Sara Melendez, president of Independent Sector, a philanthropic group in Washington, D.C., said organizations that accept donations from people without investigating them do so at their peril.
"Organizations need to do a lot of homework about the people who are giving major gifts, particularly if they are naming buildings after them -- just to avoid any embarrassment," she said.
"Naming these places for people is seen by the public as giving respect and credibility to the person," Melendez said. "So I think a school wants to make sure every one of its buildings is named for people of whom they can be proud."
A man involved with the Country Day fund-raising campaign said he has known Seligman for many years, and admires his character and generosity.
"He's a very smart and philanthropic guy," said investor Phillip Fisher, who was chairman of the school's effort to raise $11.7 million for the arts center and a new science wing.
Fisher said he knew nothing about the allegations raised in the lawsuits. Asked whether the school should reconsider using the Seligman name, he said, "Not at all."
He declined to comment further.
Hansen, the headmaster, said he is generally leery of sexual-harassment lawsuits brought against employers.
"Employees are suing these days for any old reason," Hansen said. "It doesn't mean because they sue that there's any substance to it."
Hansen said Country Day has no need to perform background checks on donors -- especially Seligman.
"We've already made our decision to put his name on the school building and we certainly don't plan to change that," he said. "We have never had any reason to believe that Scott isn't a citizen in good standing."
In 1986, Seligman, president of Southfield-based Sterling Bank and Trust, was sued for sexual harassment by his personal secretary, Susan Dexter. She accused him of making a $1,000 bet with two lawyers in his office that he could grab her buttocks and remove her bra within a two-week period, according to the complaint filed in her lawsuit.
At one point, Dexter alleged, he pressured her to sign a letter that stated "Scott wins," so he could collect on the bet. When she refused, she said Seligman stalked her through the office and grabbed her bra strap. She said she screamed and left the office. The case was later settled.
In 1987, a receptionist at Sterling's Royal Oak branch said in a lawsuit she was "repeatedly harassed and abused" with sexual innuendoes and unconsented-to touchings by Seligman. Suzanne Schroeder said her boss also pressured her to look through lingerie catalogues with him. That case, too, was settled.
In 1989, Seligman was charged with attempted fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct, a misdemeanor carrying a possible one-year jail term. A collection agent at Scott Management, Seligman's real-estate company, said Seligman asked her to bring him coffee in his office, according to a police report.
She said Seligman had her sit in his chair. He then approached from behind and fondled her breasts, she said. When she tried to leave, he made her sit on a bar stool and face the corner, she said.
"That is your penance for being a bad girl," she quoted him as saying.
While the criminal charge was pending, the woman also filed a civil lawsuit. That suit was settled on March 19, 1990. Six weeks later, the criminal charge was dismissed. Court documents do not give a reason for the dismissal and the lawyers connected to the case could not be reached for comment.
The following year, Lauren Seligman filed for divorce from her husband, citing "abusive and violent behavior" and his "extramarital activities."
She accused her husband of beating her, raping her and spitting on her, the last during an argument at their home at the time, in Bloomfield Hills. The judge in the case entered an order forbidding the couple to have any contact with each other.
Scott Seligman denied the allegations of abuse and blamed his wife's "avarice and greed" for the breakup.
In 1994, Kathryn Leftwich, a Sterling bank manager, sued Seligman for age discrimination. She said in court papers that "Seligman favored the hiring of young pretty women to staff" the bank, providing gifts and "low-rent or rent-free apartments for the women." Leftwich said she was fired "because she was no longer young enough to please Seligman."
Seligman said Leftwich was fired for "inappropriate conduct and refusal to take direction." That suit was settled in 1996.
In an interview, Seligman -- who has homes in Sante Fe, N.M., and Bloomfield Township -- declined to discuss specifics of the lawsuit or their potential impact on the performing arts center.
"If the school objects, that is up to the school," he said.
Besides, he said, he was thinking of renaming the center after his bank, rather than his family. "I think it has greater commercial value than our family name," he said.
Either way, he's not worried.
"Gee," said the 1969 alum, "I hope they won't take my picture out of the yearbook."
City to rebuild neighborhood complex
Officials hope project will help reduce crime
June 10, 1998
BY JEFF GERRITT Free Press Staff Writer
Federal officials have approved a pioneering plan to raze about half the apartments in a poor section of southwest Taylor and refurbish the rest.
The $82.5-million project marks the first time a city has bought private, federally subsidized housing to tear it down and rebuild it, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
HUD approved Taylor's plans last week. Renovation work and security improvements for the 2,186-unit complex, known as the South End, will start next month.
When demolition and rebuilding work is finished in five to seven years, the complex will have 1,241 apartments and 18 acres of added park and recreation spaces.
The long-delayed plan for the new Villages of Taylor has evoked both hope and skepticism among tenants, who are fed up with crime and rundown housing.
"If the city can come in and improve things, I'm all for it," said Paulette Hardy, 42, a hospital worker and 12-year resident.
Residents like Rebecca Clay, 51, and Lonnie Sage, 27, complain of crime and maintenance requests that go unanswered for months. Sage, a telephone salesperson, said burglars broke in and vandalized her apartment a month after she moved in April.
Clay, a resident of more than 10 years, pointed to a bullet hole in her upstairs bedroom and complained about bathroom leaks, electrical shorts and heating problems. "You let them know about it, two or three times, and nothing is done," she said.
Taylor Mayor Gregory Pitoniak pledged to address tenants' complaints about maintenance, although he said it could take months to catch up on a backlog of requests for repairs. He said Villages of Taylor will lower crime and raise living standards for residents.
Police Chief Thomas Bonner said crime in the seven-apartment complexes -- much of it drug-related -- accounts for about one-third of the city's serious reported crimes. Starting next week, police will add two community relations officers to work in the complexes, Bonner said.
Beginning June 29, the department will also start a campaign to crack down on crime in the South End. He said most of the problems are caused by a few dozen people, and many of them live outside the apartments.
Taylor plans $6 million worth of remodeling work the first year of the project, starting in July, said Albert Berriz, of McKinley Properties of Ann Arbor, which manages the project. Work will include renovating 210 of the planned 1,241 units and building gated entrances and guardhouses.
"I'm elated," said William Bolyard Sr., who heads a home owners group of about 180 people in southwest Taylor. "It's going to take away some of the fear of crime and escalate our property values."
Apartments will be vacated through attrition and no tenant who follows the rules will be forced to move, said Cassandra Lane, community liaison officer for the Villages of Taylor. "My goal is to retain all the residents I can. We want them to be happy with this."
Nearly 500 of the 2,186 units are vacant now. About 1,200 of the remaining occupied units receive federal Section 8 rental subsidies. Under Section 8, tenants generally pay 30 percent of their income for rent.
When families leave the apartments, they'll get rental vouchers that they can use for renovated apartments at Villages of Taylor or at other apartments where landlords accept the vouchers.
About 400 of the units will be enlarged, three- and four-bedroom apartments.
Taylor has agreed to pay Southfield developer Irving Seligman about $38 million for the seven-apartment complexes, built in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The Taylor Community Development Corp., a nonprofit corporation formed by the city, will own the apartments.
Besides the purchase price, the city plans to spend about $25 million to demolish, renovate and landscape the property. Most of the project's remaining $20 million in expenses will be financing costs, debt service and legal and engineering fees.
The city's financing package consists of a planned $1.5-million grant from the Department of Natural Resources; $17.6 million in revenue bonds backed by a millage approved by voters in 1996; an anticipated $28.2 million in rental income over seven years; the sale to the city of $16.7 million in HUD mortgages for a nominal cost, probably about $30,000; and an $18.5-million construction loan, probably from First of America.
Renovations to apartment units will include high-tech security systems, new siding, windows, heating and air-conditioning systems, roofing, light fixtures, carpeting, vinyl flooring and front doors.
Berriz called the property's condition dilapidated.
Tenants agree but also have lingering fears that changes will leave some people without homes.
Neighbors Bonnie Cutter, 36, and Shelia Collins, 40, have planted gardens in front of their apartments. Cutter said that if management works to improve the apartments, tenants will try harder, too.
But Collins, who works for an ambulance company, said changing the image of her home won't come easy.
"The place has cleaned up a lot," Collins said. "But it's still referred to as a crack ridge. And it always will be."