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.