May 29, 2003

Philadelphia developer Bill Rouse dead at 60

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Willard G. Rouse III, the developer who transformed Philadelphia's skyline in the 1980s after successfully challenging a gentlemen's agreement that said no building could rise higher than the statue of William Penn atop City Hall, has died at 60.

Rouse died of lung cancer Tuesday at his home in the suburb of Phoenixville.

Rouse co-founded the company that became Liberty Property Trust, one of the nation's largest real estate investment trusts, and oversaw the development of Philadelphia's convention center, the biggest public construction project in Pennsylvania. He also helped orchestrate We the People 2000, the city's bicentennial celebration of the Constitution.

His properties included the Liberty Place skyscrapers, which broke Philadelphia's height barrier and are still its tallest buildings; the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Building; and the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts.

The Liberty Place project sparked civic debate because the plans called for it to soar above City Hall and its tower-topping statue of Penn, whose hat is 548 feet high. For generations, an unofficial rule said no building in Philadelphia could be higher than 491 feet.

Longtime city planner Edmund N. Bacon argued at the time that building higher than the beloved statue would turn Philadelphia into "a rootless city."

In 1985, however, the prospect of more jobs and tax revenue helped Rouse win city approval, and two years later, One Liberty Place, at 947 feet, became the first building in Philadelphia to break the height barrier.

More towers followed, and today, the statue is dwarfed on the city skyline.

"From spurring an economic renaissance by breaking down the height barrier on Philadelphia high-rise buildings, to championing the construction of the Kimmel Center, Bill Rouse introduced us to bold, new thinking and helped us grow and develop into a more progressive region," said former Gov. Mark S. Schweiker, now leader of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce.

Rouse was the target of an extortion attempt by former City Councilman Leland M. Beloff, who was convicted in 1987 and served nearly six years in federal prison. Prosecutors said Beloff plotted with former Philadelphia mob boss Nicodemo Scarfo to extort $1 million from Rouse.

A native of Baltimore, Rouse was born into a real estate family.

His father, Willard G. Rouse II, and his uncle, James Rouse, developed marketplaces -- including Seattle's Westlake Center, Boston's Faneuil Hall, Baltimore's Harborplace and New York City's South Street Seaport -- that combined stores, streetside entertainment and food in an urban setting. They also bought 12,000 acres of farmland between Baltimore and Washington, D.C., and built the planned city of Columbia, Md., now home to about 90,000 people.

Willard Rouse III graduated from the University of Virginia in 1966. He and three associates founded the industrial development company Rouse & Associates in 1972.

In 1994, Rouse & Associates became Liberty Property Trust, which today is a $4.6 billion company with more than 50 million square feet under management. The company says it is the nation's 17th-largest real estate investment trust.

Rouse is survived by his wife, Susannah, eight children, two grandchildren, three sisters and a brother.