European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 20, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Blue Book of real estate posh posh prices by Guffey associated press these Are the places Jay gatsby would have the Homes that might have tempted Scarlett Ohara to Trade they Are properties marketed by previews a real estate firm with its roots in the de pression and Price tags in the it is hard to exaggerate the grandness that is previews Stock in Johnny Carson just bought a million slice of Malibu Yoko Ono has a Virginia riverfront estate Marlon Brando has listed his tahitian want the antebellum masterpiece where they filmed the Rig chill someone else just bought How about the rustic Beauty of a ranch near Glen Wood Springs in the Colorado the Homestead of Teddy Roosevelt Hunting guides for such dreams Are just but As previews Bob you never know where your buyers going to come previews recently moved its Headquarters to Denver from underscoring fac cats belief that Denver is becoming a financial Center and Center of there Are 12 previews offices around the United and associates on every the previews annual issued each year in is considered the Blue Book of real Fawcett the publication is sent to executives of Fortune magazines biggest companies and to offi cers of the worlds 350 largest quarterly supplements show new listings throughout the there is also a bimonthly sister Homes the firms trademark is color Pho tos Are liberally used in the publications and the brochures that detail each buyers arc so taken with those color photos that they buy the property without Fawcett the hard time after the Stock Market crash of 1929 led to previews founding in properties in the wealthy new York City suburbs of  and Fairfield had become too much for their the big estates were extremely difficult to Fawcett we took a lesson from the Stock if you have shares of general you dont have to Hawk it up and Down the previews aimed to become the big Board of prime real estate through word of Mouth and the right mailing it made strange As it sounds the firm also pioneered the concept of multiple listings of putting Forth Homes that any real estate broker could help commissions might have to be but part of a commission is better than a few years a Oneman real estate operation in Texas noted the listing for Mackinac College in Michi pitched the idea to the Rex and sold hum Bard on the idea of making the College his Cathe dral of whose organization had tried and failed to interest a number of groups from corporations to the Central intelligence Agency on the idea of an Island says the imaginative texan collected an no one firm can have All the he when Fawcett first opened a Branch office in Denver in he haunt been in the City Long when a Man called and said he and his wife wanted something with a Vine it want Long before we had other people wanted a Virginia horse a Marina in Southern an Island off a chateau in the prices seem to have no a Home is under contract to be purchased for a parcel of condominiums is for Sale at the prices vary by in parts of new there Are elegant properties for or but that peanuts in Fairfield Fawcett the los Angeles office Seldom lists anything below Fawcett Doest think much below is Likely to be accepted by the Denver the real criteria int where our strength lies is in handling the Oneo faking says Point the Home that entertainer Carson recently bought from a macadamia nut came with Square feet 300 feet of private Beach out if the Walls Arent Glass or they Are upholstered in raw suedes and Baths feature 24karat Gold on the main Trees in a courtyard reach 25 feet toward Square feet of need one add that it came furnished fairytale Homes like these Are just on half of a percent of the total real estate Fawcett its a lucrative including the initial total 11 percent of a property Selling places like Palm Springs and la which offer Good climate and recreational possibilities have been big people want to get away from All the Urban says with computers tied by phone lines and satellite dishes in the Back anywhere can be just next he even better for Fawcett is the trend of instead of one Large Many people prefer now to have four or five Rand Mcnally rates once Smoky Pittsburgh As americas most liveable a photo Pitts Ergh the dynamics of greatness a Miami property listed by the Denver real estate firm previews Page 14 the stars and stripes a photo by Tara Bradle Steck associated press when Rand Mcnally places rated almanac renamed the Smoky City the nations most liable the snickers could be heard throughout the Pittsburgh Gimme a chided the Washington if Pittsburgh is could hell be Paradise said another newspaper in some smug Pitt burghers insisted they knew it All but others were on behalf of i demand a wrote a bemused Peter columnist for the Pittsburgh Post its not that we dont deserve to be its just that were simply not used to being on top in any thing that Doest involve Pittsburgh old image is deeply rooted and hard to created decades ago when towering smokestacks spewed umbrellas of soot that shut out the Street lights had to be turned on at noon and White Collar work ers needed a second shirt to change into during the it was the City of steel furnaces and polluted built Over the worlds largest metallurgical Coal seam and at the Forks of the Ohio James Parton characterized the City a Century ago As hell with the lid noted architect Frank Lloyd when asked ear Lier in this Century what should be done with the abandon but just the opposite has when world War ii was Over and we took a look at ourselves which we could hardly do because of the soot we knew that something had to change in the says mayor Richard Pittsburgh began an intensive civic Effort to clean up its air and revitalize the downtown area and highlight the natural Beauty of the surrounding Hills and under the Banner of Renaissance Pittsburgh was the first City in the country to enact and enforce a clean air act and begin an Urban renewal the cites skies Are Clear and people can fish for their dinner in the cites three Rivers the Ohio and although the cites population plummeted from a Peak of in 1950 to about a visit downtown leaves the impression while Pittsburgh is not a Boom town like or it must lie somewhere near the Sun the Skyline features architectural standouts like pig industries million Olike Glass sky scraper Complex and the Mellon Bank in the past two Pittsburgh has added More than 2 Mil lion Square feet of office retail and More Down town office buildings and hotels Are Fri statistics show Pittsburgh has the lowest crime rate of any City its size and has about half the aggravated burglaries and thefts As the average metropolitan the average single family Home costs in the City and metropolitan the cites Industrial like Andrew Andrew Mellon and Henry Clay left behind cultural institutions like the Pittsburgh civic Light opera and Pittsburgh educational institutions like Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh attract National at Pitts medical school and affiliated where Jonas Salk conquered polio 30 years pioneering surgeons perform heart july lung and hear liver transplants almost not too Long opportunities for High skilled professionals were few while High paying jobs for Blue Collar workers were but in the past few displaced steel workers have been moving to Sun Belt states to work while Urban professionals Are beginning to View Pitts Burgh As a City that refuses to sink into the rust bowl of Many northeastern and midwestern towns built on smokestack its a hopeful says Terry a 28yearold computer Programmer from californian Silicon after visiting Pittsburgh Miller was impressed with the Low Cost of housing and Job oppo Runi ties in her Field and is considering moving to the the Quality of life is so much greater she 1 cant afford to buy a House in Here 1 its a City that progressively moving upward a Nice mix of East coast culture and midwestern says Ellen an attorney who moved to Pittsburgh 10 years ago from the 2 ranked Frank vice chairman of pig says the fou county metropolitan area of million people is a Good place to theres a very Strong work ethic in the area that stems from the people who came Over to work in the Mills and the Coal Breeze wrapped around the downtown area Are the cites 77 neighbourhoods ethnic enclaves that have seen Little change since the turn of the in the 50s and 60s the neighbourhoods began to eclipsed by the Progress being made in the downtown area and Hurt by manufacturing Job losses of More than 50 per cent in 15 the roads and Bridges began to rumble and the steel Industry base rusted with the it was either the bulldozers coming in or the devel Caliguiri we had to do something do something that want superficial and on a scale that was going to have an Impact on the Renaissance ii was born in 1977 with the Mission to expand and stabilize Pittsburgh Economy and enhance its the City committed More than million toward housing rehabilitation and commercial revitalization As Well As improvements to Bridges and Public facile City officials also asked business leaders for when i knocked on the door of the business Community around 1977 and i asked them what they wanted to do to turn the City the mayor and in order to get the private sector i had to show there would be a commitment from while the steel Industry economic development agencies began cultivating new types of businesses particularly software High tech in research and development firms and manufactures of tools and their specially existing companies like Westinghouse electric the aluminium company of Mellon Bank and Allegheny International also Sank Mil Lions of dollars into renovation and now we Are trying to diversify the regions Economy so we dont have All our eggs in one says Jay director Penns a nonprofit eco nomic development Aldridge says 207 foreign owned firms have located in the southwestern Pennsylvania 98 with their Pittsburgh now controls More invested capital than any City outside of new York and is the third largest corporate Headquarters City in terms of it is the fourth largest financial Center and ranks second in the number of multinational he employ ment and sales for High technology companies in the area each grew by about 30 percent last according to a Survey by the Pittsburgh High technology Pittsburgh largest employer is no longer a steel company but an educational the University of this City has made a major shift from Basic Industry to a diversified Industrial base and done it later than any other says Herbert Berg president of the Pittsburgh Media but the City is also facing the exodus of one of its larger Gulf Oil which merged last year with san Francisco based Chevron there Are rumours that the baseball which Are up for and the penguins hockey team May leave the move of sports teams out of the area would Hurt the Berger no one is Rushing to buy the but Berger adds that theres a tenacity and loyalty about the City that keeps it cities have dynamics toward or they he i think Pittsburgh has that in substantial and its beginning to the stars and stripes Page 15