Pitcairn Properties Inc. is a separate company from Pitcairn Trust Co., which manages money for the Pitcairn family as well as for others.
Pitcairn Properties was founded in 1968 to diversify the wealth of the Pitcairn family, best known for its support of the General Church of the New Jerusalem and the grand Bryn Athyn Cathedral. The company has had, until recently at least, a reputation for working things out with partners.
The Pitcairns and other New Church families who own common stock in Pitcairn Properties are pitted against Blum, known in local financial circles for a shrewd, take-no-prisoners approach to protecting the money entrusted to him.
The dispute was spurred by Pitcairn Properties' failure, starting in September, to make four consecutive dividend payments and to meet a redemption request on the $50 million investment.
After months of negotiations amid a dreadful market for commercial real estate, Blum told Pitcairn Properties in June that he would take over the majority of the company's board, which, he argued, his group's investment agreement allowed.
Pitcairn Properties sued to block him in July, accusing him of conduct that was "self-interested" and "riddled with conflicts of interest" and that, left unchecked, would unfairly wipe out common stockholders and force the liquidation of $800 million in real estate at the worst possible time economically.
Blum is on the Pitcairn Properties board as a representative of investors who were clients of Bekkedam. They bought $50 million in preferred stock in Pitcairn Properties in June 2004. Blum has countered in court documents that his attempt to take control of Pitcairn's board was justified by contract.
