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Should he be successful in his quest to be the owner of the new Browns, Howard Milstein says the NFL team will not be his only commercial interest in Cleveland.
"We will make investments in real estate in this market," Mr. Milstein said in an interview with Crain's Cleveland Business last week. "Obviously, we'd be more inclined (to invest) if I'm going to all of the home games."
Mr. Milstein, whose family is among the largest real estate investors in New York City, said he is impressed by what he described as the insular Cleveland market.
"I think we will be buying office buildings in Cleveland," he said.
Critics and competing bidders for the franchise may see such a vow--along with the "Browns 99" pin stuck in the lapel of Mr. Milstein's blue blazer--as easy ways for an out-of-towner to endear himself to a city that was burned by another New Yorker, Art Modell, who moved the old Browns to Baltimore.
But the 47-year-old Mr. Milstein says it's not promises but his track record--and the track records of the other millionaires vying for the Browns - that people should use to evaluate who should own the Buns.
Mr. Milstein leads a diverse, Manhattan-based, media-shy business empire begun by his grandfather in 1915. He heads or serves on the boards of family holdings that now include Milstein Partners, one of New York's largest residential and commercial real estate development and building companies; the Emigrant Savings Bank; Douglas Elliman, one of the Big Apple's largest real estate brokerages; and the Milford Hotel Group.
Last February, Mr. Milstein and his brother, Edward, bought a 50% interest in the New York Islanders professional hockey team. It was a deal...