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Michigan-Based Real Estate Developer Alfred Taubman Dies At Age 91

BLOOMFIELD HILLS (WWJ/AP) -- Billionaire developer Alfred Taubman died of a heart attack in his home in Bloomfield Hills on Friday night.

Taubman's son and Taubman Centers President, Robert, sent the following message to all Taubman employees on Friday evening:

"I have some very sad news to share with all of you, my father passed away this evening here in Bloomfield Hills.

This company and all that you stand for were among the greatest joys of his life. Just last month he was in Puerto Rico to celebrate with us the grand opening of The Mall at San Juan. He was so proud of what this wonderful company he founded 65 years ago has accomplished. Tonight, after dinner in his home, a heart attack took him from us, ending what was a full, extraordinary life that touched so many people in so many wonderful ways around the world. Right now it is difficult for me to express our sadness. We will be informing you of our memorial plans shortly. 

One thing that will never be taken from us is Alfred Taubman's vision that will continue to guide and inspire us. Our family thanks you for all your kind thoughts and support through this very difficult time."

Taubman, who was born in Pontiac, donated hundreds of millions of dollars to universities, hospitals and museums, and was a major backer of stem-cell research. His business success spanned real estate, art houses and the A&W restaurant chain. But it was his rearrangement how people shop -- parking lot in front, one-stop shopping -- that left a mark on American culture. He's largely know as the man who developed the modern-day shopping mall concept.

"Al Taubman changed the way America shops. But his greatest legacy will be how he used his fortune to help people in Michigan and beyond," Gov. Rick Snyder said in a statement. "He will be long remembered not just for his retail genius, but for the lives he touched through his kindness."

Taubman Centers, a subsidiary of his Taubman Co., founded in 1950, currently owns and manages 19 regional shopping centers nationwide.

"Everything that excited me that I got interested in, I did," Taubman told The Associated Press in a 2007 interview.

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said he was taking the loss very personally.

"Al Taubman has been a great friend to our city and a wonderful friend to me.  His loss leaves a huge hole in our entire community," Duggan said in a statement. "I'm going to miss him terribly."

Born Jan. 31, 1924, to German-Jewish immigrants, Taubman worked as a boy at a department store after school near his family's home, which was among the custom houses and commercial buildings developed in the area by his father.

He was a freshman at the University of Michigan when he left to serve in World War II, around the time he stopped using his first name, Adolph. When he returned to Ann Arbor to study art and architecture, he created small on-campus businesses to cover expenses, then transferred to Lawrence Technological University near Detroit to take night classes while working at an architectural firm as a junior draftsman.

Recognizing the booming post-war growth of the middle class, particularly in the Motor City, he launched his first real estate development company in 1950. His first project was a freestanding bridal shop in Detroit - but he had his eyes on something bigger. He'd noticed shoppers responding to the convenience of "one-stop comparison shopping opportunity," he wrote in his autobiography.

So when a friend suggested a shopping plaza in Flint, Taubman's company did something radical for the time: stores were pushed to the back of the lot and parking spaces were put up front. It was a success, his young company took on larger-scale developments in Michigan, California and elsewhere in the 1950s and early '60s.

Taubman served as chairman of Sotheby's Holdings, Inc., parent company of Sotheby's art auction house, from 1983 to 2000, and was a partner in international real estate firm The Athena Group before he was tangled in a price-fixing scheme. He was convicted in 2001 of conspiring with Anthony Tennant, former chairman of Christie's International, to fix the commissions the auction giants charged. Prosecutors alleged sellers were bilked of as much as $400 million in commissions.

Taubman was fined $7.5 million and spent about a year in a low-security prison in Rochester, Minnesota, but long insisted he was innocent and expressed regret for not testifying in his own defense.

"I had lost a chunk of my life, my good name and around 27 pounds," he recalled in his book, saying he was forced to take the fall for others.

The case cast a shadow over Taubman's accomplishments, but it diminished over the years - and his philanthropy continued unabated. He had pledged $100 million to the University of Michigan's A. Alfred Taubman Medical Research Institute and its stem-cell research by 2011. He also financed public-policy programs at Harvard, Brown University and the University of Michigan, which received several large donations.

Taubman "had one of the biggest hearts in America," former Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer told WWJ Newsradio 950.

On Wednesday, two days before his death, Taubman smiled and lifted his hat during a groundbreaking in Ann Arbor for a campus building project.

Taubman donated millions and spoke passionately in support of the 2008 ballot initiative in Michigan that eased restrictions on embryonic stem-cell research and enabled his namesake institute to conduct major research for diseases - including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease, which claimed the life of his good friend, New York Sen. Jacob Javits, in 1986.

After turning over control of Taubman Centers to his two sons, Taubman made sustaining the Detroit Institute of Art a priority. His knowledge of how shoppers negotiated malls was tapped to help reconfigure the flow of the museum, and he helped guide the DIA as president of the Detroit Arts Commission through chronic financial problems.

"With the passing of A. Alfred Taubman, Lawrence Technological University has lost one of its most distinguished alumni and most generous friends and supporters," school president Virinder K. Moudgil said in a statement. "Mr. Taubman's generosity has assured that many future generations of LTU students and scholars will have access to outstanding educations and facilities. We are forever grateful for his kindness, friendship, and support."

TM and © Copyright 2015 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2015 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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