Corporate Property Investors was a privately held real estate investment company that, in 1982, wrote the largest mortgage to date on a New York office building. It was founded by Disque Deane

Disque Deane

Disque D. Deane was a prominent American financier and investor. He was the founder of, and a general partner in Starrett City Associates, which owns Starrett City in Brooklyn...

.

General Motors Building

In January 1982, General Motors

General Motors

General Motors Company , commonly known as GM, formerly incorporated as General Motors Corporation, is an American multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Detroit, Michigan and the world's second-largest automaker in 2010...

 raised $500 million through the mortgage and eventual sale of its New York office building to CPI.

Shopping Malls

CPI was founded in 1971 and built a number of major urban shopping centers, including Lenox Square

Lenox Square

Lenox Square is an upscale enclosed super regional shopping mall located in the Buckhead District of Atlanta, Georgia. Lenox Square comprises more than of retail space, with 250 stores on four levels, including a large food court. The mall is home to three anchor stores: Macy's, Bloomingdale's,...

 in Atlanta, the Burlington Mall

Burlington Mall (Massachusetts)

The Burlington Mall is a large, two story, indoor shopping mall located off Route 3 and Route 128 in Burlington, Massachusetts. The mall is one of many shopping venues in the Middlesex County area, including Billerica Mall, Acton Plaza, and Middlesex Commons. The Burlington Mall has a gross...

 in Massachusetts, and Roosevelt Field Mall

Roosevelt Field Mall

Roosevelt Field is an American shopping mall. It is the largest high-end shopping mall in the state of New York and eighth in the country as measured by gross leaseable area at 2,189,941 ft² . The mall is located in East Garden City, New York part of the Town of Hempstead on Long Island...

 in New York.

CPI was acquired by the Simon Property Group

Simon Property Group

Simon Property Group, Inc. is an American commercial real estate company, ranked #1 in the United States as the largest real estate investment trust. Simon is a fully integrated real estate company which operates from five retail real estate platforms: regional malls, Premium Outlet Centers, The...

 in 1998. At the time, CPI was the largest private equity real estate

Private equity real estate

In investment finance, private equity real estate is an asset class consisting of equity and debt investments in property. Investments typically involve an active management strategy ranging from moderate reposition or releasing of properties to development or extensive redevelopment.Investments...

investment trust in the US.