THE GENERAL INVESTMENT AND DEVELOPMENT COMPANIES ANNOUNCES THE HIRING OF JAMES E. LINSLEY AS PRESIDENT OF THE GID URBAN DEVELOPMENT GROUP

Boston - (July 31, 2007) - The General Investment and Development Companies (“GID”) has successfully completed the search for President of its Urban Development Group with the hiring of James E. Linsley. Mr. Linsley will also serve as Senior Vice President of GID Investment Advisers LLC and become a member of GID's Executive Committee.

GID's Urban Development Group is charged initially with developing two high profile, urban mixed-use development projects. The first is Regent Square, which is the redevelopment of The Allen House. This project encompasses 24-acres of prime inner-loop land between the River Oaks Shopping Center and Allen Parkway in Houston, Texas. The project's first phase will accommodate 230,000 square feet of retail and restaurant uses, 740 residential units, 60,000 square feet of office space, and a 200-room boutique hotel. Later phases will add another 100,000 square feet of commercial uses and an additional 1,000 residential units. You can view this pedestrian-focused mixed-use project designed to enhance new urbanism and smart growth in Houston at www.regentsq.com.

The second project is the 42-acre, pedestrian-focused, mixed-use High Street project in the Perimeter Center area of Atlanta, Georgia. In its early planning stage, High Street could ultimately consist of 3,000 residential units (half for-sale and half rentals), 350,000 - 450,000 square feet of retail, 300,000 - 600,000 square feet of office and one or two boutique hotels containing 350 - 400 rooms. You can view this vibrant new neighborhood designed with smart growth and new urbanism as its driving principles at www.highstreetatlanta.com.

Jim comes to GID with impressive urban mixed-use development credentials. He has broad and deep leadership experience in all aspects of large scale mixed-use real estate development from concept to completion involving residential, hotel, office, hotel, entertainment and parking uses. For the last ten years, Jim has served various senior officer roles at The Related Companies, one of the nation's largest private real estate organizations with divisions specializing in development, management, and sales and marketing. While at Related, Jim participated in high profile and complex real estate projects in excess of $5 billion in development costs and 6 million square feet including: Time Warner Center in Manhattan ($2 billion, 2.8 million square feet), W South Beach in Miami's South Beach area ($500 million, 800,000 square feet), and Snowmass Base Village, Snowmass Center and Snowmass Mountain Village in Snowmass, Colorado ($2 billion, 2.5 million square feet).

Prior to The Related Companies, Jim spent three years at The Trump Organization/New World Development and was involved in the development of the $3 billion mixed-use Trump Place complex, which consisted of 16 buildings with 5,700 residential units, 2.1 million square feet of studio, office and retail space, a 23-acre waterfront park and newly constructed roadways and infrastructure.

An engineer by training, Jim worked at Parsons Brinckerhoff from 1992 - 1994 and was involved in a variety of urban planning, design, and engineering projects ranging from buildings, bridges, tunnels, transportation, and infrastructure projects both national and international in scope. Jim joined Parsons Brinckerhoff upon graduation from Lehigh University with a BA in Architecture and a BS in Civil Engineering. While working at the Trump Organization, Jim earned the dual degrees of a MS in Real Estate Development and a MS in Urban Planning from Columbia University.