GID ANNOUNCES NEW CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER

Boston - (May 21, 2001) - The General Investment & Development Companies ("GID") announced today that F.X. Jacoby has joined GID as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Jacoby becomes a member of the Executive Committee of GID. He will have overall responsibility for GID’s financial, investment, accounting, tax, administrative, human resources and information technology areas.

F.X. comes to GID with broad and deep real estate investment and capital markets experience, ranging from acquisitions, asset management, investor servicing, workouts and finance. For the past six years, F.X. has served as an Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Boston-based Leggat McCall Properties LLC, where he was responsible for maintaining relationships with and raising debt and equity from capital sources on a corporate and project basis to support Leggat's investment activities. He was also primarily responsible for directing the company's accounting, information systems, human resources, risk management, legal and tax functions. He executed those responsibilities with an internal staff of 20 professionals and through outsourced arrangements with several vendors.

Prior to Leggat McCall, F.X. served as a Managing Director of the Asset Management/Investor Servicing Division of Boston-based Winthrop Financial Associates. His duties there included many of the traditional CFO duties. F.X. joined Winthrop in 1983 upon graduation from Dartmouth College, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude. He earned his MBA degree with highest honors from Boston University through evening classes from 1987 through 1991 while working at Winthrop.