Personal Notes:

About the transcript:

This conference call, as well as many previous conference calls, was recorded by me using the AudioNote software application. The time notations (bold numbers) are thus from my recording, not the official recording. However, they will help you with locating the exact conversation when listening to the official recording made by Richie Edelman. Access to the recorded calls are available at www.empirestatebuildinginvestors.com.

Tho I worked part of my way through college as a transcriber, and managed the production department of a publishing company, I do not have the equipment, staff or budget to be able to produce a professional transcription. I tried to capture the conference word-for-word, but you will find errors and you may want to follow up by listening to the actual tape.

It would be ideal to have transcripts of all of the conference calls as they have been extremely enlightening, with many, many smart, knowledgeable participants who also have been very articulate. Being able to go back and review statements illuminating the difficulties with this investment would be very useful.

Personally speaking:

This investment was established 50 years ago amongst a diverse group of people. From business owners to bus drivers, participation was sought at all income levels. Intentionally, I am told, it was not to be an investment for the privileged alone.

In participating in a phone tree, which alerted owners to upcoming conference calls, I talked to a big variety of people ... and it was a delightful experience. Many were quite elderly, others had inherited parts of the original investment one way or another. I spoke to a truck driver, on the road, a cattle rancher who had to sell his herd due to the drought, a mom planning her daughter's wedding, and those who have brokerage accounts and never really see their checks from this investment: many, many fascinating people. People who arrived in this investment due to their trust in Larry Wein and the Malkins.

But "big business" got into the act with PR firms, accountants, lawyers, banks, stock brokerages, public relations firms, etc., to spend our money to grab our real estate and consolidate it with a number of other real estate properties (I don't know that we know how many of those buildings Malkin is financially involved with) which had unknown financial challenges, rolling them under the prized Empire State Building.

There was a lot of fear-mongering about all kinds of disasters awaiting our investment, such as the government no longer intending to write insurance on big commercial buildings. The corker was, for me, when Peter Malkin told me that "even Richie Edelman ... leader of the opposition ... had called him to ask how to vote yes for the deal! I was interviewed by the SEC, and news organizations, and I told them of the incredible experience I was having with the Malkins and their minions. And, where there were written communications (by the carload), not even top lawyers could decipher the language of those communications, much less us folks. How much money do you think we'd have to have to hire a lawyer to fight on our individual behaves?

Many of us are alarmed at the way our world is working these days. This investment represents a microcosm of the lengths greedy people will go to in the public and private sectors, to become ever more wealthy, without ethics and morals which provide the only means, IMHO, by which (along with long-range planning) our world can survive.

I hope that the transcript in this blog will help investors get a better understanding, and will enable them to communicate a bit better, with their puzzled families, friends and professional advisers. Thank you for taking your time with this.