N.Y. Real-Estate Investor Makes Philanthropic Commitment to Baltimore

William Polk Carey, a New York real-estate magnate and member of an old philanthropic Baltimore family, says he will donate most of his fortune — potentially hundreds of millions of dollars — to his eponymous foundation, which has a focus on his Maryland hometown, reports The Sun, in Baltimore.

Mr. Carey, who is not married and has no children, would not tell The Sun how much money he has, but he owns about 30 percent of the W.P. Carey & Co. investment firm, which has a market value of about $1.2-billion. That could mean more than $350-million for the foundation.

The great-great-great grandson of a Quaker abolitionist who bought property for the city’s first African-American congregation, Mr. Carey, 77, has focused his philanthropy on education in Baltimore. In 2006, for example, he donated $50-million to establish a business school at the Johns Hopkins University. He has also given money to the Gilman School, the Calvert School, the Bryn Mawr School, the Baltimore School for the Arts, and the Maryland Historical Society, all in Baltimore.

“I’m proud of being from Baltimore,” he says. “It’s a great city full of wonderful people, and I just want to continue seeing it get better and stronger every day.”

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