Howard Polinger

By:  Patricia Sullivan

Washington Post Staff Writer    Monday, December 17, 2007

Howard Polinger, 91, a developer whose high-rise apartments, retail complexes and office buildings helped change the landscape of metropolitan Washington over the past 60 years, died of acute leukemia Dec. 7 at Bethesda's Suburban Hospital. He lived in Chevy Chase.

Mr. Polinger began building single-family homes in Montgomery and Prince George's counties after the end of World War II. Within 10 years, his company and its affiliates moved into multifamily housing, starting with 500    garden-style units in Quebec Terrace in Silver Spring. His high-rise    apartments and condominiums included Highland House in Chevy Chase, Whitehall Apartments in Bethesda and Congressional Towers in Rockville.

Howard Polinger built high-rise apartment buildings in the area. (Family Photo)

He and his late brother, Milton, also developed commercial and mixed-use  projects such as the Chevy Chase Building, the Van Ness Center and the Bethesda  Place complex.

They partnered with the late Belford V. and Marjorie M. Lawson to build Park  Southern Apartments in Southeast Washington in 1966, the first federally  subsidized integrated real estate collaboration in the city.

The units were built for families who couldn't afford conventional housing  but were ineligible for public housing. A small stir arose when Mr. Polinger  advertised tenant income requirements.

"We felt from the start that it would be the only fair way to present our  project to the people,"  he told a Washington Post reporter in 1966.  Moderate-income families had to know they were welcome, he said. To qualify for  the $122 to $130 monthly rent of a two-bedroom apartment, a family had to have  an annual income of at least $8,150.

Mr. Polinger was also known for giving promising African Americans a start in  the real estate business, said H.R. Crawford, a real estate investor who went to  work for him at Park Southern as a property manager.

Mr. Polinger was born in Norfolk and moved to Washington in 1926 as a boy. He  graduated from Central High School in the District and from the old Columbus  University, now part of Catholic University, where he also got a law degree in  1940.

During World War II, he served in the Army in England and France and was in  Paris at the time of its liberation. After the war, he returned to Washington  and worked briefly for the federal government before starting his company in 1947. In 1993, it became Polinger Shannon &; Luchs Co. He and his wife created the Howard and Geraldine Polinger Family  Foundation, which contributes to projects that strengthen Jewish life. The couple has sponsored the Artists of Excellence Concert Series at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington since the early 1970s. They brought dance and music programs into the District's public schools.

Mr. Polinger and his wife received an Excellence in Arts and Humanities award from the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County in 2005 and were recognized by the Mental Health Association of Montgomery County  in May for their support.

He was a past board member of the Anti-Defamation League and the JewishInstitute for National Security Affairs. In 2005, he received the Micah Social Responsibility Award from Panim, the Institute for Jewish  Leadership and Values.

Survivors include his wife of 66 years, Geraldine Merican Polinger of  Chevy Chase; four children, Jan Polinger Chavis of Potomac, Arnold L. Polinger of Washington, Lorre Polinger of Boston and David Polinger of  Potomac; nine grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.