James P. Regan (left), Fisk Kart Katz and Regan, Ltd.;
Mr. and Mrs. Jeffrey D. Fisher, Ph.D., Indiana University;
John Garippa (right), Garippa, Lotz & Giannuario

October 30, 2004 - The American Property Tax Counsel (APTC) today presented to Jeffrey D. Fisher, PhD, CRE, its coveted Martin S. Katz Memorial Award.  The Award is bestowed on that individual who has significantly contributed to the development, advancement, understanding and/or implementation of more equitable real estate assessment practices and/or meaningful valuation theories.  It was established by APTC to honor Martin S. Katz, the organization’s renowned first President and one of its founding fathers.

In presenting the Award, John Garippa, President of APTC, said, “It is an honor to present the Martin S. Katz Memorial Award to you, Dr. Fisher.  As a teacher, a scholar and a creative thinker about real estate, your career stands as an example of the principles for which this Award was established.  Your work in the development and refinement of the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries Property Index (NPI) provided the industry a benchmark for comparing real estate investment returns against industry averages and measuring the performance of real estate as an asset class against other investment vehicles.  Your efforts in developing Dividend Discount Model.com,  Real DCF software and the real estate appraisal courses ‘Computer Assisted Investment Analysis’ and ‘Internet Search Strategies’ delivered to the industry some of the most creative and effective tools ever devised for real estate valuation.  And, of course, critical to our decision to select you for the Martin S. Katz Memorial Award is your thoughtful leadership in pioneering the conceptual framework for what has come to be known as Business Enterprise Value.  You have made an enormously significant contribution to the theory and practice of real estate valuation for which the entire industry is forever in your debt.

In accepting the Award, Dr. Fisher told the audience, “This moment takes me back to my collaboration with my good friend, the late Professor William Kinnard, on the presence of business and/or intangible value in regional shopping centers.  Many people have told me that those writings represented a strong impetus to the appraisal community to consider the presence of intangibles in those properties where business in an integral part of the real estate.  The Appraisal of Real Estate, published by the Appraisal Institute, has adopted in its most recent 12^th Edition, that basic position.  I’m greatly honored to accept this most meaningful award, both because an organization of the stature of American Property Tax Counsel has recognized my work on the industry’s behalf and because of my association over the past years with the estimable, late Marty Katz and his son, Jeffrey.”

Jeffrey Fisher is Director of the Center for Real Estate Studies and Professor of Finance and Real Estate at the Indiana University School of Business.  He received his doctorate in real estate from Ohio State University and has coauthored several books including Real Estate, 9^th edition and Real Estate Finance and Investments, 10^th edition.  Jeff has served on the board of directors of the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries (NCREIF) and the Real Estate Research Institute (RERI).  He is a Research Fellow at the Homer Hoyt Advanced Studies Institute, a Faculty Associate with the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in Cambridge, MA and a founding trustee of The Appraisal Foundation.

American Property Tax Counsel is an affiliation of law firms throughout the United States and Canada.  It is the only organization of law firms providing major portfolio owners with a single source for all of their property tax reduction and reporting needs.

Martin S. Katz, in addition to serving as President of American Property Tax Counsel, was a practicing property tax attorney and managing partner of the law firm Fisk Kart and Katz Ltd. in Chicago, IL.