SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Lee Adler II, known for his entrepreneurial approach to saving city blocks and neighborhoods in Savannah, Ga., from the wrecking ball, has died. He was 88.
Matt Weeks of Fox & Weeks Funeral Directors says Adler died Sunday. No cause of death was immediately available.
As the president of the Historic Savannah Foundation, which Adler led until the mid-1960s, he persuaded local preservationists to get into the real estate business. The group would buy sagging old properties facing demolition and sell them to buyers who promised to restore them.
The tactic worked so well in Savannah that groups across the U.S. followed Adler's lead.
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