IS GERALD HADDOCK RICHARD RAINWATER’S BEST ASSET OR WORST LIABILITY?

I’m not a big lawyer or a real estate deal maker, so maybe I don’t know. But I always thought playing the “bad guy, good guy” routine took two people. Well, that’s not the way Gerald Haddock does il. Almost every time my phone rings and Haddock’s on the line, I get to hear from both sides of him.

The saga began when I started to set up interviews for a story on Crescent. The first time we spoke-he patched in from some exotic location-Haddock, hypersensitive to the fact that I might be more interested in writing about Richard Rainwater than about him and the Crescent real estate team, wasn’t sure he was willing to “commit the company’s resources.” The next time we spoke. Haddock immediately let me know thai he was unsure of my credentials. “Do you even know what a REIT is?” he barked through his cellular phone.

Having written more about real estate over the past 15 years than you care to hear about, I assured Haddock I was in the know. He wanted proof: “Everything you’ve written about real estate,” Since I was on a tight deadline and because I’ve written volumes about real estate, I made him aware of how time-consuming it would be for me to comply to this request, and he made me aware of how much more valuable his time was than mine. It was just too bad if I was inconvenienced.

In the interest of time-mine and his-I sent Haddock a bio and resume, a recent annual report I had written for another REIT and a short list of references.

I also contacted Richard Rainwater and John Goff, both of whom were cordial and cooperative. Two great interviews.

The next call I got from Haddock was my first encounter with the good guy. I got my interview, and he actually ended the conversation asking me jovially when we were going to get to meet and with some throw-away comment like, “1 appreciate your time.” That’s usually my line.

Then 1 heard that an officer, Jim Wassel, had left the company, that another senior guy had been fired when Crescent heard he was looking around and that there might be some more Crescent people considering moves. Sources inside and outside of Crescent told me that the corporate culture suffers from the same 800-pound-gorilla complex that makes many real estate professionals cringe when they hear Crescent is coming.

None of these sources will comment on the record, of course, because they either work for Crescent or do business with the company, which remains one of the biggest buyers in the market. They don’t want to take a chance on getting fired or cutting themselves off from what could be their next big deal.

“It’s a boot-camp mentality, management by intimidation,” says one professional familiar with the atmosphere inside Crescent. “And it comes from the lop. Haddock is (he kind of guy who’ll randomly pull you aside and say, ’Do you know how many people want your job?’ Gerald views people as commodities.”

“He’s an intimidator,” another source says of Haddock. “Everything you’ve thought bad about businessmen, Gerald Haddock is.”

While many will point to Haddock ’s ability as a tough lawyer and a smart and creative deal maker, few will brag on his ability to manage people. This is why he is at once a. great asset and liability to the company. He’s not a real estate guy; he’s a lawyer. And if he wanted to, the guy could give seminars on how not to deal with the media.

When I called Haddock to get his comments about this wrinkle in the story, he bristled. ’’Jim Wassel leaving the company is a non-event.” he said. Later in a telephone conversation (he made sure to tell me he was calling from an airplane en route from London-a call that will make my car phone bill larger than it’s been all year), Haddock told me that any reports that Crescent practices management by intimidation are “erroneous and false.”

In his next breath, Haddock tried to intimidate me into letting him read my story prior to publication. He said to me in spooky tones that he knew I had “another agenda.” He let me know that he had a lot of influence, and I just waited for him to say, “You’ll never work again in this town.” Instead, he pulled out his good guy and said, “We’ll probably laugh about all of this over a glass of wine at lunch.” My reply was a simple “1 doubt it.”

I’d like to say this was the last conversation, but there’s more. The next time Haddock called, he had a “compromise.” He doubled my sources and kept asking me if they were secretaries, as if secretaries wouldn’t know anything. I’m not giving away sources by telling you that in my experience, secretaries usually are more perceptive and knowledgeable than CEOs about corporate culture. But by this point. I had experienced enough of Gerald Haddock firsthand that 1 didn’t need my sources to tell me about his style.

The “’compromise” was for me to come to Fort Worth to Crescent’s offices and interview a lengthy list of executives to get the “real story” about the corporate culture. I did not then and do not now consider this subject to be a major issue in the larger story I wrote on Crescent. My story was written. I had confidence in my sources and the fact that I had done a thorough job. We were talking about three or four paragraphs in a major feature, 1 politely declined Haddock’s offer.

By the way, Jim Wassel joined Horizon Group Inc., a factory-outlet developer, as president and COO. Immediately following the announcement. Horizon’s stock rose by 12 percent. If his leaving was a non-event, his coming obviously was more than that. Wassel did not return repeated phone calls, during which I planned to ask him why he left Crescent.

John Goff, however, remains confident that Haddock is the man to lead Crescent into the future.

“He’s a good manager,” Goff says, “but he is demanding, and that’s why I handed him the torch.”