Of the many people on hand last month to celebrate Westinghouse Electric's new Cranberry headquarters, the least-known figure in the front row was a Georgia real estate man seated with his legs crossed and cuff links poking from the sleeves of his charcoal-gray suit.

"Leo Wells," said Westinghouse Chief Executive Officer Steve Tritch, introducing him to the crowd.

"Our new landlord."

Other than a brief introduction, the 63-year-old founder of Norcross, Ga.-based Wells Real Estate Funds went virtually unnoticed that day -- his first name misidentified as "Jeffrey" in two Westinghouse handouts -- despite being one of the nation's largest owners of real estate and now one of the largest landlords-to-be in southwestern Pennsylvania.

The privately held Wells real estate investment trust purchased the 82-acre Cranberry site for $14 million last month and is now providing the $175 million needed to build the 800,000-square-foot complex before leasing it back to Westinghouse for $330 million over 15 years. Add two other office buildings recently purchased for $40 million along the Parkway West, and Wells suddenly controls more than 1.1 million square feet, or 2.5 percent, of the total office space in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area.

Wells, which oversees more than 35 million square feet of space around the country, is a key participant nationally in the rise of privately held real estate investment trusts, representing a new breed of investors that is not highly leveraged and thus better able to withstand the credit crunch now roiling markets around the world.

More than 240,000 people have invested $8.7 billion in one of Wells' funds. Its real estate investment trusts, sold for $10 a share, are not listed on any exchange. They traditionally provide safe returns of 6 percent or 7 percent but are not without controversy -- the trusts require high upfront fees (12 percent in the case of one Wells trust) and do not offer investors a great deal of liquidity (it is difficult to sell shares, unlike publicly traded trusts that can be traded at any time). Also, Wells relies on the word of broker-dealers and financial planners to sell its products to individual investors.

'Modicum of professionalism'

That approach attracted attention from the National Association of Securities Dealers in 2003 when it suspended Mr. Wells' membership for one year following expensive sales conferences held in Scottsdale, Ariz., and Amelia Island, Fla. In each case, Wells violated rules regarding the amount of noncash compensation brokers are allowed to give financial advisers, according to the NASD.

The Scottsdale conference in 2001 cost $934,000 and involved $32,600 for golf, $157,000 in meals and $58,200 for entertainment, including jugglers and musicians, according to NASD documents. Also, Wells tied the conference invitations to predetermined sales goals from the participants. In 2002, a three-day Amelia Island gathering produced $225,000 spent on meals and $200,000 worth of entertainment, including a sock hop, a "beach bash" and dinner at a Civil War fort complete with costumed Civil War heroes, fireworks, fife and drum players, skydivers and a re-enactment with cannon fire, according to the NASD.

But Wells, which could not be reached for comment, is no more aggressive than competitors when promoting its products, according to local investment broker Ken Kaszak, who has helped clients invest in Wells' partnerships and trusts, including the one with money tied up in the new Westinghouse headquarters. CNL Financial Group, Lightstone Securities and Inland Real Estate (which owns The Waterfront shopping complex in the Homestead area) all employ similar techniques.

And Wells' wholesalers -- the people who tout the company's products around the country -- are known for their restraint, he said.

"A lot of wholesalers enjoy themselves a little too much," he said. "That is not the case with Wells wholesalers. Part of their order from the home office is they can be out and about, doing the typical things wholesalers do," while maintaining "a modicum of professionalism of the road."

Wells' reputation within the industry is nothing but chaste, according to Jeremy Kronman, with CB Richard Ellis/Pittsburgh. "They are the Mr. Clean of real estate," he said. "They have terrific integrity. It's basically no cussing, no drinking, no smoking."

The company's creed, as listed on the Wells Web site, is to "glorify God and care for people." The founder Mr. Wells, in a 2004 interview with The Wall Street Journal, highlighted the importance of religion as an influence on the company's practices, comparing the company's management of investments to the Bible's description of Joseph as steward for Potiphar, an Egyptian official.

Folksy, Southern, religious

In an interview last year with a Georgia business journal, Mr. Wells acknowledged paying 100 percent of health, vision and dental costs for his employees, providing a 100 percent 401(k) savings match, company-paid tuition benefit, as well as identity theft insurance. The company also has a policy allowing salesmen on business trips to take their wives and kids on Wells' dime. He also hires financial advisers to counsel employees and urges workers to use bonuses to pay off credit cards and to save money by driving used cars (as he does).

Mr. Wells, originally from Valdosta, Ga., began his real estate career in the 1970s as an Atlanta-area broker. He founded Wells in 1984 as a syndicator of real estate limited partnerships -- Wells now has 14 -- and launched his first real estate investment trust in 1998. The trust quickly gained momentum after the stock-market slowdown of 2001 and investors took to Wells' approach of keeping debt low, spreading its buys over a wide geographic area and looking only for high-credit tenants. The goal is to either liquidate the first trust or take it public by the end of this year.

"I can remember back in 2000 and 2001 clients calling me and saying, 'Thanks for selling me Wells Real Estate,' " Mr. Kaszak said. " 'Those returns are not correlated at all to the stock market.' " The upfront fee charged by Wells "is part of the price to pay to get into institutional quality real estate."

Mr. Kaszak met the founder, Mr. Wells, for the first time last month after the Westinghouse groundbreaking ceremony in Cranberry. As they chatted, Mr. Wells complimented Mr. Kaszak on his suit and asked how much he paid for it.

"I said, 'I got it for $60 in Thailand.' He offered me $65 for it."

"What an unassuming guy he is ... a folksy, Southern, Andy Griffith type guy."

That, however, does not appear to be the opinion shared by the Washtenaw County Employees Retirement System, a Michigan-based shareholder in Wells' first real estate investment trust, and the plaintiff in a lawsuit filed against Mr. Wells and his company. The suit alleges a failure to inform shareholders about a takeover offer prior to the trust's purchase of several management and advisory companies controlled by Mr. Wells. The founder (who recused himself from the decision and disclosed beforehand what he stood to make) collected about $161 million from the sale of the companies, according to the lawsuit.

A Wells spokesman told The Wall Street Journal in July that stockholders were aware of "all relevant information" and that the lawsuit remained without merit.

'Back in the race'

Despite its size and influence nationally, Wells entered the Pittsburgh market quietly with a seven-story, 231,000-square-foot North Fayette office building it purchased in late 2005 for $29.5 million. It purchased a second five-story building earlier this year, paying $11 million.

When Westinghouse began looking for a spot to build a local headquarters, CB Richard Ellis enlisted Wells as its partner on a pitch for Tech 21, a business park in Marshall. Tech 21 made the short list but lost the headquarters decision to Cranberry Woods, an office park along Route 228. CB Richard Ellis and Wells regrouped, though, and made a bid for participation in the Cranberry complex as a financier and landlord.

A critical point in that process, as recalled by Mr. Kronman, was on Nov. 28, when he traveled to Georgia on his 40th birthday for a spin around the Road Atlanta racetrack. Mr. Kronman, an automobile enthusiast, strapped on a fire suit and helmet and prepared to drive one of the open-wheeled formula race cars. Standing in the pit, a Wells' executive turned to Mr. Kronman and said, "What do you think our chances are?"

"I said, 'We are going to win it,' " Mr. Kronman recalled.

Later that night, "We decided it was going to happen. We knew we had come this far since losing the deal and getting knocked out of the race. ... Here we are literally back in the race .... We weren't going to lose this a second time."

Not only is Wells' clean-cut, said Mr. Kronman. But it also has the money to back up its promises and the financial strength to "deal with some of the uncertainties that come up on development projects." So when Mr. Kronman was informed that Wells had won the assignment to own and finance Westinghouse's new headquarters and was told, over the phone, that "you better deliver," he answered confidently:

"No problem." Wells and CB Richard Ellis "didn't come this far not to deliver."