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42 42 SECUREVIEW SUPPORTS NEIGHBORHOOD STABILIZATION SecureView founder and chairman Robert Klein knows all too well how blight can cripple a community. As the founder of Safeguard Properties, the nation's largest property preservation company, he has watched the housing market rise and fall from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows for the last 23 years. Defying the confines of your average CEO, Klein was constantly on the search for a solution to blight and is recognized as an advocate for polices that alleviate the burden it has on communities. Trying everything from artistic plywood boarding to steel doors and windows, he knew he had found the answer suffering communities were waiting for when introduced to SecureView. Howard Wedren, a Midwestern real estate developer at the peak of the foreclosure crisis, was working on a commercial property on Chicago's South Side when he watched the value of his asset plummet in almost an instant. A once vibrant community was suddenly plagued with vacant properties boarded with plywood. He believed there had to be a better way to secure vacant and abandoned buildings without destroying surrounding property values and endangering the local community. Wedren quickly learned that his assumption was incorrect, and plywood was the status quo. He enlisted the help of an engineer and began developing SecureView. As a novice to the property preservation world, Wedren met Klein when peers directed him to seek the guidance of someone who was respected as an industry pioneer. He quickly looked to Klein for help in figuring out how to take such a product to market. Klein believed that SecureView had the potential to be a real game changer in fighting ADVERTORIAL blight, but he felt the product's pricing was too steep in comparison to plywood. He persuaded Wedren to find a way to lower the cost and helped to create the best design possible. Engineers were enlisted to create a product that would be both indestructible and undetectable. Various polycarbonate materials and bracing systems were tried to find the most durable and cost-effective solution. Klein and Wedren worked to ensure that every aspect of the system had no potential weaknesses and created a superior product. After vigorous testing, SecureView was perfected and its pricing lowered to be a competitive and, in most cases, cheaper alternative to plywood. SecureView now protects properties across the nation from Cleveland, Ohio, to cities in California. It is widely recognized as the most effective solution for securing vacant properties. Customers point to its easy installation, hidden bracing system, and overall invisibility for reasons they prefer SecureView over any other method. To support their mission of fighting community blight, the organization spends a great deal of time educating lenders, communities, and first responders on the product. ey even allow firefighters to test their claim that SecureView is unbreakable with unlimited swings using their favorite pickaxe. To date, no one has succeeded. "SecureView now protects properties across the nation from Cleveland, Ohio, to cities in California. It is widely recognized as the most effective solution for securing vacant properties."