Baltimore Sun’s 2023 Business and Civic Hall of Fame honoree: Leonard ‘Lennie’ Attman

The Attman name is famous in Baltimore thanks to Attman’s Delicatessen, a staple for corned beef sandwiches, jumbo bologna-topped hot dogs and homemade knishes since 1915.

The Lombard Street deli is where Leonard Attman had his first job at 10 years old, working the cash register and learning to greet customers in their native tongue — whether that was Russian, Italian or Yiddish — at the urging of his father, Attman’s Deli founder Harry Attman. But Leonard, who goes by “Lennie,” always knew he wanted to try his hand at something other than the restaurant business.

In the nearly eight decades since that first deli job, Attman, 89, has built his own local legacy, launching a Baltimore-area real estate development and management empire, and founding a network of skilled nursing and rehabilitation centers. He’s a familiar face on prominent boards, including the Maryland Stadium Authority board of directors and the University of Maryland Medical System’s shock trauma unit advisory board. He’s a philanthropist, giving generously to medical, academic and other causes. And in May, he was awarded an Ellis Island Medal of Honor, celebrating “inspiring Americans who are selflessly working for the betterment of our country and its citizens.” Among the distinguished past recipients are eight U.S. presidents; the CEOs of Apple, Google and Microsoft; and Nobel Prize laureates.

When you ask him about such measures of success, however, Attman is quick to credit others, starting with his parents. “You wait a long time in your lifetime, and if you’re fortunate enough, you’re able to make a difference for people,” he says. “Business and philanthropy, those two things go hand in hand. And that’s the way I was raised by my mother and my father, watching them, how they lived their lives.”

Attman’s parents, Harry and Ida, arrived in the U.S. separately in the early 20th century: Harry was from Russia and Ida from Poland. They met in Baltimore and married in 1918, and together they ran both the Lombard Street delicatessen and a small confectionery and deli on the corner of Baltimore and Washington streets. Attman grew up in an apartment above the East Baltimore shop.

The couple “were visionaries, but they let us move in our own direction,” he says. They instilled an entrepreneurial spirit in their sons, each of whom went on to run a business. Seymour, the middle child, took over operations at the deli, which today is helmed by Lennie Attman’s nephew, Marc. The eldest, Edward, founded Acme Paper and Supply Company.

It was marriage that led Lennie, the youngest of the three, to real estate. Attman met his future wife, Phyllis Lazinsky, while they were students at the University of Maryland, College Park, and the two bonded over hot fudge sundaes and meals at the Hillel House, and shared rides back to Baltimore on the weekends. They married when Attman was 19 years old.

Attman’s new father-in-law, Joseph Lazinsky, was in the development business, and he took the young man under his wing. Attman’s first project was building the Beverly Hills town house development in Dundalk, and from there he was hooked, learning everything he could about the industry: from engineering and geography, to how to read and draw blueprints.

In 1968, he teamed up with brother-in-law Lowell Glazer to start A&G Management to manage apartment communities constructed by their Attman/Glazer Builders Group. The company now manages more than 3,500 apartment units, as well as some commercial and industrial buildings.

Attman’s office is still located in the first community he and Glazer developed together, the Colonial Square Apartments in Glen Burnie. It’s filled with mementos of a long career in which he has crossed paths with notables from around the state and the country, including presidents, governors from both parties and even Henry Kissinger, the former U.S. secretary of state.

He also became involved in the health care industry with the launch of FutureCare in 1986. The company operates long-term care and rehabilitation facilities in the Baltimore metropolitan area as well as Prince George’s County, totaling more than 2,000 patient beds.

Attman’s history of civic and charitable activities is extensive: He is on the Beth Tfiloh Brotherhood board of trustees, he’s a board member emeritus at Sinai Hospital and he serves on the neurosurgery advisory board at Johns Hopkins Hospital, among many other positions. He has been involved with facilities, budget and development committees for LifeBridge Health, and he and his wife have donated more than $1.2 million to the health system, according to CEO Neil Meltzer.

One of Attman’s proudest accomplishments was helping to start the Jemicy School, an Owings Mills academy for children with language-based learning differences. When the Attmans’ son experienced learning difficulties due to dyslexia, the couple banded together with other parents to launch the school, which just celebrated its 50th anniversary in April. Jemicy School now enrolls more than 400 children in the first through 12th grades.

But Attman doesn’t tend to publicize these good deeds.

“Over the years, I’ve come to admire him as much as anyone I know because he’s one of those people who does a tremendous amount very quietly,” says Ben Rosenberg, chairman of the Rosenberg Martin Greenberg law firm.

“You don’t see Lennie Attman’s name on things, but he does a tremendous amount for causes and people. And he’s one of those people who doesn’t have to be asked.”

Leonard “Lennie” Attman

Age: 89

Hometown: Baltimore

Current residence: Pikesville

Education: Attended University of Maryland, College Park

Career highlights: Founder and board chair of A&G Management, Attman Properties, and FutureCare Health and Management

Civic and charitable activities: Past president of Chizuk Amuno Brotherhood board of trustees; executive committee for State of Israel Bonds; former JCC board member; board member for the Signal 13 Foundation for the Baltimore City Police Department; board of directors for the Reginald F. Lewis Museum, board of Erin Levitas Foundation

Family members: Married to Phyllis Attman; three children, nine grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren