Haft Family Settles Feud, Will Split Retail-Real Estate Empire

Days before a trial that could have led to the breakup of one of Washington’s largest retail and real estate fortunes, the Haft family has abruptly settled its bitter business feud in the quiet of a closed courtroom.

As a result of the settlement, reached Tuesday, the two sides of the once-close clan will essentially go separate ways. Family patriarch Herbert H. Haft and his son, Ronald, will pay Herbert’s wife, Gloria Haft, and the couple’s other two children, Robert M. and Linda Haft, an undisclosed sum for a large part of their interests in Haft family assets, according to sources close to the negotiations.

The family’s holdings include the largest portfolio of shopping centers in the area and retail chains such as Crown Books Corp. and Trak Auto Corp. The assets are estimated to be worth up to $1 billion.

Under terms of the settlement, Herbert and Ronald Haft will continue to run the companies, and Gloria, Robert and Linda Haft will receive cash for much of their share of the family’s vast privately held real estate assets. Gloria, Robert and Linda Haft own more than half the real estate, which is estimated to be worth more than $500 million.

But family members will continue to hold on to their various blocks of voting stock in the publicly held companies, sources said.

In addition, Herbert and Gloria Haft--who built the family fortune together from a single drugstore in the Adams-Morgan neighborhood in northwest Washington--have agreed to an uncontested divorce after almost half a century of marriage.