William Polk Carey (May 11, 1930 – January 2, 2012) born in Baltimore, Maryland, was an American businessman who was the first to apply "sale lease back" financing to assets other than cars. He started W. P. Carey & Co. LLC, a corporate real estate financing firm headquartered in New York City in 1973. It is the world’s largest publicly traded limited liability company. As of 2012, it owns more than 650 commercial and industrial facilities throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. It owns more than 90 million square feet (8 million square meters) of space.