Facile syntheses are reported for three endo-tridentate tris-imidazole podands 1-3, two of which also bear basic amino residues, designed to reproduce the active site of carbonic anhydrase. The architecture was tested for the ability to bind Zn2+ in a" biomimetic" fashion and for the esterase activity of the Zn2+ complexes. Complexation of Zn2+ and Co" was studied by pH-titrimetry and NMR and W-vis spectrometry and was found to be moderate. ...