Stockholders Approve New York REIT Liquidation Plan

By Scott Baltic, Contributing Editor

Worldwide Plaza in New York

New York—Right according to schedule, New York REIT Inc. announced Tuesday that, at its special meeting of stockholders that day, more than 99 percent of the shares of NYRT common stock that were voted as to the proposal to approve the plan of liquidation and dissolution of the company voted in favor of the proposal, with more than a majority of the outstanding shares approving, and therefore, the plan was approved.

As Commercial Property Executive reported just before Christmas, NYRT recently received a $760 million facility from Credit Suisse, intended to:

• Repay the previous credit facility (with a balance of about $485 million);
• Allow NYRT to exercise a fixed-price option to purchase remaining 51 percent equity interest in Worldwide Plaza, a 2-million-square-foot office building in Manhattan; and
• Fund the REIT’s dissolution.

The liquidation plan followed the failure in August of a proposed merger between NYRT and JBG Cos., a major metro Washington, D.C., landlord. (JBG went on to a merger with Vornado Realty Trust.)

“We are pleased with the outcome of today’s vote, and I would like to thank all of NYRT’s stockholders for their support throughout this process,” Randolph Read, the REIT’s chairman of the board of directors, said in a prepared statement. “We look forward to executing the plan of liquidation with the goal of maximizing value for all stockholders expeditiously.”

Exactly how expeditiously the process will be carried out remains to be seen. An NYRT spokesperson indicated to CPE that the REIT has not yet laid out a detailed timetable for the liquidation nor for the sale of Worldwide Plaza.

The company also announced that, at its annual meeting of stockholders held on Dec. 30, all nine existing directors were reelected to the board.

Image courtesy of Yardi Matrix