Griffin Land Co., the Manhattan, N.Y.-based landlord that is Connecticut’s biggest private landowner, has explored and decided not to convert to a real estate investment trust (REIT).
In January, Griffin announced the $5.1 million sale of its Granby landscape-nursery operation to Monrovia Nursery Co.
Subsequently, as its officers, board of directors — and at least one significant institutional investor — began last spring weighing the pros and cons of Griffin’s corporate structure, the company sought legal, finance and other counsel from a slate of advisers that Chief Financial Officer Anthony Galeci declined to identify.
Galeci, however, acknowledged that Greenwich uber-investor Mario Gabelli floated a proposal that the company in which his funds this past Sept. 30 held a combined 34 percent stake to explore conversion to a REIT. Gabelli’s Gamco Investors and Gabelli Funds units didn’t respond to a request for comment.
REITs have stakes in most of the world’s commercial real estate and their legal and financial structures provides them with, among other things, favorable tax treatment in how they acquire and dispose of real estate holdings, and distribute earnings from rents, management fees and property sales to stakeholders.
In Griffin’s case, the company concluded, Galeci said recently, that current and future tax implications of a REIT conversion were too significant to warrant undergoing one at this time.
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