🠈 Vornado Realty Trust 🠊
Vornado Real Estate Trust
Vornado Real Estate Trust started out as a discount store. They merged with a company that made fans and eventually turned into a real estate trust. The real estate firm appears to have played a critical role in the decision to close Toys "R" Us. The bulk of Vornado's current portfolio is in NYC with properties in Chicago and San Francisco.
Vornado Air creates high powered fans. Advertisement: You can find Vornado Fans on Amazon.
Corporate History
The company started with two guys selling returned and overstocked TVs. It grew large and was bought by a real estate development who seemed to be more interested in the land than the stores.
Vornado Realty was involved in the liquidation of Two Guys, Topps, White Front, Alexander's and the Toys R Us group. They are a tough landlord.
- 1946: the Hubschman brothers operated a snack bar at the Radio Corporation of America plant in Harrison, NJ. The plant has some damaged/returned merchandise and the Hubschmans made a deal to sell it. They formed an arrangement to liquidate overstocked goods. Competitors called them the "those two bastards from Harrison!".
- 194?: The company took the name Two Guys from Harrison which sold discounted goods.
- 1959: Two Guys acquired O. A. Sutton Corporation which made the Vornado line of fans, air conditioners and humidifiers.
- 1967: Vornado merged with Food Giant Markets Inc. which had 70 supermarkets, 14 Unimart discount stores, 14 Builders Emporium hardware, and 6 liquor stores along with the Meyenberg Milk Products and Golden Creme Farms.
- The merger went poorly and Vornado began to liquidate.
- 1974: Two Guys acquired White Front and Topps stores during the Interstate Department Stores bankruptcy.
- 1977: FedMart bought 22 Two Guy stores.
- 1980: Interstate Properties, Inc. by Steven Roth acquired Vornado. Roth liquidated the stores and sold or leased the properties.
- 1986: Interstate Properties and Donald Trump each bought 20% of failing department store Alexander's.
- 1988: Citicorp acquired Trump's share of Alexander's
- 1989: Michael Coup bought the trademarks and rights to create a company called Vornado Air Circulation Systems Inc. to produce fans.
- 1992: Roth forced Alexander's into bankruptcy. It emerged as an REIT.
- 2005: Vornado, Bain Capital Partners, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. acquired Toys "R" Us for $6.6 billion.
- 2017: Toys "R" Us declared bankruptcy. After a bad holiday, Vornado and investors decided to liquidate the company.
References:
- Wikipedia - Alexander's (Drawn 10/3/2019)
- Wikipedia - Verado (Drawn 10/3/2019)