CHICAGO-Banyan Strategic Realty Trust, a REIT based downtown here, has agreed to sell its real estate portfolio for $226 million to privately-held Denholtz Associates in a deal that involves more than 250,000 sf in Orlando and Winter Park, plus another 480,000 in the rest of Florida. Shareholders can expect to final distributions of about $6.20 per share by the end of 2001. Banyan’s most recent price on the Nasdaq was $5.56 per share.
Despite a 16% overall vacancy for the REIT’s holdings, Banyan Strategic Realty Trust vice president and general counsel Robert G. Higgins said the sale was not a result of underperforming assets. “It was a question of enhancing shareholder value,” Higgins told GlobeSt.com. Banyan had been exploring a mass sale of its holdings since early 2000, he added, and an affiliate of Chicago-based Cohen Financial had been marketing the portfolio since July.