Banyan also is selling its real estate portfolio to Denholtz Management Corporation, which has until March 30 to complete due diligence. "The buyer's due diligence is well underway and we continue to anticipate a late-April closing and a significant liquidating distribution soon thereafter," said Interim President and CEO L.G. Schafran. Shareholders are expected to receive final distributions of about $6.20 per share by the end of 2001 as a result of the sale. "Our ability to make the liquidating distribution depends, however, upon the closing of the Denholtz transaction," Schafran added.

Locally, Banyan's portfolio includes five suburban office and industrial properties totaling nearly 600,000 sf: the 200,772-sf Butterfield Office Plaza in Oak Brook;the seven-building, 40,776-sf Elmhurst Metro Court in Elmhurst; the two-building, 5,893-sf Tower Lane Business Park in Bensenville; the three-building 83,330-sf Willowbrook Industrial Court in Willowbrook and the 76,749-sf Midwest Office Center in Oakbrook Terrace. It also owns six industrial buildings in the Milwaukee suburbs of Menomonee Falls and New Berlin totaling 235,806 sf.