Jason Young, managing editor of Real Estate Forum, contributed to this article.

NEW YORK CITY-Vornado Realty Trust's involvement in the acquisition of Toys 'R' Us was a real estate play for the company, confirmed Steven Roth, the REIT's chairman and CEO, at a REIT consortium hosted by New York University at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel yesterday. As GlobeSt.com reported yesterday, Vornado, Bain Capital and Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co. are buying the specialty toy company for $6.6 billion.

"Vornado has its roots, basically, in mining for real estate in the stock market, and we've done that many, many times," he said. "We did it very recently with a large investment in Sears, and we became interested in Toys principally because it had lots and lots of pretty terrific real estate in the US and abroad."

In November, Vornado bought a 4.3% stake in Sears, Roebuck & Co., just two months before its $11-billion merger with Kmart was announced. Earlier in the year, the REIT paid $65 million for interests in 25 Southern California Stater Brothers supermarkets. In the early 1990s, the company bought the bankrupt Alexander's department store chain for its real estate.