In a statement, CEO Marc Holliday says that given the present state of the current capital markets, "we have reset the dividend to reflect the company's current policy to preserve internally generated cash flows. Looking forward, this reset will help conserve approximately $95 million for the company in 2009. Given the illiquidity of the market, the reset of the current dividend ensures that the company will have additional capital to take advantage of the highly attractive investment opportunities which we believe will materialize in our core market. Until such opportunities appear, we will continue to pay down our near term debt obligations."

Including the Q4 dividend, SL Green paid $2.7375 per common share in dividends to its shareholders for 2008. The REIT's board of directors also declared dividends on the Series C and D preferred stock of $0.4766 and $0.4922 per share, respectively, for the period Oct. 15, 2008 through and including Jan. 14, 2009. Dividends are payable Jan. 15, 2009 to shareholders of record at the close of business on Jan. 2. Distributions reflect the regular quarterly dividends, which are the equivalent of an annualized distribution of $1.9064 and $1.9688, respectively, according to a release.

Also on Monday, another locally-based REIT announced a smaller Q4 dividend compared to the previous quarter. New York Mortgage Trust's board of directors has declared a dividend of $0.10 per common share, down from $0.16 per share for the second and third quarters. However, the dividend is larger than the $0.06 per common share paid in Q1, according to the REIT's dividend history. New York Mortgage Trust suspended common-stock dividend payments for Q2 and Q3 last year.