Vornado CEO Steven Roth Cuts His Base Salary by 50%
A number of top executives at the REIT have had their base salaries reduced, ranging from 15% to 50%.
NEW YORK—The impact of the Coronavirus has caused top executives with Vornado Realty Trust to cut a portion of their salaries for the remainder of this year.
Heading the list, according to an 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 20, is Vornado Realty Trust chairman and CEO Steven Roth, who has waived 50% of his annual base salary beginning on April 1 for the remainder of this year.
The company also reports in the SEC filing that effective April 1, Michael J. Franco, the company’s president, and Joseph Macnow, Vornado’s chief financial officer and chief administrative officer, have each waived 30% of their respective annual base salaries for the remainder of 2020.
Also effective April 1, Glen J. Weiss, co-head of real estate, and Haim H. Chera, EVP–head of retail, have each waived 15% of their respective base salaries for the remainder of 2020.
Those changes were approved by the compensation committee of the company’s Board of Trustees on April 18, 2020 and waivers of the applicable minimum base salary requirements in applicable employment agreements have been signed to address these reductions.
In relation to executive compensation changes, Vornado also reported that company vice chairman David R. Greenbaum and Barry J. Langer, co-head of real estate, have each waived 30% and 15%, respectively, of their respective base salaries for the remainder of 2020.
In addition, effective April 1, 2020, each non-management member of Vornado’s Board of Trustees agreed to their $75,000 annual cash retainer for the remainder of 2020.
The New York City-based REIT has a portfolio that includes 19.1 million square feet of Manhattan office space in 35 properties; 2.3 million square feet of Manhattan street retail space in 70 properties; 1,991 units in 10 residential properties; the 1,700-room Hotel Pennsylvania located on Seventh Avenue at 33rd Street; a 32.4% interest in Alexander’s, Inc., which owns seven properties in the greater New York metropolitan area including 731 Lexington Ave. and the 1.3-million square foot Bloomberg, L.P. headquarters building.
Among the firm’s other holdings include signage throughout the Penn District and Times Square in Manhattan; wholly-owned subsidiary BMS, which provides cleaning and security services for its buildings and third parties, employing 2,914 associates; a 70% controlling interest in 555 California St., a three-building office complex in San Francisco’s financial district aggregating 1.8 million square feet and the 3.7 million square foot MART in Chicago.