Winthrop Realty Trust to begin liquidation

Times Square Edition investor to sell off assets over next two years

Michael Ashner and Times Square Edition
Michael Ashner and Times Square Edition

The CEO of Boston-based Winthrop Realty Trust, an investor in the Witkoff Group-developed Times Square Edition hotel, said last week that it plans to liquidate the company.

Over the next two years, Michael Ashner’s commercial real estate investment trust will sell off all of its assets. Ashner said the risks are too abundant in trying to find a good deal in the recovering market. Winthrop regularly acquires small stakes in large deals, some leading to lawsuits. Ashner and investor Bill Ackman attempted to foreclose on Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village after the landlords defaulted on $4.4 billion in debt in 2010. A judge ruled that Ackman and Ashner did not have the right to foreclose then, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

Last year, Winthrop bought four high-end apartment buildings across the U.S. from Barry Sternlicht’s Starwood Capital for a total of $246 million, as previously reported. [WSJ]Mark Maurer