Grubb & Ellis Co. declares bankruptcy

According to the Investment News, Grubb & Ellis Co., a U.S. real estate services company, agreed to sell almost all its assets to BGC Partners Inc. and filed for bankruptcy protection.

According to the report, Grubb & Ellis listed assets of as much as $500 million and liabilities of up to the same amount in the Chapter 11 filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York yesterday. The company said it completed about 12,000 sale and lease transactions last year and manages more than 250 million square feet of property.

In a court filing, the Santa Ana, California-based company blamed the downturn in the U.S. real estate market between 2007 and 2009 for losses during the period that it said severely strained its liquidity and hampered its ability to keep operating.

Apparently, BGC Partners, a New York-based broker of financial products, agreed to provide a loan of as much as $4.8 million to Grubb & Ellis to keep it operating during the bankruptcy process.

It is unclear at this time how the bankruptcy will impact the many Grubb & Ellis REITs set up by the company (such as Grubb & Ellis Apartment REIT and Grubb & Ellis Healthcare REIT).

Like Grubb & Ellis Co., Grubb & Ellis REITs have also been impacted by the downtown in the real estate market and investors in these REITs have likely suffered substantial losses.

The foregoing information is being provided by The White Law Group.  The White Law Group, LLC is a national securities fraud, securities arbitration, investor protection, and securities regulation/compliance law firm with offices in Chicago, Illinois and Boca Raton, Florida.  The firm is actively investigating potential FINRA arbitration claims on behalf of Grubb & Ellis REIT investors.

If you have invested in a Grubb & Ellis REIT, you may have a claim against your financial professional or brokerage firm to recover your losses.  To speak with a REIT fraud attorney, please call The White Law Group’s Chicago office at 312/238-9650.

For more information on The White Law Group, visit https://whitesecuritieslaw.com.