Overview
Vornado Realty Trust is a real-estate investment trust and one of the largest owners and managers of real estate in the U.S. The New York-based company has a portfolio of over 100 million square feet in its major platforms, including its New York City and Washington, D.C., locations.
Vornado has had a good track record. Two of Vornado’s biggest current projects are plans to develop an office and retail tower over the Port Authority bus terminal in New York, but the project has been delayed after the 9/11 attacks. The second project, a proposed $14 billion renovation of Penn Station and the storied post office attached to it, has been delayed due to politics and a slumping economy.
In 2009, Michael Fascitelli, an ex-Goldmanite, was promoted to CEO from president. Former CEO Steven Roth remains chairman.
Recruiting
Barron's named Steven Roth one of the World's Thirty Most Respected CEOs in 2005, 2006 and 2007.
Roth, however, set off a public-relations storm in 2010 in a talk at Columbia University when he implied that the company let the Alexander's department store in Manhattan become an eyesore in the 1990s so the government would offer generous incentives to finish the project. Since its Filene's Basement development project in Boston has stalled, the mayor of Beantown was none too pleased.