Buffett buys into retail real estate company
By Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, January 14, 2002
SAN DIEGO — Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett has acquired a 5.06% stake its Burnham Pacific Properties, a retail real estate company that is in the process of dissolving.
Buffett, whose giant Omaha, Neb.-based company owns furniture retailers Nebraska Furniture Mart, R.C. Willey, Star and Jordan's, disclosed the more than 1.6 million-share investment in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The filing did not say when the stock was purchased.
Burnham Pacific is a real estate investment trust that primarily owns shopping centers in major metropolitan areas. In September 2000, the company announced a "plan of liquidation and dissolution," saying it intended to sell its real estate holdings to cover liabilities and then distribute any remaining cash to shareholders.
The company has said it expects the liquidation to be substantially completed by the end of 2002's first quarter.
Jay Schottenstein, chairman and chief executive officer of Top 100 furniture store Value City, is co-chairman of Burnham Pacific, according to Burnham reports.
