Fortunoff, The Source - 2003 - 2006

Acting as independent fiduciary on behalf of defined benefit and defined contribution plans sponsored by Fortunoff, IFS has completed the sale of a 4-acre property in Long Island, New York to a national insurance company. The plans had acquired the property in 1993 from one of the Fortunoff companies sponsoring the plans, and leased the property, with its warehouse, back to the plans pursuant to a prohibited transaction exemption granted by the Department of Labor.

The sale of the property, at a price in excess of the most recent appraised valuation, marks the end of an assignment that began when the plans' trustee engaged IFS in 2003 to replace an independent fiduciary who had served since the plans purchased the property.

IFS' work began with investigating and resolving the plans' claims, as landlord, for prior, unpaid rent. We then negotiated an extension of the lease with the tenant, and supported a successful application for a new prohibited transaction exemption which the Department granted in 2006, retroactive to the date IFS became independent fiduciary.

After determining that it was in the plans' interest to sell the property, IFS engaged a brokerage firm to market the property on the plans' behalf and, with the assistance of the brokerage firm and outside counsel, negotiated a purchase and sale agreement and consummated the sale.