Grubb & Ellis goes bust; to sell assets to brokerage firm

Grubb & Ellis Co., a U.S. real estate services company, has agreed to sell almost all its assets to BGC Partners Inc. and filed for bankruptcy protection. 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 last week. The company said that it completed about 12,000 sale and lease transactions last year, and manages more than 250 million square feet of property. “We determined that a partnership with BGC provides the best platform for our brokerage professionals, employees and clients,” Thomas P. D'Arcy, chief executive of Grubb & Ellis, said in a statement. “We expect no disruption to the company's operations.”

FAILED TO FIND A BUYER

The 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, according to a court filing. Grubb & Ellis failed to find a buyer outside the bankruptcy process, chief financial officer Michael Rispoli said in the filing. BGC Partners, a 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, he said. The company is asking a judge to set a March 9 deadline for preliminary bids in a formal auction tentatively scheduled for March 21.