Billionaire Steven Roth’s Manhattan Bet Battered by Office Woes
With his company delaying its dividend payment, Roth is confronting more challenges in his bid to transform the area around NYC's Penn Station rail hub.
Moynihan Train Hall near Penn Station in New York.
Photographer: Yuki Iwamura/BloombergBillionaire Steven Roth envisioned a “promised land” of gleaming office skyscrapers around Manhattan’s universally hated Penn Station. Now, as his real estate company races to conserve cash, prospects for Roth’s grandest plans have dimmed.
Shares of his Vornado Realty Trust have been beaten up in recent weeks, at points hitting the lowest level since the 1990s, when Roth, 81, made a big bet on the west side neighborhood. Anemic office demand led Vornado to hold off on any near-term new construction for its projects around the rail hub. And in the latest sign of the deepening challenges for property companies, the real estate investment trust last week shocked analysts by halting dividends until the end of 2023.