Real Estate & Retail

Before the holidays, Vornado Realty Trust ($VNO) CEO, Steve Roth, issued his shareholder letter. We recommend you read it (particularly starting with Page 15) but this choice quote about sums it up: "I do not believe we can grow our way out of this mess. I believe the only fix for brick and mortar retailing is rightsizing by the closing and evaporation of, you pick the number, 10%, 20%, 30% of the weakest space. This very painful process will surely take more than five years. It will also create enormous opportunity for those with the capital and management platforms to feed on the carnage."  He also discusses, briefly, WeWork and exposure to Sears and KMart. You can read the letter here: it doesn't read like a sterile SEC document and so we highly recommend it. Meanwhile, this is where all of that retail spending went, apparently.