STAMFORD, CT—Land and Buildings, among the mostactivist investors in the real estate sector, has nominated fourdirectors to the board of shopping center REIT the MacerichCo., an industry source familiar with the matter confirms.Bloomberg Business and the Wall Street Journal have bothreported that Land and Buildings submitted the nominations ahead ofa deadline Tuesday, prompted mainly by objections to measures thatMAC took to defend itself against an ultimately unsuccessful $22.4-billion hostiletakeover by Simon Property Group.

However, Land and Buildings founder JonathanLitt told Bloomberg that MAC was challenging the validityof his nominations, who were not identified. Among other matters,there's the question of whether Land & Buildings owned sharesin time to submit nominees.

Land and Buildings currently holds about 1,000 shares of MACstock, the WSJ reported Thursday. That's a small share byactivist investor standards, but is enough to submit boardnominations. However, it's not clear whether Litt will be in aposition to pursue a proxy battle during the REIT's annual meetinglater this spring.