Emerging from 'Basement,' Trinity Gets New CEO

SECAUCUS, NJ-Emerging from Chapter 11 proceedings, Trinity Place Holdings has named Matthew Messinger as its new president and CEO and announced a new $13 million investment by Third Avenue Real Estate Value Fund.

Messinger jumps to Trinity from his previous post as investment management director from Forest City Ratner, where he worked for 18 years. Trinity currently has significant real estate holdings in six states, including New York and New Jersey, and a variety of consumer-sector intellectual property rights.

Third Avenue Real Estate Value Fund invested $13.5 million in Trinity by purchasing 3,369,444 of its common shares at $4 per share. Houlihan Lokey acted as sole placement agent for the offering.

Third Avenue now owns 17% of the the company and gains the right to appoint one member of Trinity's board of directors.

The real estate fund is managed by Third Avenue Management, a New York-based investment manager with $12.9 billion in managed assets. Trinity's assets include real estate holdings in Paramus and Secaucus, New Jersey; West Palm Beach, Florida; and “Trinity Place”, a development site in lower Manhattan.

Trinity's intellectual property portfolio includes rights related to the Filene's Basement trademark. Trinity emerged after the reorganization of Syms Corp. and Filene's Basement, which went through Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings last year.

Trinity has also received shareholder consent to increase its number of shares of from 20 million shares to 40 million, some of which will be distributed to senior management and some held for future issuance for strategic business purposes.

The bankruptcy reorganization resulted in Trinity's payment of $30.2 million to creditors, using cash available from prior property sales and from the $4.5 million sale of the company's Cherry Hill mall, which closed last week.

Michael Winer of Third Avenue, said “We have been interested in Trinity Place Holdings and its unique collection of properties since it emerged from bankruptcy in 2012. We believed that with the right capital structure and a highly-skilled management team, there is potential to create significant value by redeveloping its existing properties and taking advantage of other opportunities.”