A union that represents hotel workers continued its campaign against Inland American Real Estate Trust on Tuesday even as investors overwhelmingly backed management at the Oak Brook-based company’s recent shareholder meeting.
Inland American, in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Monday, said it had sent a letter to investors telling them that all directors at the recent annual stockholders’ meeting were re-elected, with an average affirmative vote of 95 percent.
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On Tuesday, however, Unite Here, a union for hotel workers, called on the owner and developer of commercial real estate to distribute $3.8 billion that it has generated in asset sales over the years to its shareholders. It’s about the 10th letter Unite Here has published since mid-2013 protesting the practices of Inland American. Unite Here spokeswoman Becky Perrine said Tuesday that nearly all of the company’s hotels are nonunion.
Inland American couldn’t be reached for comment Tuesday afternoon.
In its SEC filing on Monday, it also told investors that it continues to “make progress on the potential spin-off and listing” of Xenia Hotels & Resorts into a stand-alone, publicly traded real estate investment trust. The spinoff is expected to occur in the first half of 2015, it said.
As of Sept. 30, Inland American owned 203 properties, representing about 23.5 million square feet of retail, industrial and office space, 8,318 student housing beds and 12,797 hotel rooms. Its properties as of December 2013 included Hotel Monaco Chicago, according to its annual report filed in March 2014.
“As mentioned in previous letters, with Xenia owning all of Inland American’s current lodging portfolio and these assets producing a substantial portion of Inland American’s cash flow from operations, if the spin-off of Xenia occurs, Inland American’s distribution payments will decrease,” Inland American said in its letter.
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