Gyrodyne to pay $13.7M special dividend after property sales

Gyrodyne LLC, a St. James-based real estate investment trust, declared a $9.25-per-share special dividend worth $13.7 million from proceeds of the sale of properties in Virginia and Port Jefferson.

Following the Thursday afternoon announcement, shares of the company rose 6 percent to close at $29.70.

Earlier this month, Gyrodyne announced the completion of the sale of its Fairfax Medical Center in Fairfax, Virginia, for $14 million to Virginia-based JAG Associates LLC.

The company also announced the sale of two buildings in the Port Jefferson Professional Park for $760,000 and $850,000.

“Gyrodyne intends to continue making special dividends as it executes on its strategic plan,” Fred Braun III, president and CEO of Gyrodyne, said in a statement. “We look forward to implementing and executing additional events that will provide liquidity and value to our shareholders.”

The company said it expects the special dividend to be sent to shareholders on June 15.

In December 2013, the company, then named Gyrodyne Company of America Inc., paid a special dividend of $98.7 million, or $66.56 per share, consisting of $45.86 per share in cash and interest in a successor company, Gyrodyne LLC.

Earlier that year, the company received about $98 million in damages from New York State in a 2006 lawsuit over 245.4 acres of Gyrodyne land that was condemned under eminent domain and annexed to Stony Brook University. The company argued the land — now the site of Stony Brook’s Center of Excellence in Wireless and Information Technology — was worth more than the $26.3 million the state paid.

By Ken Schachter

kenneth.schachter@newsday.comkschach

Ken Schachter covers corporate news, including technology and aerospace, and other business topics for Newsday. He has also worked at The Miami Herald and The Jerusalem Post.