Deadline for Mills Bids Draws Near

Hedge fund Stark Investments has purchased 720,000 shares of Mills Corp. since late March and now controls 4.95 million shares, or 8.7% of the troubled retail real estate investment trust's stock, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing last week. The statement said that Stark is buying shares for investment purposes but may seek to control or otherwise influence the REIT's management.

Mills has been exploring a sale of the company or assets as it deals with shareholder lawsuits and an SEC investigation related to its ongoing financial restatements (REFI, 4/3, 5/8). The REIT has set a deadline of June 13 for letters of interest from prospective buyers and has reportedly fielded more than 30 calls.

Stark is headed by Louis Conforti, the former cfo of Prime Group Realty Trust, which was acquired by Lightstone Group. David Lichtenstein, chairman of Lightstone, has also expressed interest in Mills, in the past weeks. Calls to Conforti were not returned by press time. Calls to Mills also were not returned.