BOSTON, July 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Winthrop Realty Trust (NYSE: FUR), announced today that it has granted a waiver to its ownership limit provision in its Bylaws to Fairholme Capital Management LLC ("Fairholme"). The waiver permits Fairholme, in its individual company capacity as well as on behalf of its investment advisory clients and affiliates, to acquire, subject to certain limitations, up to 15% of Winthrop's outstanding shares. Winthrop's ownership limitation currently restricts any one person from owning more than 9.8% of its outstanding shares, which provision is common with real estate investment trusts to ensure compliance with the rule requiring that not more than five shareholders own more than 50% of the real estate investment trust. As with past waivers, Winthrop granted the waiver to Fairholme on the condition that Fairholme's ownership will be limited such that no one individual (as defined in the Internal Revenue Code) will own more than 9.8% of Winthrop's shares. In addition, Fairholme's waiver is subject to additional limitations to ensure compliance by Winthrop with other real estate investment trust rules. Winthrop Realty Trust is a NYSE-listed real estate investment trust (REIT) headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. Additional information on Winthrop Realty Trust is available on its Web site at http://www.winthropreit.com/ "Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. With the exception of the historical information contained in this news release, the matters described herein contain "forward-looking" statements that involve risk and uncertainties that may individually or collectively impact the matters herein described. These are detailed from time to time in the "Risk Factors" section of Winthrop's SEC reports. Further information relating to Winthrop's financial position, results of operations, and investor information is contained in Winthrop's annual and quarterly reports filed with the SEC and available for download at its website http://www.winthropreit.com/ or at the SEC website http://www.sec.gov/. DATASOURCE: Winthrop Realty Trust CONTACT: Beverly Bergman, +1-617-570-4614, for Winthrop Realty Trust Web site: http://www.winthropreit.com/

Copyright