Alstores Realty Corp. v. Commissioner

46 T.C. 363, 1966 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 88
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedJune 15, 1966
DocketDocket No. 4928-62
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 46 T.C. 363 (Alstores Realty Corp. v. Commissioner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Tax Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Alstores Realty Corp. v. Commissioner, 46 T.C. 363, 1966 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 88 (tax 1966).

Opinion

Hoyt, Judge:

Respondent determined a deficiency in income tax against petitioner in the amount of $120,429.60 for petitioner’s taxable year ended January 31,1958. Respondent’s disallowance of a portion of petitioner’s claimed deduction for accrued taxes has not been challenged. Hence, the only issues remaining for decision are: (1) Whether petitioner realized $253,090.75 of rent income as a result of a transaction in which it purchased a warehouse property for $750,000 cash plus a simultaneous agreement to permit the seller to retain occupancy of a portion of the building rent free for 2y2 years, and (2) if petitioner did realize rent income as determined by respondent, is it entitled to increase its cost basis in the property by the amount so realized, and accordingly increase its annual depreciation of the building ?

FINDINGS OF FACT

Petitioner, Alstores Realty Corp., is a corporation organized in 1947 under the laws of the State of Delaware to engage in various aspects of the real estate business. Petitioner maintains its books and records and files its Federal income tax returns on the accrual basis of accounting and on a fiscal year ended January 31 of each year. It timely filed its Federal income tax return for the fiscal year ended January 31, 1958, with the district director of internal revenue for the Manhattan District of New York. 'Since its organization, petitioner has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Allied Stores Corp., a Delaware corporation, engaged in the ownership and operation directly and through subsidiaries of a large number of retail department stores in at least 18 States. Allied Stores Corp. is a publicly held corporation whose stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Stern Brothers, Inc. (hereinafter sometimes referred to as Stern Bros.), now a part of another wholly owned subsidiary of Allied Stores Corp., was at the time of the transaction here in question 98-percent owned by Allied Stores Corp. Stern Bros, operated a retail department store on 42nd Street in New York City. Under the charter of Allied Stores Corp., the subsidiary corporations which operate retail department stores are subject to a restriction which prevents them from financing purchase of real estate. Stern Bros, was subject to this restriction. Alstores Realty Corp. was a nonrestricted subsidiary and, in fact, was organized for the purpose of acquiring and financing purchases of real property to be used by restricted subsidiaries.

Steinway & Sons, a New York corporation (hereinafter sometimes referred to as Steinway), was, prior to February 1,1957, owner of certain real property at 45-02 Ditmars Boulevard, Queens, N.Y. (hereinafter sometimes referred to as the subject property), part of which it leased to tenants and part of which it used in its own manufacturing operations. The subject property at the time of the transaction in question consisted of land measuring 200 by 525 feet or a total of 105,000 square feet on which was located a warehouse building containing five stories plus a basement. The building was approximately 50 years old and it was H-shaped, containing approximately 275,926 square feet of usable area. Prior to the transaction here in question, portions of this building were leased by Steinway to Stern Bros.; as of October 4, 1956, Stern Bros, had a total of 59,178 square feet under lease at a rental of approximately 75 cents per square foot per annum (6% cents per square foot per month). Steinway also leased approximately '500 square feet to Nathan Manufacturing Co., which was not related to any of the corporations here involved, at a rate of about 78 cents per square foot per annum.

During the period 1956 through the middle of 1959, Steinway & Sons was in process of consolidating its manufacturing and other facilities at another location, and it decided to sell the subject Ditmars Boulevard property. However, the new facilities were not ready for complete occupancy by Steinway & Sons until sometime in 1959, and until such time as the new facilities were ready for occupancy, Stemway & Sons required the continued use of considerable space in the subject property.

In 1956 and 1957, Stern Bros, was in process of building a new store in Bergen Mall Shopping Center in Paramus, N.J. In anticipation of the opening of this store on November 1,1957, Stern Bros., Alstores Realty Corp., and Allied Stores Corp. began consideration of methods of acquiring additional warehouse space in order to handle the merchandise that would be needed for sale in the Paramus store.

Preliminary negotiations were entered into in the spring of 1956 looking toward a possible sale of the subject property by Steinway & Sons to petitioner for use by Stern Bros. The customary procedure for purchases by petitioner of real estate for use of a restricted subsidiary was that preliminary negotiations be conducted by the manager of the subsidiary which would use the property. Such preliminary negotiations were carried on in the case of the subject property between the then president of Stern Bros, and a New York real estate brokerage firm representing Steinway & Sons.

Steinway’s original asking price for the subject premises was $1,250,-000; this was later lowered to $1 million. However, because Steinway at the time of these negotiations was not yet prepared to remove its manufacturing operations from the subject building, it would not at that time have agreed to a sale unless an arrangement could be made permitting it to retain possession of a portion of the building until its new plant would be ready for occupancy. Eventually, in 1956, the parties agreed to a transaction under which petitioner (Alstores) would pay $750,000 cash for title to the building and Steinway would retain occupancy of a portion of the building for 2y2 years from the date of conveyance, without further payment of rent.

After this arrangement had been agreed upon, Steinway’s attorney prepared a single written document to effectuate the contract. This document provided for sale of the subject premises with a contemporaneous lease of portions of the premises by the purchaser back to Steinway. The petitioner’s attorney, however, requested that the single contract be split into two separate contracts.

On October 4,1956, two agreements were executed by petitioner and Stein way & Sons with respect to the subject property. The first agreement can, for convenience, be called the sale contract and the second agreement can, for convenience, be called the space occupancy agreement. The two agreements were executed and delivered by the parties simultaneously and were expressly made interdependent one upon the other. Steinway & Sons would not have entered into the sale contract without also entering into the space occupancy agreement, and vice versa. The two agreements constituted the sole and entire agreement between petitioner and Steinway & Sons with respect to the transaction in question and with respect to the subject property. At the time the sale contract and the space occupancy contracts were executed and delivered, petitioner paid Steinway & Sons'the amount of $75,000.

The space occupancy agreement contains, inter alia, the following provisions:

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Alstores Realty Corp. v. Commissioner
46 T.C. 363 (U.S. Tax Court, 1966)

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Bluebook (online)
46 T.C. 363, 1966 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 88, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/alstores-realty-corp-v-commissioner-tax-1966.