Sixteen-foot Toys 'R' Us mascot finds new home
Geoffrey the Giraffe has gone to the hospital -- and he has a liquidation advisory firm and a law firm to thank for it.
Toys “R” Us is the process of liquidating its U.S. operations, including the assets in its Wayne, New Jersey, headquarters which featured, among other things, a 16-ft., 550-pound fiberglass statue of its iconic Geoffrey mascot. The retailer’s liquidation advisor Malfitano Partners hoped to preserve the mascot and has been looking for a children’s hospital to take it, Bloomberg reported, but it was a hard sell due to the expense involved in removing and transporting the statue. A note on Joseph Malfitano’s LinkedIn page caught the attention of a former colleague, which eventually led to Bristol-Myers Squibb Children’s Hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey, taking the statue.
Malfitano agreed to donate the approximately $10,000 it would cost for the statue to be removed, packed and shipped to New Brunswick, plus he is paying Toys “R” Us an undisclosed sum, according to the report. And Ken Rosen, chair of the bankruptcy department at law firm Lowenstein Sandler, and his wife are to donate the cost of Geoffrey’s installation at the hospital. The firm represented some vendors that were creditors to Toys “R” Us.
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Toys “R” Us is the process of liquidating its U.S. operations, including the assets in its Wayne, New Jersey, headquarters which featured, among other things, a 16-ft., 550-pound fiberglass statue of its iconic Geoffrey mascot. The retailer’s liquidation advisor Malfitano Partners hoped to preserve the mascot and has been looking for a children’s hospital to take it, Bloomberg reported, but it was a hard sell due to the expense involved in removing and transporting the statue. A note on Joseph Malfitano’s LinkedIn page caught the attention of a former colleague, which eventually led to Bristol-Myers Squibb Children’s Hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey, taking the statue.
Malfitano agreed to donate the approximately $10,000 it would cost for the statue to be removed, packed and shipped to New Brunswick, plus he is paying Toys “R” Us an undisclosed sum, according to the report. And Ken Rosen, chair of the bankruptcy department at law firm Lowenstein Sandler, and his wife are to donate the cost of Geoffrey’s installation at the hospital. The firm represented some vendors that were creditors to Toys “R” Us.
Click here to read more.