Real Estate The $20 Billion Question

For months, rumors swirled through financial and real estate markets that the Reichmanns, Canada's multibillionaire developers, were desperately short of one essential commodity -- cash. Brothers Paul and Albert responded, characteristically, with silence. Last week, though, they were forced to talk. In a brief communique, they admitted that their global real estate holding company, Olympia & York, was suffering a "liquidity crisis." As a result, the company would meet with its bankers to restructure debts totaling an estimated $20 billion.

Less than two days after that announcement, the Toronto headquarters of Olympia & York lobbed another bombshell by reporting a shake-up...