footnoted.org�Blog Archive � Sweeter than a chocolate shake�

"Buried in the S-1 that Burger King filed yesterday was this interesting little disclosure about the company�s new headquarters building, which is currently under construction.
Turns out that the company building the 224,638 square-foot building in Coral Gables happens to be owned by one of Burger King�s newest directors: Armando Codina. Codina, 59, joined Burger King�s board in November, according to the filing, and is founder and Chairman of the Codina Group, a real estate developer in Coral Gables. He also sits on a few boards: AMR (AMR), General Motors (GM), BellSouth (BLS) and this past summer, joined Merrill Lynch�s (MER) board. Burger King, the newest board, will be No. 5.
In the filing, Burger King says it plans to pay $5 million a year to lease the new building, which will not be ready until 2008, and that it has signed a 15 year lease for the building. So, that�s a $75 million deal. Yet, amazingly, Codina is still considered an independent director. Now that�s pretty sweet."