Breaking a long silence, Robert Maguire III said Monday that he realized weeks ago that he likely would have to step down as chairman and chief executive of the real-estate company he founded if he was going to continue his efforts to take it private, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Mr. Maguire, who was voted out Saturday by the board of Maguire Properties Inc., denied that he was forced out, saying that leaving was his choice. “If I continued to press the private view, I had to step down,” he said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.

The board on Saturday named Nelson Rising, a veteran real-estate executive, as chief executive, and Walter Weisman, the company’s lead independent director, as chairman.

Maguire Properties, one of the largest office-building owners in Southern California, has been under siege for months from hedge funds that purchased a large stake in the company. They have been pressing for a sale because they felt Maguire was undervalued compared with the value of its properties.

During this time Mr. Maguire, 73 years old, tried twice to buy the company himself but fell short, the first time because of disarray in the credit markets and the second time because the board no longer was interested in entertaining a sale. “Clearly the board by that time wanted to keep it public,” he said. “I either had to mount a proxy fight or go along with the majority of the opinion.”

Mr. Maguire said he rejected both options, leaving him little choice but to step down. He said he had dinner with Mr. Rising six weeks ago and afterward told the board, “Nelson would be a wonderful choice in the event my private offer wasn’t closed.”

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