Article Excerpt:
TWST: We would like to begin with a brief historical sketch of Spirit Finance and a picture of the things that you are doing at the present time.Ms. Long: Our company was formed in 2003 as a real estate investment trust. Many members of our senior management were part of another real estate investment trust prior to this called Franchise Finance Corporation of America. That company was sold to GE in 2001, and several years later, some of the management team from that old company came together again to start Spirit Finance. We wanted to do things that were different. The second time around, you always have a different idea of what you would like to do, and times have changed since 2001. So the team got together and decided that operationally essential real estate was a very large market that was not being well represented in the REIT sector. We felt that that was an opportune time for us to create a REIT and address the needs of that sector.
TWST: What are the means by which you address those needs?
Ms. Long: Operationally essential real estate is real estate that is
owned by Corporate America and is used to generate profits for their
businesses. It could be viewed as freestanding retail space or
distribution space. This real estate would be where our customers make
their profits. An example of operationally essential real estate would
be supermarkets where our clients' customers actually visit that real
estate site. That way, an individual property could have a P&L attached
to it. It's at this real estate property where the actual profit of our
clients gets made. Supermarkets, movie theaters, restaurants and many
special purposes buildings fall into this category. Operationally
essential real estate is fairly broad, and we've done it on purpose to
make our mandate broad because we believe that we can be most
competitive when we are not restricted to one property sector.
Tickers included in this excerpt: SFC
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