Article Excerpt:
TWST: What is Mack-Cali?Mr. Hersh: Mack-Cali is a $5.5 billion real estate investment trust focused on the office sector. We own and manage Class A office assets and office flex assets, with our primary concentration being in the Northeast corridor of the United States ' specifically the mid-Atlantic region, from the metropolitan Washington, DC, region up through the southern limits of Fairfield County, Connecticut. Our most significant concentration is in the State of New Jersey, where we own and manage approximately 19 million square feet of properties. We also have a significant concentration in Westchester, where our portfolio consists of about 5 million square feet.Then we move through the Philadelphia suburban market and the southern part of New Jersey, where we own and manage about 3 million square feet, and then down into the Washington corridor, where, with a recently announced acquisition, we will have a portfolio of about 1.3 million square feet. We hope to expand that latter base of operation in the future. We went public in August 1994, but we've been a real estate developer in New Jersey for over 50 years. Since our IPO, we have had several significant company style transactions ' most notably the $440 million acquisition in January 1997 of the Robert Martin Company, which was a Westchester-based private real estate company. Also the $1.2 billion combination and merger of The Mack Company, which was accomplished in December 1997. We have now grown the company from what was a nascent $300 million ' plus or minus ' at IPO, to $5.5 billion in assets and market capitalization. We have significant development capability within the company. We have a land inventory that's wholly owned that can support in excess of 11 million square feet of new development in very high barrier to entry markets, including our presence along the 'Gold Coast' in Jersey City, New Jersey, where we have an in-service portfolio of about 4.3 million square feet, as well as a 50% ownership of the Hyatt Regency in partnership with Hyatt Corporation of the Pritzker family. In Jersey City, we can develop an additional 4.5 million square feet of office space. Then, throughout our various suburban markets, we have significant development capability to take advantage of the improving economy and new tenant demand as businesses and corporations expand in the future.
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