Article Excerpt:
TWST: What is First Industrial Realty Trust?Mr. Brennan: We are the largest diversified owner of industrial real estate in the United States. We buy five industrial facility types, and those are the ones most commonly found in a company's supply chain. Our primary customer focus is on Corporate America, helping them to grow, monetize assets, improve supply chains, or helping them with their overall operating efficiency. Today, our market capitalization is about $4.5 billion approximately. We also have another $3 billion in private capital. So we manage in excess of $7 to $8 billion in overall capitalization. That gives us a big capital platform to help customers. I think the big key to our success is customer focus. Our mission statement is to create industrial real estate solutions that are mutually beneficial to our customers and our investors, and we do that through 30 offices that are skilled in development, redevelopment and acquisitions across the United States.
TWST: What is the outlook for industrial properties in the US,
especially at the level that you are involved? Where do you think this
group will be over the next year or two?
Mr. Brennan: Industrial properties are one of the most coveted
commercial assets in the business today because they have a short
development cycle, meaning that there's less cyclicality in our business
because supply can be cut off relatively quickly. There are not large
buildups of inventory that cause massive rent declines, so it is
perceived as stable. The recent environment has been one in which we
have record levels of absorption. For 2005, there was 280 million square
feet of net absorption. The second reason that institutions and other
investors like our sector is that the fundamentals have been getting
stronger. We are a property sector that is largely driven by the amount
that business spends on inventory and equipment, and over the last
couple of years, that spending has been very positive, as companies have
both record liquidity levels and record profit levels. So, both from a
fundamental standpoint and an investor appetite standpoint, the sector
is currently basking in a very favorable light.
Tickers included in this excerpt: FR
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