Mr. Cronin: Washington Real Estate Investment Trust was founded in 1960 and we are headquartered in Rockville, Maryland. WRIT invests in a diversified range of income-producing property types. Our purpose is to acquire and manage real estate investments in markets we know well and protect our assets from single property-type value fluctuations through diversified holdings. Our goal is to continue to safely increase earnings and shareholder value. This approach has resulted in WRIT achieving 34 consecutive years of increased earnings per share, 29 consecutive years of increased dividends per share and 27 years of increased funds from operation per share. Our mission statement fully describes our company and its focus today.
TWST: What's on the agenda? When you look out over the next 12-24
months, what accomplishments make that period a success?
Mr. Cronin: Essentially looking out two years, we plan to do what we've
done historically, but better, and as in the past respond to change. We
will continue to acquire well located assets, particularly those we find
to be poorly managed and needing new mechanical systems, cosmetics and
so on permitting us to reposition the property in its marketplace, raise
rents and reduce operating costs. Our agenda includes a couple of
projects, which will take us over the next couple of years to complete.
We have identified and acquired properties giving us a major position in
urban areas that are 100% developed with no room for ground up
development. We plan to reposition those properties by taking them
through rezoning with prospects of developing a mixed use more in
keeping with the current area needs.
Tickers included in this excerpt: WRE
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