Liberty REIT Trades $1B of Suburban Assets

Rizk says the deal represents “the next step of our strategic plan to build a portfolio of high quality, well-positioned suburban real estate assets.”

HORSHAM, PA—Privately held Workspace Property Trust will more than quadruple the size of its portfolio when its $969-million acquisition from Liberty Property Trust closes. The deal, which WPT is making in partnership with Safanad Ltd., will add 108 properties totaling 7.6 million square feet in four states to what currently is a 2.3-million-square-foot office and flex portfolio located entirely within WPT’s hometown of Horsham, PA.

The Horsham portfolio was acquired from LPT this past December for $245.3 million, thus marking the debut of WPT, formed by CEO Thomas Rizk, president and COO Roger Thomas and EVP and CFO Howard Sipzner. This past spring, Malvern, PA-based LPT announced that it intended to sell between $900 million and $1.2 billion of non-core suburban properties during 2016; Monday’s announcement is consistent with that intent.