UCI Conference Focuses on Private vs. Public REIT Ownership

IRVINE, CA-After a few years of lackluster performance, the REIT industry rebounded in 2000 with a 28.6% growth rate. And so far this year, the performance of real estate investment trusts appears to be stable, according to Jon Fosheim, principal of Green Street Advisors Inc., a Newport Beach-based research and consulting group specializing in the REIT industry.

In the second of a series of seminars presented Tuesday by the University of California, Irvine, the focus was on issues affecting real estate management. Fosheim moderated a panel discussion regarding the best way to own real estate today–either through a private or public REIT.

For Donahue Schriber, a Newport Beach-based private REIT that transitioned from investing in large shopping malls to smaller local shopping centers in the mid-1990s, being a private REIT was the answer. “Our company has been growing around 15% a year,” says Tom Schriber, a principal in the company. “Retail has historically been a low beta business. As a private company there are still opportunities to raise capital. We ended up with three investors who liked our strategy to stay in California and believed in the retail sector.”