Meanwhile, the privately held real estate company has hired Lehman Brothers to advise it on strategic recapitalization alternatives. Steve Hentschel, a managing director of Lehman in New York, is overseeing the strategic advisory.

Members of the Rubenstein family and current employees will continue to own the company's general partnership interest and significant limited partnership interests. The recap alternatives, according to David Rubenstein, CEO, may include a public transaction in the form of an IPO or merger, or a private transaction, such as the purchase or sale of assets, a partnership with another institution, or creation of a real estate investment fund.

Hentschel confirms, "Rubenstein's new capital structure provides them with the flexibility to pursue any type of recapitalization, and, with the strategic nature of the portfolio, there are many possibilities." Rubenstein currently owns class A office buildings aggregating more than five million sf in the mid-Atlantic region. Among them are One and Two Logan Square in Downtown Philadelphia, which are part of the Four Seasons Hotel complex; assets in Tyson's Corner, VA and Wilmington, DE, and three complexes in Radnor, PA which total more than two million sf.

In December 2001, Rubenstein acquired the 13-building, 1.5-million-sf Wyeth Pharmaceuticals portfolio, which it renamed Radnor Financial Center. As a result, it is the major owner of office properties in the prime Radnor suburb. Wyeth completed a phased withdrawal from the complex at the end of 2003, which, according to published reports, leaves Rubenstein with a vacancy there of more than one million sf.