The sale includes Wachovia's recently acquired 204,400-sf Wachovia Park building in Winston-Salem, NC and a 3,300-sf bank branch in Freehold, NJ, both of which were acquired completely vacant. The vacancy, including pending vacancy at all four properties, was 61%. This sale reduces AFR's overall vacancy from both portfolios by more than 308,000 sf.

AFR paid $511.9 million, or approximately $67.36 per sf, for the 140-building Wachovia portfolio. After a series of adjustments, it paid approximately $535 million for the 248-property BofA portfolio, or about $73.28 per sf. The buyer of the four buildings, which includes properties from both portfolios, is undisclosed.

"The sale of vacant and non-core real estate is an important element of our business strategy," says Nicholas S. Schorsch, AFR's CEO. "Our ability to efficiently dispose of assets that do not fit into our portfolio gives us the flexibility to buy properties in bulk at favorable prices. Just as importantly, the sale of vacant real estate increases our portfolio return by eliminating the operating expense `drag' from unproductive assets."

Both of AFR's multi-building portfolio acquisitions were sale-leaseback agreements. Wachovia is leasing back about 4.7 million sf of its original portfolio's total of about 7.7 million sf for a 20-year term and another one million sf on a short-term basis. BofA is leasing back approximately 4.5 million sf, or about 61% of its portfolio's original 7.3 million sf, for a 15-year term.