The affiliates had previously closed on 218 properties on Dec.10, 2007 and 72 properties 10 days later, says Joe Cosenza,president of Inland Real Estate Acquisitions. The cap rate for theacquisition of the two portfolios is approximately 7.25%, Cosenzatells GlobeSt.com.

There are 159 locations in Florida, 74 locations each in Georgiaand North Carolina, 43 locations in Tennessee, and 12 locations inSouth Carolina with the rest in Alabama, Maryland, Virginia andWashington, DC, Cosenza tells GlobeSt.com. Inland paid $93.7million in cash and received a $281.2 million loan from LaSalleBank NA, according to a filing with the US Securities and ExchangeCommission on the portfolio acquisition. The interest-only loanmatures Dec. 10, 2008, according to the filing.

SunTrust was looking to sell the portfolios for the same reasonsa lot of banks and corporations are doing the same, Cosenza says.SunTrust did not want to "hold or own all of this real estate whenthe only thing you can do on your books is depreciate it everyyear," he says. SunTrust builds approximately 40 to 50 brancheseach year. "Some of this money was actually put into a tax deferredexchange so they can apply it to the new facilities they are goingto be building," he says.