COLUMBIA, MD-Corporate Office Properties Trust plans to sell six million newly issued common shares in an underwritten public offering. The REIT plans to use the proceeds to repay amounts outstanding under its unsecured revolving credit facility and for general corporate purposes. The joint book-running managers for the offering are Wells Fargo Securities, J.P. Morgan and Barclays.

The sale comes as the REIT continues to execute its strategic reallocation plan--which is on a stead track, according to comments made by says Roger A. Waesche, Jr., president & CEO of COPT, in the REIT’s last earnings call. By July, he said, the company had exceeded its 2012 goal in terms of selling assets and reinvesting part of the proceeds into a highly strategic new property. “We have sold 58 buildings that contain 3.2 million square feet and adjacent land for $394 million.”

Equally important, he said, the REIT reduced the number of leases it has to manage by approximately 30%, and removed from its portfolio smaller, older buildings that required disproportionately more capital. For instance, the REIT has completely exited Montgomery County in and Fort Richie, reducing its percentage of annualized revenues derived from assets located in suburban Maryland and greater Baltimore from a combined 19% at March 31, 2011 to 11%.

Even without COPT’s strong efforts to shore up its balance sheet, the REIT has the advantage of going to market in a favorable capital markets environment. SNL Financial recently reported that US equity REITs raised $41.09 billion year-to-date through Sept. 28. That is $7.54 billion more than was raised in the same period in 2011.