NEW YORK CITY—Ladenburg Thalmann & Co., an investmentadvisory firm, is liking what its hearing—and seeing—with respectto Gramercy Property Trust, calling the latter firm “the next bluechip net lease REIT in the making.”

“We believe GPT has all the makings of the next blue chipsingle-tenant net lease REIT,” says Daniel Donlan, VP of equityresearch and REITs at Ladenburg. “In our view, there is not a clearnet lease leader that is exclusively focused on industrial andoffice assets. Given GPT CEO Gordon DuGan's 22-year history withW.P. Carey, his deep underwriting experience across a variety ofnet lease asset types, his strong credibility and growingfamiliarity with institutional investors, we believe Gramercy canevolve into a blue chip REIT if the capital markets remain open totheir ambitious growth plan."

Given the longstanding industry relationships of both DuGan andpresident Ben Harris, who was WPC's former North Americanacquisition head, "we do not see sourcing attractive deal flow as ahindrance either," Donlan adds. "With that in mind, we view GPT's2015 AFFO/sh multiple of 10.1x as grossly undervaluing its sectorleading (and potentially industry leading) earnings growth in both2014 and 2015. We reiterate our buy rating and $7 pricetarget.”