CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA—US equity REITs raised atotal of $600.6 million from at-the-marketofferings in the first three months of 2014, a dropoff of 54% fromthe first quarter of 2013, says locally based SNLFinancial. However, the tally was up about $186 million,or 45%, from the $414.2 million raised through ATMs in Q4 of lastyear.

Both the fundraising during Q1 and the number of REITs ennagedin ATMs during the quarter lagged the nmbers a year prior. In Q1'13, 36 real estate trusts raised $1.3 billion through ATMprograms; in Q1 of 2014, only 20 such programs tapped the publicmarkets.

Fundraising champ through ATMs in Q1 was Essex PropertyTrust Inc., which completed an aggregate $157.6 million incommon equity. The West Coast apartment REIT accounted for morethan a quarter of the total amount raised in the first three monthsof the year by US equity REITs, according to SNL. The remainingshares of ESS's March 29, '13 ATM program were rolled into its May16, '14 program, resulting in a total of up to four million sharesbeing offered.