COLUMBIA, MD—Capital recycling has become the buzzword among commercial real estate companies, especially REITs. It usually, but not always, means the company is selling its non-strategic or non-core assets with an eye to picking up a better property for its portfolio. For the buying companies in this equation – that is, the company acquiring the unwanted asset – this process represents an opportunity to acquire a property in a marketplace that has seen precious little supply enter the pipeline.

Thus we have Atlanta-based Columbia Property Trust's sale of three separate office buildings for total proceeds of $88.5 million in cash, one of which occurred in the Washington DC area. The REIT sold its 247,624-square-foot Class-A office property at 7031 Columbia Gateway Dr. in Columbia, MD, to the tenant MICROS Systems.

The other transactions as well were single-tenant suburban offices—not exactly the most favored asset class of the moment--that traded to companies seeking to occupy the properties, not hold them as investments. They were the 128,296-square-foot SunTrust Building at 200 South Orange in Orlando, FL, to Susquehanna Holdings, and a previously vacant 240,274-square-foot office at 160 Park Ave. in Florham Park, NJ, that sold to a new user, Automatic Switch Co.

Besides jettisoning the lesser-quality suburban office assets, the sale also meant the REIT was able to tighten its market concentration to 15 areas from 16, according to CEO Nelson Mills.