COLUMBIA, MD—Capital recycling has become the buzzword amongcommercial real estate companies, especially REITs. It usually, butnot always, means the company is selling its non-strategic ornon-core assets with an eye to picking up a better property for itsportfolio. For the buying companies in this equation – that is, thecompany acquiring the unwanted asset – this process represents anopportunity to acquire a property in a marketplace that has seenprecious little supply enter the pipeline.

Thus we have Atlanta-based Columbia PropertyTrust's sale of three separate office buildings for totalproceeds of $88.5 million in cash, one of whichoccurred in the Washington DC area. The REIT sold its247,624-square-foot Class-A office property at 7031Columbia Gateway Dr. in Columbia, MD, to the tenant MICROSSystems.

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