WASHINGTON, DC—Easterly Government Properties raised $207 million in its initial public offering. The locally-based company sold 13.8 million shares of its common stock priced at $15 per share. It also sold an additional 1.8 million shares to underwriters.

Easterly intends to use the net proceeds of the offering to pay down debt and for general corporate purposes. It also plans to qualify as a REIT by the end of the year.

Citigroup, Raymond James and RBC Capital Markets acted as joint bookrunners for the offering.

Easterly Government Properties focus is on Class A commercial properties leased to US government agencies that serve essential functions, according to its SEC filing. It owns 29 such properties as part of its restructuring from its predecessor company Easterly Partners, LLC and its subsidiaries.

Its portfolio includes 26 properties that are leased primarily to US government tenant agencies and three properties that are leased to private tenants, for a total of 2.1 million square feet, according to the filing. Fifteen of these properties were contributed by the Easterly Funds and 14 properties were acquired from Western Devcon, a private real estate company headed by by Michael P. Ibe.

Although small and relatively new to the REIT scene, Easterly Government is part of the larger trend of flourishing capital-raising by REITs.

Year to date through Jan. 31, US equity REITs have raised a total of $8.67 billion, according to SNL Financial. That is approximately $3.54 billion more than the $5.13 billion raised during the same period in 2014.