Archstone-Stone Awards Sellers With Stock, Cash

The company's proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission shows Sellers received a bonus of $1.75 million last year in addition to his base salary of $650,000. That is less than the $1.78 million bonus he received in 2003 and the $1.8 million bonus he received in 2002, while his base salary stayed the same.

Additionally, the executive compensation committee awarded to Sellers "key executive retention grants" of restricted share units for 86,481 common shares, awarded in January as part of his fiscal year 2004 compensation.

The executive compensation committee reviewed the company's performance relative to comparable REITs, the company's overall performance, and Sellers' individual performance. The committee says Archstone-Smith achieved several important objectives last year and believes Sellers was instrumental in accomplishing them.

They include: Total shareholder return of 48.8%, which exceeded the NAREIT Apartment Index by 1,407 basis points. Also, during the three years from 2002 through 2004, Archstone-Smith outperformed the NAREIT Apartment Index by more than 2,200 basis points, producing returns to shareholders of $1.2 billion over and above what they would have achieved if they invested Archstone-Smith's equity market capitalization base of approximately $5.5 billion at the end of 2001 in the NAREIT Apartment Index over the three-year period.

Also, Sellers successfully implemented a disposition program in the third and fourth quarter of 2004 that led to the payment of a special dividend of $1 per common share. Also, same-store performance over four years exceeded the industry average by 996 basis points. The company also completed 678 units in its core protected markets worth $182.6 million and started 1,658 units worth $490.7 million. And on Dec. 17, Archstone-Smith was added to the S&P 500.