JENKINTOWN, PA-During a second-quarter conference call in which American Financial Realty Trust announced an 87% increase in revenue over the same quarter a year ago, Nicholas S. Schorsch, chairman and CEO, said, "as regards our joint venture initiative, we have arrived at an agreement in principal regarding its structure, and are evaluating with our proposed partner, various opportunities in our portfolio." He expects the partnership, when finalized, will have one or two projects under way by year-end. He anticipates the vehicle will provide an opportunity for "the redevelopment of up to $1 billion in real estate assets over a three- to four-year period." He did not name the prospective JV partner.
Schorsch also said the locally based specialty financial REIT is working on a number of transactions in Europe. "We're focused on two to three mid-size transactions that have a bank partner that is looking to occupy 100%," adding that the structure would be like AFR's "Landlord of Choice" program in the US. "But, we're not in the process of closing at the moment."
Second-quarter revenues reached $133.2 million, up from $71.1 million in the same quarter a year ago. Year-to-date revenues increased 94% to $259.1 million. A major driver, Schorsch said, was acquisitions, which represented an aggregate real estate increase of 100%.
During second quarter AFR acquired 41 bank branches and 117 office building aggregating approximately 4.2 million sf for an investment of about $281.1 million. It completed 228,000 sf of new leasing at an average rental rate of $15.28 per sf and an average TI allowance of $1.89 per sf. Also during the second quarter it sold 24 non-core properties and disposed of one leasehold interest, which together aggregated 635,000 sf for net proceeds of $24.7 million.
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