BentleyForbes Plans $1B in Acquisitions

LOS ANGELES-BentleyForbes is nearing the completion of a strategic portfolio refinance and disposition program that will provide the locally based investment firm with more than $1 billion in buying power for new property acquisitions in 2006. Chairman C. Frederick Wehba says the company's 2006 acquisition plan will seek "multi-tenant class A office, trophy retail and high quality industrial/warehouse assets" throughout the country.In preparation for the acquisition program, president and CEO David Cobb explains, the company refinanced approximately 1.7 million sf of commercial property and has sold or is under contract to sell an additional 2.2 million sf of single-tenant office, industrial and retail assets. The 2006 program will follow a 2005 program in which the company completed approximately $350 million in new acquisitions and placed another $145 million under contract to buy.The company will reach its $1 billion in buying power after closing on transactions that will be completed during the first quarter of 2006 that will give BentleyForbes "a substantial cash infusion," Cobb says. Wehba adds that, in addition to the acquisition program, the company implemented strategic initiatives in 2005 that included the hiring of experienced senior executives and expanding its staff of real estate analysts.The focus on class A multi-tenant properties in 2005 was a continuation of a course that BentleyForbes set out on in 2000. The firm, which was founded in 1993, had initially focused on the acquisition and management of sale-leaseback and single-tenant properties.Its 2005 acquisitions included nearly 1.47 million sf of assets in Texas and in Washington, DC. Also in 2005, the company added 15 new staff members in accounting, acquisitions and asset management roles, including former Ernst & Young senior manager James Kasim as CFO.