A company source says the company indeed sold off an industrialportfolio in Seattle area in the second quarter, but said theaction is not part of larger liquidation strategy in thecategory.

If a property in a certain market were determined to no longerbe consistent with the portfolio, it would be sold, said thesource, dismissing the talk as little more than ``golf course''chatter among brokers, and arguing that the firm wouldn't bedeveloping such properties in the Livermore and Benecia markets ofthe San Francisco Bay Area if that were the case.

Still, one industry observer who asked not to be named says thestrategy now circulating has Spieker unloading its industrialproperties over the next 3 to 5 years. The last industrialproperties to go will allegedly be those in the Bay Area, inparticular ones that dot the I-880 corridor that runs north andsouth through the heart of the region.