Is Spieker Really Planning to Focus Mainly on Office?

Office is Spieker Properties Inc.’s bread and butter. Talk in commercial real estate circles, however, has the Menlo Park-based REIT planning a large disposal of its industrial holdings, proceeds from which would be used for more development and acquisition of more office space.

A company source says the company indeed sold off an industrial portfolio in Seattle area in the second quarter, but said the action is not part of larger liquidation strategy in the category.

If a property in a certain market were determined to no longer be consistent with the portfolio, it would be sold, said the source, dismissing the talk as little more than “golf course” chatter among brokers, and arguing that the firm wouldn’t be developing such properties in the Livermore and Benecia markets of the San Francisco Bay Area if that were the case.

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

Mike Kamm of BT Commercial compared the Spieker’s alleged industrial liquidation to one of opposite proportion conducted last year by San Francisco-based AMB Property Corp. AMB liquidated its retail portfolio holdings and applied the revenues into its core interests: industrial properties, he said.

“Wall Street likes REITs that focus on a particular segment and have targeted a certain sector,” Kamm said.

As of June 30, office properties account for 57.3% of Spieker’s overall portfolio, with the balance industrial and primarily located in East Bay, Portland, Ore., and the Silicon Valley.