NEW YORK CITY-Manhattan-based REIT Lexington CorporateProperties Trust has expanded its joint venture with the New YorkState Common Retirement Fund, upping its buying power by anaggregate $200 million. The partnership expects to have purchasedup to $985 million in real estate within the next two years.

“We established the joint venture in August, 1999,” Lexingtonpresident T. Wilson Eglin tells GlobeSt.com. “The Fund committed$100 million in equity to the program and we committed $50 millionto the program. To date, we have invested $109 million of theinitial $150 million of committed equity.”

The venture, created to invest in office and industrialproperties net leased to major corporations, has nine acquisitionsunder its belt and several more in the works, though Eglin wouldnot provide details on upcoming buys. “Now, we have another $200million in equity, $150 million of which will come from the Fund,”Eglin says. “We have a variety of deals in the pipeline that willclose in the next 60 to 90 days, but it will take a couple of yearsto invest the committed capital. We plan to continue to usemortgage financing of about 65% in our acquisitions, which meansthis adds about $560 million of additional investment capital.”