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Washington Real Estate Investment Trust Acquires Olney Village Center for $58.0 Million

^{Published on 2011-08-30 13:16:45 - Market Wire}
 

ROCKVILLE, Md.--([ BUSINESS WIRE ])--Washington Real Estate Investment Trust (WRIT) (NYSE: WRE) has acquired a 199,000 square foot grocery-anchored shopping center in Olney, Maryland for $58.0 million.

Olney Village Center is located in the heart of Olney, Maryland near the main intersection of Georgia Avenue (Route 97) and Sandy Spring Road (Route 108). The property is anchored by Shoppers Food Warehouse and is 98.7% leased to 32 tenants, including national retailers T.J. Maxx, HomeGoods, and SunTrust Bank. Olney Village Center was built in 1979 and underwent a major renovation in 2003.

WRIT assumed a $22.6 million mortgage bearing interest at 6.37% per annum and maturing in 2023. WRIT funded the remaining balance of $35.4 million using available cash and its line of credit. WRIT expects to achieve a first year unleveraged yield of 6.7% on a cash basis.

aWe are pleased to announce the acquisition of Olney Village Center, a well-established grocery-anchored shopping center in an excellent location. The surrounding area has a stable, affluent consumer base with significant barriers to additional development. This is a great addition to WRITa™s retail portfolio and fits in with our stated strategy of investing in high quality retail properties in areas with strong demographics,a said George aSkipa McKenzie, President and Chief Executive Officer of WRIT.

WRIT is a self-administered, self-managed, equity real estate investment trust investing in income-producing properties in the greater Washington metro region. WRIT owns a diversified portfolio of 87 properties totaling approximately 11 million square feet of commercial space and 2,540 residential units, and land held for development. These 87 properties consist of 26 office properties, 16 industrial/flex properties, 18 medical office properties, 16 retail centers and 11 multifamily properties. WRIT shares are publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE:WRE).

Certain statements in this press release are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially. Such risks, uncertainties and other factors include, but are not limited to, the potential for federal government budget reductions, changes in general and local economic and real estate market conditions, the timing and pricing of lease transactions, the effect of the current credit and financial market conditions, the availability and cost of capital, fluctuations in interest rates, tenants' financial conditions, levels of competition, the effect of government regulation, the impact of newly adopted accounting principles, and other risks and uncertainties detailed from time to time in our filings with the SEC, including our 2010 Form 10-K and second quarter 2011 Form 10-Q. We assume no obligation to update or supplement forward-looking statements that become untrue because of subsequent events.