CREW DC: News-Program Summary

PROGRAM SUMMARY

November Program:
Washington, DC: A Top Market for Investors

CREW members gathered on November 16th to hear two local leaders in the Washington, DC investment sales market, Bill Collins and Paul Collins from Cassidy & Pinkard, discuss current investment trends they are seeing in the Washington market. The lively discussion was expertly moderated by Helen Haerle from Quadrangle Development, who deftly steered the discussion from topics covering the continuing compression of cap rates in the downtown CBD corridor to the impact of overseas capital on prices.

The panelists began by providing a historical perspective on cap rates and prices in the Washington area, and discussed how the current environment has led to record sales levels. The general consensus is that the compression in spreads has hit a low, and while some widening is expected, there is not anticipated to be a reduction in prices, but rather a general slowing of asset appreciation. In addition, the panelists focused on the economic and demographic factors that have led to Washington's rise as one of the strongest investment markets in the country. The discussion was rounded out by the panelists providing some insight into how the market will fare in the future, and topped off by audience questions. Overall, the event provided valuable insight into how investors view and evaluate the Washington, DC investment market.

EVENT SUMMARIES

Networking Roundtable: REITs

The CREW Washington DC Networking Committee organized a program on Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) in DC. The event took place on Thursday, October 27 th at the Function Room at the Chevy Chase Bank in Bethesda. The panelists included Roger Waesche, CFO of Corporate Office Properties Trust (OFC), Douglas Donatelli; CEO of First Potomac Realty Trust (FPO) and John Schissel, CFO of Columbia Equity Trust (COE). All three REITs are publicly traded on the NYSE. The moderator for the panel was Eric Lawrence, SVP Real Estate Banking at the Chevy Chase Bank.

The panel discussion focused on the growing participation of REITs in the dynamic Washington, DC. market and the company strategies for succeeding in this competitive environment. There was emphasis on the private versus public format of REITs and discussion about the number of public REIT's that are currently going private as a result of the excess capital in the market.

The program was very well attended and the audience included a mix of CREW members, developers, attorneys and others interested in the topic. It is interesting to note that about 50% of the audience was comprised of men. Approximately 70 people attended the event. The program started promptly at 8:30AM and concluded at 9:30AM, networking breakfast was served from 8:15 to 8:30AM.

This event had the most attendance of any Networking Event held to date. It was a very informative program. Thank you to Chevy Chase Bank for hosting this event.

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