Columbia Property Trust Offers Credit & Income Portfolio

ATLANTA, May 14, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Columbia Property Trust (formerly Wells REIT II) has announced today that it is marketing for sale a portfolio containing 17 of its long-held Class "A" office assets, located in 12 markets across 11 states and totaling 3,990,717 square feet.

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Free and clear of debt, the Columbia Property Trust Credit and Income Portfolio offers a balanced rollover schedule and has an overall occupancy rate of 91.4%, with an average remaining lease term of 7.4 years. Its largely single-tenant buildings are leased to some of the country's most respected investment grade companies, including such corporate giants as Coca-Cola Refreshments, JP Morgan Chase, General Electric Company, Wells Fargo, Aetna Life Insurance, IBM, and United Healthcare.

Will Yowell, Justin Parsonnet, and Jay O'Meara of CBRE are exclusively marketing the portfolio on behalf of Columbia Property Trust.

"This portfolio offers investors a rare opportunity to acquire a critical mass of geographically diverse, high quality office assets that would otherwise require significant time and expense to accumulate," said CBRE Vice Chairman Yowell. "Given its compelling asset quality, tenant credit, and lease term(s), we anticipate significant interest in this exceptional portfolio."

"All of these were important assets for Columbia as we built our portfolio over the past nine years, and I believe the same qualities that originally attracted us to them—stabilized, Class-A buildings leased long-term to respected corporations—continue to make them attractive to the marketplace," said Kevin Hoover, Sr. Vice President of Real Estate Transactions for Columbia Property Trust.

"Marketing this portfolio is another significant step in our strategy to support value growth for our shareholders," said Nelson Mills, President, Chief Executive Officer, and Director for Columbia Property Trust. "Divestiture of these properties will align with our strategy by enabling us to more selectively focus on our desired markets and to reinvest in other properties where we believe we have the best opportunity to use our expertise to enhance value."

For portfolio inquiries, please contact:

Will Yowell, Vice Chairman
CBRE | Capital Markets
404.923.1475
[email protected]

or

Justin Parsonnet, Executive Vice President
CBRE | Capital Markets
404.923.1483
[email protected]

About Columbia Property Trust 
One of the nation's largest office REITs (or real estate investment trusts), Columbia Property Trust focuses on investing in and managing high-quality commercial office properties in primary markets nationwide and is one of the only nontraded REITs to have been rated "Investment Grade" by both Moody's and Standard & Poor's rating services. Currently, the REIT's $5+ billion portfolio consists of 82 operational buildings in 20 states (including Washington, D.C.), collectively comprising approximately 21 million square feet. Columbia Property Trust (f/k/a Wells Real Estate Investment Trust II, Inc.) closed to new investments on June 30, 2010. For information about Columbia Property Trust, visit www.ColumbiaPropertyTrust.com.

This news release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such forward-looking statements can generally be identified by our use of forward-looking terminology such as "may," "will," "expect," "intend," "anticipate," "estimate," "believe," "continue," or other similar words. Readers of this news release should be aware that there are various factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from any forward-looking statements made in this release. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, changes in general economic and business conditions, industry trends, changes in government rules and regulations (including changes in tax laws), and increases in interest rates. Accordingly, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this news release.

SOURCE Columbia Property Trust