Liberty Property Trust to Sell 97 Properties for Approximately $705M

Liberty Property Trust LRY today announced it has entered into an agreement to sell 97 properties totaling 6.6 million square feet of space and 159 acres of land for approximately $705 million. The sale consists of 4.0 million square feet of office properties, 2.3 million square feet of flex properties and 274,000 square feet of industrial properties and includes Liberty's Jacksonville, Florida portfolio in its entirety, all of the office properties in Maryland, Southern New Jersey and the Fort Washington submarket of Philadelphia and flex properties in Minnesota. The transaction is expected to close in stages with a first closing in late 2013 and a second closing in early 2014 and is subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions. "This transaction furthers our strategy to increase our portfolio allocation to industrial real estate and to concentrate our office portfolio in fewer focused markets," said William P. Hankowsky, chairman and chief executive officer of Liberty. "We expect these steps to enhance our ability to exploit our expertise in creating and managing high-quality office environments in which we can create significant future value." The assets to be sold are in the following markets: State Properties SF Florida (Jacksonville) 32 2,110,212 Maryland 23 1,367,569 Minnesota 12 915,693 New Jersey 24 1,188,285 Pennsylvania See full press release