A company source says the company indeed sold off an industrial portfolio in Seattle area in the second quarter, but said the action is not part of larger liquidation strategy in the category.

If a property in a certain market were determined to no longer be consistent with the portfolio, it would be sold, said the source, dismissing the talk as little more than ``golf course'' chatter among brokers, and arguing that the firm wouldn't be developing such properties in the Livermore and Benecia markets of the San Francisco Bay Area if that were the case.

Still, one industry observer who asked not to be named says the strategy now circulating has Spieker unloading its industrial properties over the next 3 to 5 years. The last industrial properties to go will allegedly be those in the Bay Area, in particular ones that dot the I-880 corridor that runs north and south through the heart of the region.