First Industrial Repositioning on Track

CHICAGO- After it embarked on a dubious acquisition tear several years ago, First Industrial REIT’s board elevated Mike Brennan to CEO with a mandate to clean up the mess and reposition the country’s largest diversified industrial REIT. Brennan says that his strategy for realigning the trust’s assets is on track. Analysts agree and some have been upgrading their recommendations on First Industrial’s stock.

“The whole point of our $500-million disposition program is to recycle capital into higher yielding assets,” says Brennan. “The aim is to increase the returns from our portfolio.”

To accomplish this, Brennan has embarked on an aggressive disposition program to exit markets where returns have been unacceptable. The cash from these dispositions will be recycled into new markets across the country, the most important of which are Los Angeles, Dallas, Denver, Chicago, Northern New Jersey and Atlanta, according to Brennan. The latest disposition was announced earlier this month, a big sale of First Industrial’s entire Long Island portfolio to an undisclosed buyer.