"We are investigating joint venture possibilities in our office portfolio," says Howard Feinsand, who was named acquisitions and dispositions chief last week. "The deal will likely be somewhat smaller than the recent industrial deal, probably in the several hundreds of millions of dollars." Feinsand says that general discussions have occurred regarding location, investment return parameters and building types with key players with whom Duke-Weeks has had an ongoing relationship.

Early last month, Feinsand's predecessor Dave Stockert announced a $541-million add-on to a five-year-old $248-million industrial property joint venture between Duke-Weeks, General Motors and J.P Morgan. Feinsand says that the joint venture is an ideal vehicle for recycling capital in large blocks. It allows the trust to realize value in its property investments while at the same time preserving the key property management and tenant relationships that are the life blood of the real estate operators' business, he says.

The big industrial joint venture has put Duke-Weeks way ahead of its $500 million disposition goal for this year, which may lessen the need for disposition activity next year. Feinsand said that Duke-Weeks will continue in its conservative strategy of self funding the development pipeline through recycling of capital. So far this year, the trust has raised over $800 million through joint venture and disposition activity.