Gordon DuGan Of W.P. Carey

In a sense, lean times for corporate space holders make for green pastures at Manhattan-based W.P. Carey & Co. LLC. Sale/leasebacks of office assets are less a real estate play for nervous corporate bean-counters than they are a way to trim the P&L, and Carey is more than willing to oblige. President and chief acquisitions officer Gordon F. DuGan oversees all acquisitions including those involving sale-leaseback, build-to-suit and leveraged or managed buyouts. In 2000, according to DuGan, Carey completed more than $415 million in transactions with 23 companies, an increase of more than $340 million since 1994. The executive, who started with Carey in 1988 and left the firm for a two-year stint in 1995, returned in 1997 to build the firm into one of the largest owners of net-leased properties in the United States. With more than $3 billion in assets under management, Carey currently manages or owns more than 400 properties–in excess of 46 million sf–throughout the US and Europe.

GlobeSt.com: Does all the talk about corporations scrambling for ways to cut costs make you salivate?

DuGan: Absolutely. There are actually two trends that seem to be converging. Over the past 10 years or so, there’s been a growing trend on the part of corporate space users not to own their real estate. This fundamental has met up with what is actually a more dominant influence at the moment and that influence is the credit crunch. Companies are facing a tightened debt market, and it’s not a good time to raise a lot of equity, so they’re restructuring their balance sheets and seeking alternative means of financing. Add to that the fact that some 40% of all real estate is owned by corporations. That represents an enormous opportunity, and sale/leasebacks fit right into that.