The joint venture has acquired a total of 78 properties nationally with a mix of different type of properties and a total of 12.1 million sf of gross leasable area. The portfolio includes 52 retail properties, 12 office properties, 13 industrial properties and one multifamily property, says George Pandaleon, president of Inland Institutional Capital Partners. The portfolio is anticipated to reach approximately $2.7 billion, he says.

Inland entered into the joint venture with Minto Builders in October. As part of the joint venture, Minto invested $300 million and Inland American Real Estate Trust was obligated to invest $1.2 billion and acquire properties with a total value of approximately $2.7 billion, including the IDS Center in Downtown Minneapolis. "It is probably the most successful launch of a REIT that Inland has very had in terms of building up the company and delivering good solid returns to our shareholders very quickly," he says.

Pandaleon tells GlobeSt.com he believes the REIT was successful because it had a variety of types of property. "This REIT, unlike some of our previous REITs, has a mandate to buy different property types," he says. The joint venture was able to acquire a $450-million portfolio of retail properties in the Houston area early on in the REIT. "By bringing in capital from our partners in this venture, we were able to acquire that very early in the life of the REIT well before we would otherwise have been able to buy anything of that scale," he says.