The REIT, LCP Investment Corp., is buying two GE office buildings and five multifamily properties in the Tokyo metropolitan area, allowing LCP to grow its assets 64.3% to $740 million. Subsequently, a Japanese arm of GE called, New Mission Funding Corp., will purchase 32,500 newly issued units in LCP for $117 million.

"This is a great opportunity for GE Real Estate to establish a cooperative relationship with a Japanese REIT with excellent growth potential," says GE Real Estate of Japan President Tomoyuki Yoshida in a release announcing the complicated arrangement. Yoshida says his firm is impressed by LCP's management and expertise, adding GE's goal is to enable larger, high quality assets to be secured and "help raise the overall profile and value" of the REIT.

That vision is shared by LCP, according to executive officer Shunji Myazaki, who comments that the portfolio of Tokyo properties "presents us with a pipeline of quality assets, and are in line with our external growth strategy." To raise the remaining monies necessary to complete the purchase, LCP is seeking a loan from UBS that will increase the overall leverage for the REIT to nearly 60%.