Ranieri says he is exiting his post for family reasons. He has served as chairman since 1995, a year after the firm was founded, and will continue to stay on the board in an advisory role.

McDowell is a founder of CapLease and has served as chief executive officer of the firm since 2001. He served as senior vice president, general counsel and secretary from 1994 until his promotion to chief executive.

CapLease is a REIT that primarily invests in single-tenant assets and currently controls 10.3 million sf of properties. A majority of its holdings are class A suburban office buildings, but the company also has investments warehouse, industrial, retail and US government-owned buildings.