The IPO follows a long knock-out-drag-out fight between Lehman and Zell. In June, GlobeSt.com reported that Chicago-based Equity received $150 million in termination fees from Bank of America, Barclays Bank PLC and Lehman Bros. to finalize the full sale of Archstone to Lehman. The New York investment bank, emerging from bankruptcy, picked up the final 26.5% interest for $1.5 billion after acquiring another 26.5% interest firm the banks in January for $1.3 billion. Equity had tried to buy at least a portion of the Denver-based apartment ownership firm, but was blocked.

At the time, Lehman had said it didn’t want competitor Equity to gain a piece of Archstone. “Both acquisitions were made to protect and preserve the value of the Archstone enterprise,” the company said in a previous statement. All negotiations with Equity are now finalized.

As of March 31, Archstone owned or had an ownership in 181 apartment communities in the United States with 59,419 units, including 175 operating communities with 57,084 units; and six communities under construction with 2,335 units. It will list its common stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ASN. Citigroup and JP Morgan are acting as joint book-running managers for the IPO.

Industry analysts say the public offering is a sign of the company's return. "Archstone is historically a pretty major force in the industry," Jeffrey Baker, executive managing director at Savills US, tells GlobeSt.com. "They went through a period of being relatively inactive and sitting on the sidelines. Now once again, they are going to become a more active player in the market. They had raised some capital and started to do new transactions like new developments over the last 18 months, so I suspect we will see an additional ramp up."

David Herman, Michael W. Bond, Elaine Stangland and Scott Sontag of Weil, Gotshal & Manges represented Lehman Brothers on the IPO.