NEW YORK CITY—If 2011 serves as anyindication, much of the equity generated in the industry this yearmay well come through recapitalizations. Last year saw a blizzardof recapsfrom the SL Green Realty Corp.'s $425.7-million recap of180 Maiden Ln. with developer the Moinan Group, to KeystoneProperty Group's $23.8 million recap of Sentry Park West in BlueBell, PA.

CBRE's Darcy Stacom says that "last year more than 50% of thevolume was recaps." She adds that she anticipates that 2012 couldbring much of the same. "Before when we brought out a couple of therecapitalizations in a brokered format, people were prettysurprised," she says. "Up and until then, recapitalizations hadoccurred when a partner would say to an operator, 'I want to bebought out'. The operator would then go run the auction to find anew partner and thereby take out the existing partner. The existingpartner, in a lot of instances, felt there had been something lefton the table, so we started to just go out directly with them."

The first model of recap Stacom mentions is illustrated by therecent recap of One Times Square. Jamestown Properties bought outSherwood Equities' interest in the tower for $112.8 million inmid-February. The company, based in Atlanta, announced that itwould remain the majority stakeholder, leaving Sherwood to managethe building and maintain its iconic signage.