CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA—US equity REITs raised a total of $600.6 million from at-the-market offerings in the first three months of 2014, a dropoff of 54% from the first quarter of 2013, says locally based SNL Financial. However, the tally was up about $186 million, or 45%, from the $414.2 million raised through ATMs in Q4 of last year.

Both the fundraising during Q1 and the number of REITs ennaged in ATMs during the quarter lagged the nmbers a year prior. In Q1 '13, 36 real estate trusts raised $1.3 billion through ATM programs; in Q1 of 2014, only 20 such programs tapped the public markets.

Fundraising champ through ATMs in Q1 was Essex Property Trust Inc., which completed an aggregate $157.6 million in common equity. The West Coast apartment REIT accounted for more than a quarter of the total amount raised in the first three months of the year by US equity REITs, according to SNL. The remaining shares of ESS's March 29, '13 ATM program were rolled into its May 16, '14 program, resulting in a total of up to four million shares being offered.