MINOT, ND—Investors Real Estate Trust recently closed on the sale of 34 commercial office properties spread out across the Midwest for $250 million in cash, netting the Minot, ND-based company about $129 million. The sale is the first of several portfolio sales that company officials anticipate will occur in its fiscal 2016 second quarter, which began August 1, 2015. IRET plans to unload its office and retail properties and focus on other portions of its portfolio such as multifamily and healthcare.

A company official tells GlobeSt.com that the retail sale will be much smaller. According to a company document, as of April 30 it owned $2.1 billion of property, with 249 properties in 12 states, including 11,844 apartment units and 9.6 million square feet of commercial space. The retail properties were about 5.3% of the portfolio, and the office portion was 22.9%. And after IRET divests its retail and office properties, the multifamily sector will grow from 45.1% of the portfolio to 61%.

The company will reinvest proceeds from the office sale in several projects including the $56 million acquisition of a 276-unit multifamily community in Rochester, MN. It will also begin construction on a $31.5 million multifamily development in suburban Minneapolis and pay down $66 million on its line of credit.