This was pretty much the story for 2016 as well. It made no acquisitions. Instead, COPT sold $344 million of land and operating properties totalling 1.6 million square feet, the most notable being Arborcrest Corporate Campus, a redevelopment office project in Plymouth Meeting, Pa., for $143 million. Also of note: COPT wound up selling some higher-quality assets in 2016 than it originally had planned.

At year end 2016 COPT reported that it had another $105 million, or 600 square feet, of transactions scheduled to close for 2017.

Of this amount, $53 million are hard with deposits at risk and $52 million are in contract negotiations.

COLUMBIA, MD–Corporate Office Properties Trust released its guidance ranges for 2017, which include $0.59−$0.67 for its expected diluted earnings per share and a diluted FFO per share of $1.99−$2.07.

One of the assumptions on which it based this guidance is that it will make no acquisitions in 2017. Another was that it plans to make dispositions of $80 million to $90 million and about $20 million in land sales. A third was that it will invest $240 million to $260 million in development.

In short, leasing and development are to be the REIT's growth drivers for the year and indeed CEO Stephen Budorick said as much with the release of the guidance.

“We expect 2017 to be a strong year for leasing, both in our same office portfolio and for new developments,” he said. “Having spent the past five years improving our portfolio and balance sheet, we are excited to now have the portfolio we want, the balance sheet we want, the right people in place to manage both, and a defense spending environment that should translate into exciting growth opportunities throughout our portfolio.”

This was pretty much the story for 2016 as well. It made no acquisitions. Instead, COPT sold $344 million of land and operating properties totalling 1.6 million square feet, the most notable being Arborcrest Corporate Campus, a redevelopment office project in Plymouth Meeting, Pa., for $143 million. Also of note: COPT wound up selling some higher-quality assets in 2016 than it originally had planned.

At year end 2016 COPT reported that it had another $105 million, or 600 square feet, of transactions scheduled to close for 2017.

Of this amount, $53 million are hard with deposits at risk and $52 million are in contract negotiations.