Winter 2000
	Cover Story REITs at the Millennium Industry veterans look into their crystal balls. Where are REITs headed? Company Spotlight Can Crescent Get Its Groove Back? John Goff is working to restore Crescent Real Estate Equities’ reputation as a REIT that "gets it." Property Fundamentals Lack of Correlation J.P. Morgan’s Michael Giliberto provides answers to the age-old question, "Are REITs really real estate?" Awards Spotlight Best & Brightest Realty Stock Review’s eighth annual awards presentation recognized the top vote getters in a number of categories, including outstanding analysts, CEOs, and CFOs. Voters also chose the industry’s man of the year and men of the decade. Investment Analysis Applying MPT to REIT Portfolios Careful portfolio construction can make or break the performance of a pool of assets. Investment Fundamentals The High Cost of Real Estate Ownership Swapping net income for FFO might not be such a bad idea after all. By The Numbers A Fund Manager’s Worst Nightmare If it’s true that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, real estate fund managers may be some of the strongest folks around. Point Of View REITs and Rights Plans Criticism of REITs that adopt rights plans is simply misplaced. Investment Spotlight Spooked What happens when more than a dozen REIT UITs start unwinding in the midst of the worst bear market in a quarter of a century? The New Economy When Worlds Collide The Internet will provide investment opportunities for innovative office and retail real estate companies that embrace the changing landcape. Investment Insight LBO Math The market is beginning to understand that LBO valuation does not equal net asset value. Parting Shot Coming of Age REITs have evolved from pools of properties to focused real estate operating companies. Newsline Captec Wants to Shed REIT Status Investor's Guide Questions Back Issues Feedback

by Barry Vinocur
Photograph by Jeff Martin Studios

Man of the Decade Milton Cooper Kimco Realty Corp. Sam Zell Equity Office Properties Trust Equity Residential Properties Trust Manufactured Home Communities Man of the Year Scot Sellers Archstone Communities Special Achievement Award Tom Cousins Cousins Properties Steven Roth Vornado Realty Trust Outstanding Analyst Awards Buy-Side Analysts 1st Team Mike Kirby Green Street Advisors 2nd Team John Lutzius Green Street Advisors 3rd Team Jim Sullivan Green Street Advisors Honorable Mention Fred Carr The Penobscot Group Sell-Side Analysts 1st Team Larry Raiman Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette 2nd Team Jonathan Litt PaineWebber Inc. 3rd Team Eric Hemel Merrill Lynch & Co. Honorable Mention David Sherman Salomon Smith Barney Outstanding CEOs Terry Considine Apartment Investment & Management Co. Milton Cooper Kimco Realty Corp. Douglas Crocker II Equity Residential Properties Trust Dan DuPree Cousins Properties John S. Gates Jr. CenterPoint Properties Corp. Hamid Moghadam AMB Properties Scott Rechler Reckson Associates Scot Sellers Archstone Communities Warren E. Spieker Jr. Spieker Properties   Outstanding CFOs Richard Kincaid Equity Office Properties Trust Joe Macnow Vornado Realty Trust Charles Mueller Archstone Communities Lisa Payne The Taubman Co. Craig Vought Spieker Properties Gene Zink Duke-Weeks Realty Corp.

At the recent National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts annual convention in Los Angeles, Realty Stock Review (Property’s sister publication) presented its annual awards to the industry’s "best and brightest." This was the eighth year the newsletter has given out the awards, which were presented at an early morning breakfast.

The Realty Stock Review awards recognize the industry’s best buy-side and sell-side analysts, outstanding CEOs, the "man of the year," and "special achievements." This year the newsletter added an award recognizing the industry’s best CFOs, and, because this year marks the end of a decade, Realty Stock Review also handed out a "Man of the Decade" award (actually, two of them).

The process of choosing the award winners begins even before the current year’s awards have been handed out. In addition to recording the comments of analysts and investors throughout the 12 months between awards presentations, each fall the newsletter sends ballots to hundreds of institutional investors who own REITs as well as dozens of industry analysts. (Analysts do not cast votes in the analyst category.) Realty Stock Review tabulates the results, orders the trophies, and schedules the breakfast, but its opinions play no role whatsoever in who wins.

Man of the Decade Award
Realty Stock Review’s Man of the Decade award went to Milton Cooper of Kimco Realty Corp. and to Sam Zell of Equity Office Properties Trust, Equity Residential Properties Trust, and Manufactured Home Communities.

Kimco’s Milton Cooper is a previous recipient (on more than one occasion) of other Realty Stock Review awards, including outstanding CEO. This year voters singled out Cooper for the Man of the Decade award for having "braved the elements" to take Kimco public in 1991. Said one voter, "Cooper’s consistent focus on return on equity and shareholder value are among the traits that make him the best of the best in the industry." Voter after voter credited Kimco’s Cooper with coining the phrase "under promise and over deliver." Said one voter, "Milton is not only one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet, but he’s also a role model to be emulated in business as well as life." Another voter concluded, "Milton set the standard - and a very high one at that - for all who followed."

A previous recipient (twice) of Realty Stock Review’s Man of the Year award, Zell was singled out by voters for his vision as well as for creating three REITs, which, as one voter put it, "serve as a model which other industry participants should strive for." Said another voter, "Zell has been a leading advocate of ‘transparency,’" and "He has shown that a very highly regarded real estate entrepreneur can adapt and thrive in the public markets." An institutional investor who cast his vote for Zell gave the Chicagoan credit for strengthening NAREIT and for overseeing its transformation from a "reactive trade group into a pro-active voice for the REIT industry." Man of the Year Award
Realty Stock Review’s 1999 Man of the Year award went to Archstone Communities’ Scot Sellers. (Sellers was also a recipient of one of this year’s outstanding CEO awards, see page 32.) Why Sellers? One voter said there are three reasons. "First, Archstone came up with the template for the REITs of the next decade several years ago. Long before others started talking about recycling capital, Archstone was doing it." Second, "Sellers is one of the few REIT CEOs who truly understands the high cost of equity, as evidenced by his company’s aggressive share repurchase program." Third, "he made a sizable contribution to the investment community’s understanding of real estate economics [see "The High Cost of Real Estate Ownership" on page 40] through the introduction of EBSD (earnings before structural depreciation)." One institutional investor singled Sellers out as "one of the few REIT CEOs who truly understands how to create value in a REIT."

Special Achievement Award
This year’s Special Achievement awards went to Tom Cousins of Cousins Properties and Steven Roth of Vornado Realty Trust. Though this is the first time Cousins has received a Realty Stock Review award, we cannot figure out why that’s the case, given the comments that were made about him by voters this year. Roth, on the other hand, has received so many Realty Stock Review awards that by now he must need a trophy case to hold all of them.

Voter after voter this year singled out Cousins and Roth for demonstrating over decades not only that real estate in a public wrapper is viable, but also, and perhaps most important, that in the "right hands" real estate stocks can deliver the sort of returns that make them all-weather stocks, deserving of a place in any investor’s portfolio.

Cousins and Roth also were singled out for their ability to understand value creation, for their attention to their shareholders, and for understanding how to manage a company’s balance sheet as well as anyone in any industry does.

Print Friendly Version