by Barry Vinocur
Photograph by Jeff Martin Studios

Special Lifetime Achievement Award Sam Zell Equity Office Properties Equity Residential Properties Manufactured Home Communities Man of the Year Awards Thomas P. D’Arcy, Bradley Real Estate Glenn Carpenter, Pacific Gulf Properties Special Achievement Award LaSalle Investment Management Todd Canter / William K. Morrill Jr. / Keith Pauley Outstanding Analyst Awards Buy-Side Analysts 1st Team- John Lutzius 2nd Team- Mike Kirby, Green Street Advisors 3rd Team - Craig Leupold, Green Street Advisors Honorable Mention- Fred Carr, The Penobscot Group Sell-Side Analysts 1st Team- Larry Raiman, Credit Suisse First Boston 2nd Team- Jonathan Litt, Salomon Smith Barney 3rd Team (tie) - James Kammert, Goldman, Sachs & Co. David Shulman, Lehman Brothers Honorable Mention- Jeff Olson, UBS Warburg Outstanding CFOs Bernard Freibaum, General Growth Properties Richard Kincaid, Equity Office Properties Trust Richard E. Moran Jr., Kilroy Realty Corp. David J. Neithercut, Equity Residential Properties Thomas J. Sargeant, AvalonBay Outstanding CEOs Bernard Freibaum, General Growth Properties Carl Berg, Mission West Properties John Bucksbaum, General Growth Properties Terry Considine, AIMCO Milton Cooper, Kimco Realty Corp. Dan DuPree, Cousins Properties John Foster, Spieker Properties John S. Gates Jr., CenterPoint Properties Corp. Frank McDowell, BRE Properties Hamid Moghadam, AMB Property Corp. Scot Sellers, Archstone Communities Craig Vought , Spieker Properties

Since 1992, Realty Stock Review (Property’s sister publication) has recognized the industry’s leading analysts and CEOs at its annual awards breakfast, held in the fall at the annual NAREIT convention. In 1999, Realty Stock Review added an award recognizing the industry’s best CFOs. And based on this year’s vote tally, a special award was given at the 2000 annual NAREIT meeting this past October in Washington, D.C., to Sam Zell. Voters recognized "his tireless and considerable efforts on behalf of REITs" - in his role as NAREIT chairman for the past two years, as well as before he assumed that role, and since he formally turned over the association’s reins to Warren E. "Ned" Spieker at the fall meeting.

As Realty Stock Review has noted in past write-ups on previous award winners, the process of choosing the winners begins long before the awards are handed out. In addition to recording the comments of investors throughout the 12 months between awards presentations, each year the newsletter sends ballots to hundreds of institutional investors. Those votes determine the winners. Realty Stock Review tabulates the results (sans dangling chads), orders the trophies, and schedules the breakfast, but who wins the awards is up to the voters.

Special Lifetime Achievement Award
Since the dawn of the "modern REIT era" in the early 1990s, Zell has been preaching the benefits of publicly traded property-linked stocks, generally, and REITs, specifically.

The chairman of three public REITs (Equity Office, Equity Residential, and Manufactured Home Communities), as well as numerous non-real estate entities, Zell, voters noted, is among the most sought-after speakers not only for his ability to deliver a joke as well as the best stand-up comedian, but also for his incredible knack to get to the heart of an issue quickly, without mincing words.

Man of the Year Awards
The recipients of 2000’s Man of the Year Awards, Pacific Gulf’s Glenn Carpenter and Bradley Real Estate’s Tom D’Arcy, have something in common. They both made decisions that were in the best interests of their shareholders, even though it meant they’ll have to find new jobs.

Carpenter, voters noted, had believed for some time that the market was underestimating Pacific Gulf’s value. "Glenn saw the offer [for the company’s industrial portfolio] not only as validating his long-held view regarding valuations, but also as the right thing to do for shareholders."

Bradley’s decision to accept a $22 per share offer from Heritage Property Investment (a private REIT) not only was the right decision from a timing standpoint, but, most importantly, voters stressed it also was the right decision for Bradley’s shareholders.

Special Achievement Award
When techs wrecked and REITs rallied in the early spring of 2000, analysts and investors were quick to dub REITs anti-tech stocks. Roughly a year earlier, Todd Canter and his colleagues (Bill Morrill and Keith Pauley) at La Salle Investment Management (Securities) in Baltimore (see "Opposites Attract," on page 63 of the Fall 2000 issue of Property) predicted that REITs would perform in exactly the way they did.

As the ballots were tallied, Realty Stock Review was struck by how many voters cited Canter, Morrill, and Pauley’s paper as being 2000’s most important "event." Since it didn’t have a category that recognizes such things, Realty Stock Review created one.

Outstanding Analyst Awards
Buy-Side Analysts
Ever since Realty Stock Review began handing out the awards in 1992, the buy-side analyst awards have been dominated by analysts from Green Street Advisors. Based in Newport Beach, California, the firm, founded in 1985 by Jon Fosheim and Mike Kirby, focuses solely on REITs and other property-linked stocks. The top three vote-getters in the buy-side analyst category were John Lutzius, Mike Kirby, and Craig Leupold.

In 2000, as well as in 1999, an honorable mention went to Fred Carr of the Boston-based Penobscot Group. Voters singled out Carr and his firm for providing a slightly different take on things.

Sell-Side Analysts
Though the list of sell-side award winners includes most of the "usual suspects," it also includes some new names.

Larry Raiman, a veteran analyst who now calls Credit Suisse First Boston home after CSFB acquired his former employer, Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, nabbed top honors again in 2000. Investors singled out Raiman and his team not only for their reports on return on invested capital and their reliance on the dividend-discount model in their analysis, but also, and most important to the voters, for putting out research that helps them make money.

Nipping at Raiman’s heels again in 2000 was Jonathan Litt, who now calls Salomon Smith Barney home (he moved to SSB from PaineWebber early in 2000). Voter after voter (as in past years) cited Litt and his team not only for their comprehensive industry coverage but also for their high-touch approach to clients.

Third-place honors went to Goldman, Sachs & Co.’s James Kammert and Lehman Brothers’ David Shulman. Kammert, who came to Goldman from Robinson-Humphrey, is considered a must-read even by the most-experienced dedicated REIT investors. Said one, "If you don’t read Jim’s reports, you are guaranteed to miss at least one factoid that you cannot afford to overlook in your analysis."

Shulman is an industry veteran who, after a stint as an equity strategist (at Salomon Brothers) and several years on the buy-side as an investor, decided to return to his first love, following real estate and analyzing the public companies that invest in it. Voters credited Shulman with providing analysis that hones in on key factors that should determine a company’s success.

Honorable mention in the sell-side category went to Jeff Olson. Olson’s former firm, PaineWebber, was acquired in 2000, so he now calls UBS Warburg home. "Jeff’s work on the retail sector is the most comprehensive we have seen," one voter wrote. The same voter added that Olson’s analysis of retail trends is first-rate.

Outstanding CFOs
The winners of the CFO awards (in alphabetical order by last name) were General Growth’s Bernard Freibaum, Equity Office’s Richard Kincaid, Kilroy Realty’s Dick Moran, Equity Residential’s David Neithercut, and AvalonBay’s Tom Sargeant.

What does it take to be an award-winning CFO? According to the institutional investors who cast ballots in 2000, they look for four things: (1) a thorough understanding not only of the companies’ current finances and future obligations, but also the ability to explain how finances and strategy come together; (2) disclosure, disclosure, disclosure (voter after voter said presentation of financial information is nearly as important as disclosure); (3) capital markets savvy; and (4) communication skills.

Outstanding CEOs
The 11 CEOs chosen as recipients of Realty Stock Review’s 2000 Outstanding CEO Awards includes quite a few who have won the award at least once previously. The list of repeaters includes AIMCO’s Terry Considine, Kimco Realty’s Milton Cooper, Cousins Properties’ Dan DuPree, CenterPoint Properties’ John Gates, AMB Property’s Hamid Moghadam, and Archstone’s Scot Sellers.

Another of 2000’s CEO award winners was Mission West’s Carl Berg, who was singled out for crafting a strategy that promises investors superior returns from development. Also a 2000 award winner was General Growth’s John Bucksbaum, who voters said has consistently delivered superior returns and does it "in the most understated fashion imaginable." Spieker Properties’ John Foster and Craig Vought also picked up awards in their first full year as co-CEOs. Voters singled out Foster and Vought for helping to build a company with one of the best and deepest management teams around. BRE Properties’ Frank McDowell was credited not only with turning the company around in the mid-1990s, but also, and most importantly, voters wrote, with building a strong management team. One voter, who has invested in REITs for decades, wrote that McDowell is the reason his firm started looking at BRE again. "We had written the company off until Frank appeared on the scene."

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