Company Profile
HRPT Properties Trust is a real estate investment trust, or REIT, which primarily owns office buildings located throughout the United States. We have a large concentration of properties leased to the U.S. Government and other tenants with good credit characteristics. We also own approximately 17 million square feet of leased commercial and industrial lands located in Oahu, Hawaii.
HRP was founded in 1986 and went public on the New York Stock Exchange as a REIT that owned healthcare related properties. In the 1990’s we transformed into an office REIT by selling healthcare assets and buying office buildings. During this time, we also formed two subsidiary REITs: Hospitality Properties Trust (HPT), a REIT that owns hotels, and Senior Housing Properties Trust (SNH), a REIT that primarily owns healthcare properties. HPT and SNH became separate public companies in 1995 and 1999, respectively.
HRPT Properties Trust is managed by Reit Management & Research LLC (RMR).
What is an REIT?
" Overview of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs)
A real estate investment trust, or REIT, is a company that owns, and in some cases, operates income producing real estate such as offices, hotels, healthcare facilities, apartments, shopping centers, etc. In order to qualify to be a REIT, a company must distribute annually at least 90% of its taxable income to its shareholders. REITs generally pay little or no corporate income taxes because they are able to deduct dividends from their taxable earnings.
The United States Congress created REITs in 1960 to make investments in large scale, income producing real estate accessible to smaller investors. Investors in REITs may benefit from greater diversification through investing in a portfolio of properties, rather than a single building, and by having their investment managed by experienced real estate professionals.
REITs are total return investments and they typically provide high dividends plus the potential for moderate, long term capital appreciation. Generally, long term total returns which can be realized by ownership of REIT stocks are likely to be somewhat less than the returns of higher risk high growth stocks and somewhat more than the returns of lower risk bonds. "
They own some property in the Rochester area.
Their business "strategy" is to lease primarily to government or medical tenants, because they lease longer, are more likely to pay on time, and are less affected by economic changes etc. Basically, they lease to these entities to guarantee they make a profit.
Part of their investment "strategy":
"We do not seek “turn around” or “reposition” properties and we generally do not invest in joint ventures or off balance sheet entities. We generally do not undertake speculative development, but we sometimes do build to suit projects to accommodate existing tenants or for new tenants on land we own. Although we sometimes sell properties, we generally consider ourselves to be a long term investor more interested in diversifying our investment portfolio than to sell properties for short term gains."
HRPT Properties Trust is managed by an REIT, who answers to shareholders. They are in this to make money, like most landlords. Only....they don't operate in our state - their corporate headquarters are in Newton, MA. They just lease properties to governments that use taxpayer money to pay the rent.
They are making a large profit, not because you as a citizen decided to patronize them, but because your government decided to patronize them. You don't have a choice, apparently.
Joe Morelle thinks this move is "financially viable". So much so that he is generously giving away $125,000 of taxpayer money in the form of a grant for the move.
Isn't that nice of him?
Ever wonder who donates to campaigns? Ever wonder who was a big contributor to Morelle's campaign?
Why, it's Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate. Isn't that great?
Awwwwwwww, friends should grease each others palms like that. The world would be a better place, wouldn't it? Gives me the warm fuzzies -n- stuff.
