CarrAmerica Realty Corp.

From the April 28, 1997 Washington Post

	'96 (in $ 000s)	% Change From '95
Revenue	168,900	65.8
Net Income	24,300	101.0
Rank Last Year: 68

Description:
CarrAmerica Realty is a real estate investment trust that owns and operates office buildings around the country. The company, which went public in 1993, has its roots in the collection of downtown Washington office buildings developed by its predecessor, the Oliver Carr Cos. It remains the District's largest private-sector landlord.

Business Resume: Contact Info -- 1700 Pennsylvania Ave., NW Washington, D.C. 20006 202-624-7500 Main Business -- Real estate investment trust Founded -- 1962 Chairperson -- Oliver T. Carr Jr. (CEO) President -- Thomas A. Carr Employees -- 620 D.C.-Area Employees -- 420

Developments:
CarrAmerica made a strategic about-face in 1996, transforming itself from a local landlord specializing in top-of-the-line downtown office buildings to a national company concentrated on what it calls "value" buildings—that is, lower-cost buildings in fast-growing suburban markets. In April 1996, the company even changed its name, from Carr Realty Corp. to CarrAmerica.

The transformation was fueled by nationally known real estate investor William D. Sanders, whose New Mexico-based firm Security Capital U.S. Realty bought 39 percent of CarrAmerica's stock for $250 million. Sanders has made similar investments in other commercial real estate sectors, including apartments, industrial property and self-storage units.

With that money as seed capital, CarrAmerica went on a buying binge, purchasing more than $1 billion worth of buildings in 1996. The company now has regional operations in 11 cities including Washington. It appears the shopping spree isn't over—CarrAmerica has filed papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission saying it hopes to sell as much as $1 billion more in stock and debt. Earlier this month the company announced a stock offering intended to raise approximately $125 million.

As with other real estate investment trusts, investors and analysts usually evaluate CarrAmerica's financial results not by net income but by funds from operations, a measure that takes into account such real-estate-related items as depreciation and amortization. In 1996 funds from operation rose to $2.12 per share from $2.01 per share in 1995, a 5 percent increase.