First Potomac Realty Trust Sells Newington Business Park Center For $32.5 Million

BETHESDA, Md., Dec. 21, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- First Potomac Realty Trust FPO, a leading owner and operator of office and business park properties in the greater Washington D.C. region, today announced the sale of Newington Business Park Center, a seven-building, 256,000 square foot industrial property located in Lorton, Virginia, for gross proceeds of $32.5 million.  The purchaser is an affiliate of Velsor Properties, LLC.

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The sale of Newington Business Park represents an important milestone in First Potomac's previously announced plan to de-risk the portfolio, strengthen its balance sheet and reduce corporate overhead through the accelerated sale of at least $200 million of assets. Consistent with that strategy, the proceeds from the sale of Newington Business Park Center will be utilized to fund a portion of the 2.2 million preferred share redemption that the Company announced on December 18, 2015, which is scheduled to occur on January 19, 2016.

"The sale of Newington Business Park Center and redeployment of the proceeds demonstrates that we are successfully executing on our previously announced plan to monetize select assets and improve the Company's balance sheet," said Robert Milkovich, CEO of First Potomac Realty Trust. "We are continuing to execute on phase one of our strategic plan and look forward to announcing the sale of additional assets in the weeks and months ahead.  We are on track to dispose of at least $200 million of assets, and we remain confident that we are taking the right steps to improve performance and create substantial value for our shareholders."

HFF represented First Potomac in the sale of Newington Business Park Center.  At September 30, 2015, the property was 83.3% leased and occupied.

About First Potomac Realty Trust

First Potomac Realty Trust is a self-administered, self-managed real estate investment trust that focuses on owning, operating, developing and redeveloping office and business park properties in the greater Washington, D.C. region.  FPO common shares FPO and preferred shares FPO are publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange.  As of September 30, 2015, our consolidated portfolio totaled 7.8 million square feet. Based on annualized cash basis rent, our portfolio consists of 64% office properties and 36% business park and industrial properties. A key element of First Potomac's overarching strategy is its dedication to sustainability. Over one million square feet of First Potomac property is LEED Certified and approximately half of the portfolio's multi-story office square footage is LEED or Energy Star Certified.   

About HFF

HFF and HFFS (HFF Securities L.P.) are owned by HFF, Inc. HF.  HFF operates out of 22 offices nationwide and is a leading provider of commercial real estate and capital markets services to the U.S. commercial real estate industry. HFF together with its affiliate HFFS offer clients a fully integrated national capital markets platform including debt placement, investment sales, equity placement, advisory services, loan sales and commercial loan servicing.  For more information please visit hfflp.com or follow HFF on Twitter @HFF.

Forward-Looking Statements

The forward-looking statements contained in this press release, including statements regarding our plans and expectations with respect to the redemption of the Series A Preferred Shares, are subject to various risks and uncertainties. Although we believe the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, there can be no assurance that our expectations will be achieved. Certain factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations include changes in general or regional economic conditions; our ability to timely lease or re-lease space at current or anticipated rents; changes in interest rates; changes in operating costs; our ability to complete acquisitions and dispositions on attractive terms, or at all; our ability to manage our current debt levels and repay or refinance our indebtedness upon maturity or other required payment dates; our ability to maintain financial covenant compliance under our debt agreements; our ability to maintain effective internal controls over financial reporting and disclosure controls and procedures; any impact of the informal inquiry initiated by the Securities and Exchange Commission; our ability to obtain debt and/or financing on attractive terms, or at all; changes in the assumptions underlying our earnings and Core FFO guidance and other risks detailed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K and described from time to time in our filings with the SEC. Many of these factors are beyond the Company's ability to control or predict. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance. For forward-looking statements herein, we claim the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. We assume no obligation to update or supplement forward-looking statements that become untrue because of subsequent events.

Company Contact:
Jaime Marcus
Director, Investor Relations
(240) 223-2735
jmarcus@first-potomac.com

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SOURCE First Potomac Realty Trust