Brandywine Realty Trust and The Shooshan Company Announce Office Joint Venture in Arlington, Virginia

RADNOR, Pa., Oct. 14, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Brandywine Realty Trust (NYSE:BDN) and APA, IV, an affiliate of The Shooshan Company, announced today that they have formed a joint venture to build a 426,900 square foot office building in Arlington's Ballston submarket.  The project known as 4040 Wilson Boulevard is the final phase in the eight-building, mixed-use, Liberty Center complex located two blocks from the Ballston Metro Station, developed by The Shooshan Company.  The 20-story office building will have 10,000 square feet of ground floor retail, 544 below grade parking spaces, and feature panoramic Washington, D.C. views, state-of-the-art building systems, and a highly efficient floor plate design plus a rooftop terrace.  4040 Wilson Boulevard is planned for LEED Gold Certification and will be located in the first project to ever achieve LEED Gold Neighborhood-Development certification in Arlington County.

Brandywine and APA IV will each own a 50% interest in 4040 Wilson and will have joint major decision making responsibility.  The Shooshan Company will oversee development, leasing, property management and construction management services, and Brandywine will assist Shooshan in project development, marketing and leasing activities.  APA IV contributed the development's initial equity over an 8-year period and its land parcel in connection with the venture, and Brandywine will contribute up to $36.0 million in cash.  The initial equity, land value and Brandywine's cash contribution, augmented by third party construction financing, will fully fund the projected development costs.  To date, Brandywine has funded $13.0 million of our total requirement with the balance to be funded during the project's construction.  The property is fully entitled, and site engineering, planning, and architectural design are complete. Site preparation activities are commencing this month with full construction start to occur upon procuring an anchor tenant.

"The Shooshan Company is an exceptional, well-regarded real estate owner/developer in the Ballston submarket with an outstanding reputation and market leading presence.  Our participation in this exciting development provides an investment in a newly created high-quality, efficient building that should deliver returns in excess of current acquisition yields and an investment basis at replacement cost in a highly desirable submarket where comparable sales have been at a premium to construction costs," stated Gerard H. Sweeney, President and Chief Executive Officer of Brandywine Realty Trust. "We look forward to working with The Shooshan Company to complete the last phase of this highly successful 2.25 million square foot metro-served mixed-use development."

"We are extremely pleased to form this new joint venture with Brandywine," stated John Shooshan, President of The Shooshan Company.  "After a very thorough search led by Sage Capital Advisors, we felt that they brought not only the excellent balance sheet that we were looking for, but a highly sophisticated team of real estate advisors led by Jerry Sweeney, for whom we hold in the highest respect.  4040 Wilson is the largest project in our company's history, both in size and investment, and we feel very fortunate to have Brandywine as our new partner in order to continue the success of Liberty Center."

About Brandywine Realty Trust

Brandywine Realty Trust is one of the largest, publicly traded, full-service, integrated real estate companies in the United States.  Organized as a real estate investment trust and operating in select markets, Brandywine owns, leases and manages an urban, town center and suburban office portfolio comprising 283 properties and 32.9 million square feet, including 210 properties and 24.2 million square feet owned on a consolidated basis and 54 properties and 6.2 million square feet in 17 unconsolidated real estate ventures all as of June 30, 2013. For more information, please visit www.brandywinerealty.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this release constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.  Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance, achievements or transactions of the Company and its affiliates or industry results to be materially different from any future results, performance, achievements or transactions expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.  Such risks, uncertainties and other factors relate to, among others, the Company's ability to lease vacant space and to renew or relet space under expiring leases at expected levels, the potential loss of major tenants, interest rate levels, the availability and terms of debt and equity financing, competition with other real estate companies for tenants and acquisitions, risks of real estate acquisitions, dispositions and developments, including cost overruns and construction delays, unanticipated operating costs and the effects of general and local economic and real estate conditions.  Additional information or factors which could impact the Company and the forward-looking statements contained herein are included in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2012.  The Company assumes no obligation to update or supplement forward-looking statements that become untrue because of subsequent events.

SOURCE Brandywine Realty Trust