Colonial Properties - Company History

Company History

Founded in 1970, Colonial Properties Trust completed its initial public offering in September 1993. In December 1994 the company acquired 10 multi-family properties from the Rime Companies for $190.7 million. The acquisition increase the number of multi-family units to almost 11,000. In 1994 alone the company made over $328.2 million in property acquisitions. In 1997 Colonial bought the Brookwood Village shopping mall in Birmingham, Alabama for $35 million. After spending over $50 million on an extensive renovation and expansion, Colonial renamed the mall the Colonial Brookwood Village.

In October 2004 Colonial acquired Cornerstone Realty Income Trust for $650 million in stock. The purchase of Cornerstone helped push the company's total enterprise value to over $5 billion. Currently the company, which has a market capitalization of approximately $351 million as of April 2009, is included in the S&P SmallCap 600 Index.

In 2007 Colonial shed the majority of its non-core retail properties and developments. The company retained 15% ownership in 11 of the retail properties sold as well as contracts to manage several others. The company did hold on to its core retail properties such as the Colonial Brookwood Village.

As of December 31, 2006 the company owns or manages 39,104 apartment units, 17,600,000 square feet (1,640,000 m2) of office space and 12,100,000 square feet (1,120,000 m2) of retail shopping space located in key Sunbelt states spanning Virginia to Nevada.