Real-estate investment trusts live and breathe on borrowed money, using it to buy properties worth several times more than the capital they hold.
But in the ongoing credit crunch, that supply of oxygen is getting thin, leaving investors fearful of business models that need heavy leverage.
Aurora-based ProLogis has $11.1 billion in outstanding debt, including $352.7 million of bonds coming due next year and $558.9 million due in 2010.
ProLogis also has tapped $3.2 billion of $4.4 billion in credit lines as of Sept. 30. The credit facilities come due next October, although the company says it could get another year.
At the same time, ProLogis has seen its cash on hand shrink from $901.6 million on March 31 to $341.1 million on Sept. 30.
Real-estate investment trusts, or REITs, are companies — usually traded publicly — that manage a portfolio of real-estate investments. ProLogis is not alone among Colorado REITs with heavy debts.
Apartment Investments & Management has about $7 billion in secured and unsecured debts, including $725 million due over the next two years, according to Bloom berg.
DCT Industrial Trust has $331 million of its $1.2 billion in debt due over the next two years.
Another Colorado REIT specializing in apartments, UDR, has held up better than the rest this year. But even UDR must repay $540 million of its $3.3 billion in debt coming due over the next two years, according to Bloom berg.
Aldo Svaldi: 303-954-1410 or asvaldi@denverpost.com
This article has been corrected in this online archive. Originally, due to an error by a source, it cited an incorrect figure for DCT Industrial Trust.
