Commercial Real Estate Investment Company Nears Completion of Strategic Program Focused on Generating Significant Cash Reserves; Completes 2005 with Approximately $350 Million in New Acquisitions and $145 Million Under Contract to Purchase

LOS ANGELES (Jan. 10, 2006) – BentleyForbes, a national commercial real estate investment and operations company, is nearing the completion of a strategic portfolio refinance and disposition program that, when complete, will provide the company more than $1.0 billion in buying power for new property acquisitions in 2006, according to Chairman C. Frederick Wehba, Sr. The company also reports completing new acquisitions totaling $350 million in 2005, with contracts for an additional $145 million of property expected to close in 1Q 2006.
"BentleyForbes completed 2005 in a very strong position," said C. Frederick Wehba, Sr. "The company added several Class A, multi-tenant office buildings to its portfolio in major MSA submarkets and implemented strategic initiatives to strengthen its overall operating platform. The addition of experienced senior executives, an expanding staff of real estate analysts and asset management professionals and a healthy balance sheet put us in an aggressive position entering 2006. All these efforts will permit us to continue growing through the ongoing acquisition of multi-tenanted Class A office, trophy retail and high quality industrial/warehouse assets that the company is seeking in target markets across the nation."

According to BentleyForbes’ President and CEO David W. Cobb, the company refinanced approximately 1.7 million square feet of commercial property assets located in diverse markets and has sold, or is under firm contract to sell, another 2.2 million square feet of single tenant office, industrial and retail assets from within the company’s existing national portfolio.

"During 2005, the executive committee initiated a strategic review of the company’s existing portfolio of properties," said David W. Cobb. "Following this review, BentleyForbes executed a refinancing program on a significant number of assets as well as a dispositions program on various single tenant assets from within the company’s portfolio. The proceeds resulting from these efforts and transactions that will be completed during the first quarter of 2006, will give the company a substantial cash infusion. Accordingly, the company will have the funding capacity to purchase in excess of $1.0 billion of new properties in 2006."

BentleyForbes was founded in 1993 by the senior Wehba and several members of the Wehba family, including his son, Vice Chairman C. Frederick Wehba II. The company remains privately owned and operates under the direction of a family controlled Board of Directors.

"BentleyForbes continues to grow as a diversified owner and operator of commercial real estate," said Vice Chairman C. Frederick Wehba II. "We are currently taking steps to further ensure the growth of our operations by developing equity resources through structured finance programs, timing dispositions to capitalize on accrued value, forging strategic joint venture partnerships when appropriate and diversifying targeted asset classes for investment. Historically, the company has had great success with the acquisition and management of sale-leaseback and single tenant properties. Beginning in 2000, we began to diversify our portfolio of properties to also include multi-tenanted, Class A and trophy assets and at the same time expanded our internal asset management capabilities to support the increasing demands of multi-tenant property ownership. We will focus on solidifying and expanding these efforts in 2006.”

BentleyForbes is staffed by a team senior executives and industry professionals with expertise in commercial real estate acquisitions, finance, investment banking, asset management, real estate law and legal due diligence. Since June of 2004, BentleyForbes has modified its operating structure to include the strategic oversight of an executive committee. This committee is led by the Wehba family, founders of BentleyForbes, and includes the following senior members: C. Frederick Wehba, Sr., chairman; C. Frederick Wehba II, vice chairman; Chad Wehba, partner; Christian Wehba, partner; and David W. Cobb, president & CEO. This committee works directly to develop strategies and investment programs, implemented by the company’s senior executives under the oversight of Mr. Cobb, who is directly responsible for the company’s day-to-day operations and investment transactions on behalf of the executive committee.

During 2005, BentleyForbes successfully completed the purchase of Class A office properties in diverse markets, including: four multi-tenant buildings totaling 721,351 square feet of Class A office space in the Preston Center submarket of Dallas, TX; a single tenant, three-story, 250,000-square-foot, Class A suburban office building housing mission critical operations in Arlington, TX; the historic 11-story, 261,000-square-foot Watergate Office Building and Retail Arcade at 2600 Virginia Ave., N.W., in Washington, D.C.; and the acquisition of Park Center, a five-story, 236,000-square-foot Class A office property located in the North Dallas submarket of Plano, TX.

Other notable activity during 2005 included: the addition of Chief Financial Officer James Kasim, formerly a senior manager with Ernst & Young; completing a strategic retainer agreement for national legal representation with Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLC; establishing local asset management programs for new holdings in Washington D.C. and Dallas; relocating the company’s headquarters operations to MGM Tower in Century City; and adding a total of 15 new staff in several categories, including accounting, acquisitions and asset management roles.

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