REIT Executives Earn More Than $53M

DENVER–A report of the 50 top paid executives of Colorado-based companies in 2004 shows that executives from locally based real estate investment trusts earned more than any other industry. For example, seven executives from Aurora-based ProLogis, the world’s largest industrial investment trust, made the cut.

An analysis by GlobeSt.com shows that 11 executives from REITS made the list. That is a larger concentration from any other industry. The published report is from proxy statements or annual reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The data includes salary, bonuses and other actual dollars paid. It includes stock-option profits taken in 2004, but not the potential value of options not yet taken.

Executives with local REITs were paid a total of $53.14 million last year. Leading the list as the best-compensated REIT executive was K. Dane Brooksher, chairman of ProLogis,at $12.99 million. He was the seventh best-paid executive in the state last year.

He was followed by Irving Lyons, vice chairman of ProLogis, $8.38 million; Scott Jackson, chairman and CEO of Denver-based Affordable Residential Communities, $6.85 million; Jeffrey Schwartz, CEO, ProLogis, $4.57 million; John Seiple Jr., president and CEO for North America, ProLogis, $3.83 million; Walter Rakowich, president and chief operating officer, ProLogis, $3.82 million; and Robert Watson, president of North American operations, ProLogis, $3.82 million. The list continues with Lindsay Freeman, chief operating officer of Archstone-Smith, $3.06 million; Terry Considine, chairman, CEO and president of Apartment Investment & Management, $2.99 million; and Paul McAuliffe, Apartment Investment Management, executive vice president and CFO at Apartment Investment & Management, $2.83 million.

However, the commercial real estate executives were dwarfed byexecutives for locally based MDC Holdings, one of the nation’s largesthomebuilding companies. The top paid executive in the state was Larry Mizel, chairman of MDC, at $34.56 million. Coming in second place was David Mandarich, president, COO and a director at MDC at $32.76 million. All told, four executives at MDC made $76.11 million last year.

Rick Pederson, principal of locally based Foundation Properties, toldGlobeSt.com that the same forces helped REITS and homebuilders last year: low interest rates and a lack of alternative investments. Pederson notes that most REITS and builders performed last well, and their executives should be compensated well. Executives “shouldn’t be penalized because of forces that were beyond their control that helped their industries,” Pederson tells GlobeSt.com.