Lightstone Group and Prime Group Realty Trust's Continental Towers Wins BOMA's Outstanding Office Building Award for Five State
05 June 2009 - 1:08AM
PR Newswire (US)
CHICAGO, June 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Prime Group Realty Trust
(NYSE:PGEPRB) (The "Company"), a Chicago-based real estate
investment trust, announced today that its Continental Towers
office complex in Rolling Meadows, Illinois (the "Complex")
recently won "The 2008-2009 Outstanding Office Building of the Year
Award" (also known as the TOBY Award) for the five-state North
Central Region from The Building Owners and Managers Association
(BOMA). This is the third time in the last five years that
Continental Towers has won this prestigious award for the
five-state North Central Region. In addition, the Complex has won
the TOBY Award for the Chicago Suburban market four times in the
last five years. Continental Towers was the winner in the 500,000
SF to 1,000,000 SF category. The judges described the Complex as a
"very well run building and it shows" and the dedicated building
staff as "a key reason why the buildings continue to win awards."
Continental Towers is a premier, Class A, 910,796 square-foot
Office and Retail Complex controlled and managed by Prime Group
Realty Trust. The Complex consists of three twelve-floor office
towers and a three-story centrally located retail building, which
together house 36 businesses employing more than 1,435 people. The
"TOBY" award program, now in its twenty-fourth year, is the most
prestigious and comprehensive program of its kind in the commercial
real estate industry, recognizing quality in office buildings and
awarding excellence in office-building management. The judging
process includes a building inspection and a thorough evaluation of
the selection criteria, which include a review of building
standards, community involvement, tenant relations,
energy-management systems and procedures, environment and
regulatory compliance, emergency preparedness and security
standards, and building-personnel training programs. "Prime Group
Realty Trust is very proud to have received this award from our
peers at BOMA," said Catherine A. Carlson, RPA, General Manager of
the Complex. "We believe that the recognition BOMA has given the
Complex over the last five years is evidence of how hard we work at
managing and operating the complex at the highest levels and in a
tenant friendly manner." Last fall, Prime Group Realty Trust was
pleased to announce that Continental Towers had been awarded the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's prestigious ENERGY STAR, the
national symbol for protecting the environment through superior
energy performance. Continental Towers is located on a
professionally landscaped 34-acre site in the Woodfield
neighborhood at the southeast corner of the Northwest Tollway
(I-90) and Golf Road (Route 58) just east of Route 53. The Complex
features three 12-story office towers of approximately 280,000
square feet per tower. Above-ground and underground walkways
connect all three buildings with the Commercium, a three-story,
glass-enclosed 67,169 square-foot retail concourse. Its amenities
include a private health club, a travel agency, sundry shop, flower
shop, full-service banking facility, deli, print shop, dry cleaner,
and banquet and conference center. The Continental Towers complex
is located 30 miles northwest of Chicago's Loop and 10 miles
northwest of O'Hare International Airport. It has convenient access
to the interstate system via I-90, I-294, I-290, and I-355. The
precast composite, cast-in-place concrete structures have white
Wyoming quartz aggregate curtainwalls and gray solar reflective
windows. The office buildings feature typical floorplates of
approximately 23,682 square feet, white marble lobbies, 25-foot by
25-foot bays, 24-hour staffed centralized security station,
closed-circuit-television monitoring system, 24/7 card-key access,
state-of-the-art telecommunications systems and Internet
connectivity, and surface and executive underground parking for
2,949 cars. BOMA/Suburban Chicago was founded in 1970 to represent
owners, managers and designated representatives of office
properties in the greater Chicago suburban area including Cook,
DuPage, Kane and Lake Counties; Rockford, IL; and Merrillville, IN.
The association's 340 members currently represent more than 63
million square feet of office space in commercial office buildings,
government buildings, medical facilities and corporate
headquarters. The organization is an affiliate of BOMA
International, which was founded in 1907 and currently has
approximately 17,000 plus members in 100 local associations
representing nine billion square feet of quality commercial space
globally. For more information, visit
http://www.bomasuburbanchicago.com/ or http://www.boma.org/. About
Prime Group Realty Trust Owned by one of the largest private real
estate owners in the country, The Lightstone Group, Prime Group
Realty Trust is a fully-integrated, self-administered, and
self-managed real estate investment trust (REIT) which owns,
manages, leases, develops, and redevelops office and industrial
real estate, primarily in metropolitan Chicago. The Company
currently owns 9 office properties containing an aggregate of 3.5
million net rentable square feet, a joint venture interest in one
office property comprised of approximately 101,000 net rentable
square feet and a membership interest in an unconsolidated entity
which owns mid-priced extended-stay hotels with approximately
76,000 rooms located in 44 states and Canada. The Company leases
and manages approximately 3.5 million square feet comprising all of
its wholly-owned properties. In addition, the Company is also the
managing agent for the approximately 1.5 million square foot
Citadel Center office building located at 131 South Dearborn Street
in Chicago, Illinois. For more information about Prime Group Realty
Trust, contact the company's Chicago headquarters at (312) 917-1300
or visit its website at http://www.pgrt.com/. About The Lightstone
Group The Lightstone Group is one of the country's largest
privately held real estate companies with interests in residential,
office, retail, hospitality, and industrial real estate assets. The
company, principally through its related operating entities, Beacon
Management, Prime Retail, Extended Stay Hotels, and Prime Group
Realty Trust, owns a diversified portfolio of over 680 hotels,
22,000 multifamily units and approximately 20 million square feet
of office, industrial and retail properties in 46 states, the
District of Columbia, Canada and Puerto Rico. Employing
approximately 14,000 staff and professionals, The Lightstone Group
maintains its corporate headquarters in New York with regional
offices in New Jersey, Maryland, Illinois and South Carolina. For
more information on The Lightstone Group, call 800-347-4078 or
visit http://www.lightstonegroup.com/. This press release contains
certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that reflect
management's current views with respect to future events and
financial performance. The words "believes", "expects",
"anticipates", "estimates", and similar words or expressions are
generally intended to identify forward-looking statements. Actual
results may differ materially from those expected because of
various risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to,
changes in general economic conditions, adverse changes in real
estate markets as well as other risks and uncertainties included
from time to time in the Company's filings with the Securities and
Exchange Commission. DATASOURCE: The Lightstone Group CONTACT:
Prime Group Realty Trust, Jeffrey A. Patterson, President and Chief
Executive Officer, +1-312-917-1300, or Paul G. Del Vecchio,
Executive Vice President--Capital Markets, +1-312-917-1300 Web
Site: http://www.lightstonegroup.com/
Copyright