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(HOUSTON, TX) – National Office Partners Limited Partnership (NOP), a joint venture between Hines, the international real estate firm, and the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), announced today the recent sale of 12 buildings from its portfolio.

The total market value for these 12 properties was approximately $2.2 billion.

NOP announced in June its plans to bring 13 properties in its 10 million-square-foot portfolio to market in August 2004 for possible disposition or solicitation of interest in the formation of a joint venture. A bid date was set in September of 2004, and bids were accepted on individual properties as well as on regional sub-portfolios. To date, NOP has disposed of 12 buildings since it began accepting bids four months ago.

NOP’s strategy going forward is to continue to aggressively seek new development and existing-building investment opportunities, with capital commitments from its partners for 2005 that reach a new investment capacity of up to $1.5 billion.

“CalPERS and Hines agreed that it was logical and appropriate to sell a substantial number of properties in 2004 at the pricing levels achieved,” MacEachron explained. “At the same time, like many major institutional investors and pension funds, CalPERS continues to find the returns on a risk-adjusted basis from real estate attractive relative to other asset classes. CalPERS expects to increase substantially its level of capital invested in real estate as its partners, including Hines for NOP, locate and acquire new properties over the next several years.”

National Office Partners was formed in 1998. Following the recent sales of these 12 properties, and including the anticipated acquisition of a new project in Chicago, the investment partnership will own a portfolio of five Class A office assets valued at approximately $650 million. Remaining NOP assets are located in suburban Boston, midtown Atlanta, and the downtown markets in Houston, Chicago and San Francisco. For further information on NOP, refer to www.noplp.com.

CalPERS is the nation’s largest public pension fund with assets totaling $180 billion, of which $13 billion is invested in real estate. The System provides retirement and health benefits to more than one million state and public employees and their families. For further information on CalPERS, visit the System’s Web site at www.calpers.ca.gov.

Hines is a privately owned real estate firm involved in developing, acquiring, leasing and managing real estate, as well as providing extensive international investment management and advisory services. The Hines portfolio of projects completed, underway, acquired and managed for third parties includes more than 700 properties representing over 244 million square feet of office, mixed-use, industrial, hotel, medical, sports facilities and residential properties, as well as large, master-planned communities and land developments. With offices in 69 U.S. cities and 12 foreign countries, and controlled assets valued at approximately $14 billion, Hines is one of the largest real estate organizations in the world. Access www.hines.com for more information.

You can imagine the effect on those of us in the basement when one of our biggest investors decides to dump 2/3 of their portfolio. When CalPERS sneezes we all jump for the Kleenex.