Learn About Real Estate Through Investing in REITs and Publicly Traded Real Estate Companies

The $154 million, 10-story, 459,717-square foot facility joint venture of Duke Realty and Milwaukee-based Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. Inc., was developed on a site leased from Baylor University. The facility builds on the 35-year history of leadership in oncology that the center has become known for.

On-campus living has come a long way from what many of us experienced during college, thanks in part to student housing REITs. In 2013, American Campus Communities redeveloped a 45-year old Arizona State University campus icon, Manzanita Hall, honoring the residence hall's original mid-century aesthetic value while providing modern student living accommodations. The on-campus residence, originally built in 1966, includes 241 units accommodating 816 students.

The Empire State Building is an American cultural icon. It is designed in the distinctive Art Deco style and has been named as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers. The building and its street floor interior are designated landmarks of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, and confirmed by the New York City Board of Estimate. It was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1986. In 2007, it was ranked number one on the AIA's List of America's Favorite Architecture. In 2010, Empire State Realty Trust began a $550 million renovation, with $120 million spent to transform the building into a more energy efficient and eco-friendly structure. The Empire State Building is the tallest Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-certified building in the United States, having received a gold LEED rating in September 2011.

Vornado Realty Trust's theMart (formerly The Merchandise Mart) is the largest privately held commercial building in the United States. Located in the center of the sought-after River North submarket, it is a well-recognized fixture in the Chicago landscape. This unique 25-floor asset spans two city blocks and features 200,000-square-foot floors. Vornado is transforming this former showroom building into an office building that is quickly becoming home to Chicago's most creative and technologically innovative companies.

In San Francisco, Alexandria Real Estate Equities redeveloped a brownfields district of railroad yards in the Mission Bay area, turning it into a dynamic life sciences office campus. The Alexandria Center for Science and Technology – Mission Bay is designed to foster collaboration and innovation with immediate proximity to the renowned University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). The biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies that have located in the campus have created hundreds of jobs, helping to fuel the city’s knowledge-based economy. Other REITs have joined in to create a new apartment community adjacent to the campus, where many of these knowledge workers make their home.