“Now that the recession is winding down, and the economy is picking up and financing is more available and the stock market is surging, we see opportunities that we didn’t see a few years ago,” Inland’s Goodwin said. “There’s going to be a lot more liquidity events.”

Rising Prices

U.S. commercial real estate prices climbed 1 percent in February and are within 1 percentage point of their August 2007 peak, Green Street Advisors Inc. said in a report yesterday. The Newport Beach, California-based research firm primarily tracks REITs.

Inland American Real Estate Trust is “positioning each segment for potential listing, merger or portfolio sales in the future,” according to the December presentation. The company owns properties including office buildings, warehouses, apartments and hotels, and it is now focusing on student housing, retail and lodging, according to the presentation.

Another Inland REIT, Inland Diversified Real Estate Trust Inc., has scheduled meetings with investment bankers over the next 60 days to look at options for shareholders to be able to be able get money back, the company said on Feb. 19. The REIT, which owns shopping centers, apartment buildings, industrial properties and offices, had assets of $1.8 billion as of Sept. 30.

Next Phase

Columbia Property Trust said last week it completed a so- called internalization -- when a nontraded REIT takes on its own management and separates from its sponsor -- to prepare for an exit. The company is “well-positioned to advance to the next phase in the REIT’s lifecycle,” it said in a statement.

For REITs that opted to go public, returns have been attractive. Retail Properties of America Inc., an Oak Brook- based shopping-center owner that was an Inland-sponsored nonlisted REIT known as Inland Western Retail Real Estate Trust Inc., gained 72 percent through yesterday from its initial share offering in April. Healthcare Trust of America Inc., based in Scottsdale, Arizona, rose 18 percent since listing shares in June.

Another company that had been managed by American Realty Capital, American Realty Capital Trust Inc., began trading in March of last year. It gained 14 percent before Realty Income Corp., a landlord of buildings with single tenants, agreed to buy the company for $3 billion. The deal was completed in January.

Good Time