Capital Automotive Executes a $100 Million Construction Credit Agreement with General Motors Acceptance Corporation
MCLEAN, Va., June 24 -- Capital Automotive REIT , the nation's leading specialty finance company for automotive retail real estate, today announced that the Company has executed a $100 million construction credit agreement with General Motors Acceptance Corporation ("GMAC"). Proceeds will be used to fund construction and improvement financing for existing tenants. The one-year financing, renewable annually, will bear interest at a spread over LIBOR.
Commenting on today's news, Thomas D. Eckert, President and Chief Executive Officer, stated, "The GMAC agreement is another example of our strong relationships with industry leading finance sources. This facility further enables us to provide value-added construction and facility improvement funding to our tenants, which allows them to accomplish their operational objectives."
About Capital Automotive
Capital Automotive, headquartered in McLean, Virginia, is a self- administered, self-managed real estate investment trust that acquires real property and improvements used by operators of multi-site, multi-franchised automotive dealerships and related businesses. Additional information on Capital Automotive is available on the Company's Web site at http://www.capitalautomotive.com/.
As of May 31, 2003, the Company had invested nearly $1.7 billion in 306 properties, consisting of 425 automotive franchises in 29 states. Approximately 78% of the Company's total real estate investments are located in the top 50 metropolitan areas in the U.S. in terms of population. Approximately 72% of the Company's portfolio is invested in properties leased to the "Top 100" dealer groups as published by Automotive News. The properties are leased under long-term, triple-net leases with a weighted average initial lease term of 14.4 years.
Certain matters discussed within this press release are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, the Company's future operations will depend on a number of factors that may differ, some materially, from the Company's assumptions. These factors, which could cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements, include risks that our tenants will not pay rent; risks related to our reliance on a small number of tenants for a significant portion of our revenue; risks of financing, such as our ability to meet existing financial covenants and to consummate planned and additional financings on terms that are acceptable to us; risks that our growth will be limited if we cannot obtain additional capital; risks that planned and additional acquisitions may not be consummated; risks related to the automotive industry, such as the ability of our tenants to compete effectively in the automotive retail industry and the ability of our tenants to perform their lease obligations as a result of changes in any manufacturer's production, supply, vehicle financing, marketing or other practices or changes in the economy generally; risks generally incident to the ownership of real property, including adverse changes in economic conditions, changes in the investment climate for real estate, changes in real estate taxes and other operating expenses, adverse changes in governmental rules and fiscal policies and the relative illiquidity of real estate; environmental and other risks associated with the acquisition and leasing of automotive properties; risks related to our status as a REIT for federal income tax purposes, such as the existence of complex regulations relating to our status as a REIT, the effect of future changes in REIT requirements as a result of new legislation and the adverse consequences of the failure to qualify as a REIT; and those risks detailed from time to time in the Company's SEC reports, including its Form 8- K/A filed on February 12, 2003, its annual report on Form 10-K and its quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. The Company makes no promise to update any of the forward-looking statements or to publicly release the results if the Company revises any of them.
Contact Information David S. Kay Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Capital Automotive REIT 703.394.1302