Founded in 1988 as Royale Investments and traded on NASDAQ, the company changed its name to Corporate Office Properties Trust and went on the NYSE in 1998. Since that time, we've experienced extraordinary growth, growing from $300
million in assets in 1998 to over $4.8 billion today.
The timeline below lists key events in the Company's history.
Download detailed company history
1988
Company originates as Royale Investments, a retail real estate investment trust
1991
Royale conducts its Initial Public Offering
1997
Company merges with The Shidler Group, shifts its focus to suburban office properties and acquires $170 million, 1.5 million square foot Mid-Atlantic office portfolio
1998
Company changes name to Corporate Office Properties Trust, reorganizes as a Maryland REIT and conducts public offering on the New York Stock Exchange
Company begins its acquisition program by purchasing two portfolios totaling 1,075,000 square feet in New Jersey and Maryland
Company combines with entities of Constellation Real Estate Group, Inc., adding 16 properties totaling 1.6 million square feet, located primarily in the Baltimore-Washington corridor
Acquisition of 75% interest in Corporate Realty Management, LLC, which years later becomes the wholly owned COPT Property Management Services, LLC
Acquisition of $173 million of other properties
1999
Acquisition of 29 properties totaling 1.5 million square feet of office space
2000
Company ends year with 83 office properties totaling 6.5 million square feet of space
2001
Company reaches $1.1 billion in total market capitalization
Acquisition of 1.2 million square feet of office space, including expansion into Northern Virginia submarket
2002
Acquisition of $107 million of office buildings
2003
Company enters new submarket of Herndon, Virginia, acquiring three office buildings
Company makes commitment to building every new building to the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Silver certification level
2004
Company enters new submarket in St. Mary's County, Maryland, and King George County, Virginia
Company is named "Best in Industry" among large owners in the CEL & Associates national survey of tenant satisfaction
2005
Company announces entry into Colorado Springs, CO, and San Antonio, TX, markets
Company is again named "Best in Industry" among large owners in the CEL & Associates national survey of tenant satisfaction
Company is awarded first-ever national Green Development Award by NAIOP
2006
Acquisition of Fort Ritchie, a 591-acre former military post in Maryland, providing the capacity to build 1.7 million square feet of office development
Company is again named "Best in Industry" among large owners in the CEL & Associates national survey of tenant satisfaction
Company launches "The COPT Way" -- the culmination of a process to define our core values, core purpose and vision for our future
The Company produced a 648% total return for its shareholders over the past decade which was the highest among all equity REITs and far higher than the negative 13% return for the S&P 500 stock index; equally important for the Company's shareholders is its dividend growth of 111% for the 10 year period
Company is again named "Best in Industry" among large owners in the CEL & Associates national survey of tenant satisfaction, for fifth consecutive year
2009
COPT is included in the S&P MidCap 400 in April 2009
The Company continued to perform well despite an increasingly difficult real estate environment; year to date (Sep 30 09), we had leased over 1.9 million SF of which 1.35 million SF were renewals, 340,000 was retenanting, 177,000 SF was first time lease up of previously acquired space and 79,000 was development space
Company increased cash dividend during the 3rd quarter by 5.4%, one of the few REITs to do so this year; into November 2009, we are experiencing positive total shareholder return for the year of approximately 13%
Company acquires two high quality assets: 474,000 SF Canton Crossing office tower in Baltimore and Northrop Grumman's new 156,000 SF building in Airport Square
