News RELEASE

KBS Looks to the Southwest with New Senior VP of Acquisitions and Dispositions

Christopher Aust Will Lead KBS Acquisitions and Dispositions In Southern California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado

Newport Beach, Calif., February 18, 2010: Signaling the continuing importance and projected growth of the Southwest commercial real estate market, KBS Realty Advisors has appointed a new senior vice president and director of acquisitions and dispositions for the fast-growing region.

Christopher Aust, an 18-year veteran of the real estate industry with a concentration on California and the Southwest, will help the Newport Beach, Calif.-based real estate investment advisor identify well-positioned commercial office, industrial, retail and multifamily assets for acquisition in Southern California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado.

One of the nation’s largest commercial real estate buyers, KBS-affiliated companies currently own 18 commercial office and industrial properties in the five-state Southwest Region totaling more than 2.8 million square feet.

“The Southwest is an increasingly important acquisition market for KBS so it is absolutely vital that we have someone on the ground with significant local experience and relationships to maximize that potential,” explained William Milligan, Western U.S. regional president of KBS Realty Advisors. “With his track record of locating prime acquisition targets, and lifelong focus on the commercial real estate market in California and the West, Christopher is ideally suited to the challenge.”

Aust comes to KBS from Principal Real Estate Investors (PrinREI) of Des Moines, Iowa, where he was director of acquisitions and dispositions. Based in San Francisco, he directed the company’s investment activity on the West Coast, including acquisitions, dispositions, development and project finance for a series of real estate equity and debt funds totaling more than $20 billion in assets.

Prior to PrinREI, he was an acquisition officer at DRA Advisors in San Francisco, responsible for West Coast property acquisitions for a $5 billion institutional advisory platform. Collectively, Aust closed close to $2 billion in acquisitions for these institutional real estate advisors.

He also previously was with Cushman & Wakefield, Inc., for more than a decade, most recently as director of the firm’s Capital Markets Group. In this capacity, he represented major institutional clients in the disposition of nearly 25 million square feet of real estate valued at more than $3.5 billion. He also served as regional manager of the firm’s Financial Structuring Group and senior financial analyst.

Aust graduated from California State University at Chico with a bachelor’s degree in finance and a minor in economics. He is a member of the National Association of Industrial and Office Parks (NAIOP) and is currently earning his CCIM designation. He lives with his family in Aliso Viejo, Calif.

About KBS Realty Advisors
Headquartered in Newport Beach, Calif., KBS Realty Advisors, is a private equity real estate company and SEC-registered investment advisor founded in 1992 by Peter Bren and Chuck Schreiber. Since 1992, KBS has completed transactional activity of approximately $16.5 billion via 19 separate accounts, six commingled funds and two private equity REITs. KBS has offices in Newport Beach, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, Dallas, New York, Washington, D.C., Atlanta and Los Angeles. For more information, visit www.kbsrealty.com.