Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association Completes Investment in Lowe Enterprises Affiliate.

Business Editors

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 13, 2003

Lowe Enterprises, Inc. and Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association (TIAA) announced today that they have completed a transaction in which TIAA has become a minority investor in a new entity that will assume the business of Lowe's investment advisory subsidiary, Lowe Enterprises Investment Management ("LEIM"). As a registered investment advisor, the subsidiary currently manages over $2.5 billion in real estate assets on behalf of its pension fund investment clients. The new entity is Lowe Enterprises Investment Management, LLC.

"This transaction creates a strategic relationship between LEIM and one of the country's most highly regarded real estate investors," said Brian Prinn, chairman of the new entity. "The new company will maintain LEIM's existing organizational and personnel structure while creating the potential to expand investment offerings leveraging off TIAA's extensive investment expertise in mortgage debt, Commercial Mortgage Backed Securities and REITs, as well as domestic and foreign property investments. A broader capital base allows LEIM to continue to diversify its real estate offerings into the industrial, retail and multifamily sectors."

TIAA's investment in LEIM represents an expansion of its existing relationship with Lowe Enterprises. In 1999, Lowe Enterprises and TIAA formed Lowe Enterprises Development Corporation to undertake new commercial development in niche markets that present high-quality development opportunities. "The new investment reflects TIAA's recognition of LEIM's entrepreneurial, value-added approach to real estate and TIAA's desire to expand its activities into the real estate investment advisory area," said Thomas Garbutt, managing director, Mortgage & Real Estate Investments for TIAA.

In acquiring a forty-nine percent interest in the new entity, TIAA will have minority representation on the LEIM Management Committee. No changes in the day-to-day operations at LEIM are contemplated. TIAA's investment does not involve an ownership investment in Lowe Enterprises, Inc. or any of Lowe's other operating company subsidiaries.

TIAA is part of Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association - College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF) one of the nation's largest institutional investors. Its $265 billion in assets include approximately $23 billion in real estate mortgages, $8 billion in equity real estate and $13 billion in REIT and CMBS investments. TIAA-CREF's core business is to provide a pension system to 2.3 million individuals at 15,000 educational and research institutions throughout the U.S.

Los Angeles-based Lowe Enterprises is a leading national real estate investment, development and management firm. Over the past 30 years, Lowe has developed, acquired or managed more than $6 billion of real estate assets nationwide. Lowe maintains additional offices in Denver, Irvine, Atlanta, Phoenix, San Francisco, Sacramento, Shanghai and Washington, D.C.