While “Monopoly” has always been popular, it is only a game. More interesting than the legendary game where players buy and sell properties and collect $200 for passing “Go” is the reallife real estate game that financial institutions, real estate investment trusts, and financial service companies are playing these days.

One active player is Boston Properties, a REIT that is one of the largest owners of Class A office buildings in Manhattan, including 599 Lexington Ave., 399 Park Ave., Times Square Tower, and Five Times Square. Earlier this year, Boston Properties purchased from a partner, Allied Partners, its interest in the Citigroup tower on Third Avenue. It also sold its 2.8 million-square-foot office complex at 280 Park Ave. to a foreign investor for $2.8 billion, or about $1,007 a square foot.

Reckson Associates Realty Corp. is another public REIT that has a significant presence in all of the key markets in the tri-state area — New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and parts of Connecticut and New Jersey.

The company owns 919 Third Ave., 1185 Avenue of the Americas, 810 Seventh Ave., 1350 Avenue of the Americas, 120 W. 45th St., and One Court Square in Long Island City.

The REIT announced last week that it was interested in selling itself and hired Goldman Sachs as an advisor.According to a report in Real Estate Finance & Investment, the Blackstone Group is interested in acquiring Reckson.

“Since the public REIT market does not value shares based upon a roll-up of underlying asset values, the market values of public REITs do not always estimate a REIT’s underlying asset value accurately,” the managing director at Alvarez & Marsal, Gerald Pietroforte, said. “As a result, some public REITs such as Arden Realty and CarrAmerica have recently sold at significant premiums to their market values based upon strong underlying asset values. Other public REITs such as Reckson may have reason to believe that their underlying asset values support a significant premium, and therefore are willing to test that belief through a corporate sale.”

“I believe that the reason REITs are selling themselves (or privatizing) is the clear disparity between public and private market valuations,” the president of Mack Cali Realty, Mitchell Hersh, said via e-mail. “There is just so much capital in the private funds, hedge funds, equity shops, etc., that they have driven up pricing, in some instances to unrealistic levels. There is a notion (or a wish) that rents will rise quickly to keep pace with these pricing levels. While that may be true in certain euphoric markets like Midtown Manhattan and Southern California, history has shown that this phenomenon might not exist in many areas (rents in many suburban markets are virtually what they were in the 1980s).”

Mr. Hersh added, “In any event, publicly traded REITs, particularly those with management teams frustrated by the onerous conditions set by Sarbanes-Oxley compliance and other SEC regulations, have decided to take the money and run. They can always start again if their views are right and a pricing correction occurs down the road a few years.”

Another REIT that recently sold itself is Trizec Properties, one of the largest owners of commercial properties in North America, with 61 totaling about 40 million square feet. The company owns the Grace Building at 1114 Avenue of the Americas, the World Apparel Center at 1411 Broadway, 1065 Avenue of the Americas, One New York Plaza, 1460 Broadway, and Newport Tower, at 525 Washington Boulevard in Jersey City.

In June, the owners of the World Financial Center, Brookfield Properties, and the Blackstone Group announced they had agreed to purchase Trizec for $8.9 billion.

“In recognizing the underlying value of the company’s office portfolio, and especially its operating platform, the transaction accomplishes Trizec’s ultimate objective as a public company, which is to maximize stockholder value,” the president and CEO of Trizec, Tim Callahan, said.

“The current market valuations have many companies trading at discounts to net asset values based upon private valuations, so that more public to private transactions are likely in the near future,” the chairman of the national real estate practice at Greenberg Traurig, Robert Ivanhoe, said.

One REIT that has been in sales mode recently is SL Green Realty Corp., which owns 29 buildings with more than 17 million square feet in Midtown Manhattan. In June, it announced it had entered into an agreement to sell 1140 Avenue of Americas for $97.5 million for the leasehold interest to a joint venture of Stellar Management and the Rockpoint Group. Last month, the company sold two noncore Midtown office properties, for $63 million, to Kenneth Aschendorf and Berndt Perl of APF Properties. The properties are located at 268 and 290 Madison Ave. “We continue to look for opportunities to realize gains on our noncore investments and recycle capital into high quality properties that we believe will deliver superior growth”, the chief investment office at SL Green, Andrew Mathias, said.

“SL Green is not planning to sell its assets. Its recent sales were of smaller, noncore properties,” the chairman of global brokerage at CB Richard Ellis, Stephen Siegel, said. “Many of the other REITs in New York are taking advantage of the heated market conditions. SL Green, Equity Office, and others are still buyers as well as strategic sellers.”

As I reported last week, MetLife is considering the sale of Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town, rental properties that make up the largest apartment complex in Manhattan, totaling more than 11,200 units.

Over the past 42 months, MetLife has been busy selling a number of its real estate holdings. In 2002, it sold the landmark Fred F.French Building at 551 Fifth Ave. to a joint venture of the Feil Organization, Lloyd Goldman, and Stanley Chera. In December 2003, it sold 11 Madison Ave. to a partnership of Zar Realty Management Corporation (renamed the Sapir Organization) and investor David Werner. In June 2005, it sold its 1.4 million-squarefoot former headquarters at One Madison Ave. to SL Green Realty for $918 million. A few months later, it sold the 58-story, 2.8 million-square-foot office building at 200 ParkAve.for $1.72 billion.Later this year, MetLife is planning to enter into a lease with Equity Office Properties for about 600,000 square feet in the former Verizon Building at 1095 Avenue of the Americas, which the REIT purchased last year, trade publications have reported.

Last month, the Paramount Group and Principal Real Estate Investors, an affiliate of the Principal Insurance Company, sold the mixed-use tower at 1540 Broadway. The 1.2 million-squarefoot office space portion of the building was sold to Equity Office Properties Trust, and the retail, signage, and parking garage component went to Vornado Realty Trust. In June, Principal Real Estate Investors and the Dermot Co. announced a joint venture to acquire more than $300 million in multifamily rental apartments in the five boroughs. In June, the joint venture purchased a two-building, 121-unit residential portfolio in Astoria, Queens.

“There has been a trend over the last five years for financial institutions of all stripes to lower their investment in actual real estate and to instead use property primarily through operating leases,” the chairman of Signature Bank, Scott Shay, said. “Capital leases effectively have the same treatment as the ownership of real estate for accounting purposes, whereas operating leases cause there to be less leverage for banks, which permits banks to invest more in income producing assets.”

Last month, Citigroup Global Market sold a 304,000-square-foot office building built in 1910 at 250 West St. in TriBeCa for $142 million, or about $470 a square foot, to Elad Properties, the owners of the Plaza Hotel. Last year, Citibank sold One Court Square, its 50-story, 1.4 million-square-foot headquarters located in Long Island City to Reckson Associates Realty Corp. for $470 million.

Last year, JP Morgan Chase sold the leasehold interest at the 23-story, 545,000-square-foot office building at 522 Fifth Ave. for $164 million to a joint venture of Stellar Management and the Rockpoint Group.

“It’s completely understandable for institutions to take some money off the table in a ‘topsy’ environment,” the president of Dividend Capital Total Realty Trust, Marc Warren, said via e-mail. “That said, there are opportunities for ‘value’ (albeit a lot less in Manhattan than just about anywhere else) in current acquisitions when the seller is ‘pruning’ their portfolio or the structure of the sale — leverage, rollover risks, repositioning, or the sale process itself — provides an edge to the buyer. Further, our country’s taxation system for tax-free exchanges offers frequent motivation for institutions to reallocate their portfolios.”

“I believe we are in the perfect environment for both sellers and buyers,” a principal at Sonnenblick Goldman, Mark Gordon, said. “Sellers can price their assets based on future cash flow, and since construction costs continue to rise many deals look attractive because they trade at a discount to replacement cost.Buyers have unprecedented access to equity and debt capital and therefore are able to move aggressively.”

I have to concur with the managing partner at RBS Greenwich Capital, Chuck Rosenzweig, when he says, “Clearly, there is a feeling right now that this is as good a market for selling as we have seen in a long time. Cap rates on properties have remained at historically low levels for U.S. real estate despite a significant upturn in interest rates. Some of the recent buying from institutions, however, can be very smart and profitable, as institutions sometimes sell for reasons that are not purely driven by extracting the most value from a real estate holding.”

I also see the point made by the senior vice president and head of real estate finance for North America at HSH Nordbank AG, James Fitzgerald, who says,”Irrational exuberance? The buyers paying record prices for certain New York assets have a view that there is more liquidity in the world than quality stuff to buy, as such prices rise. Second theory is that this incredibly unpredictable world in which we find ourselves today dictates safe haven investing in real estate in the U.S., and New York in particular is viewed as very safe.”

Mr. Stoler is a television broadcaster and senior vice president at a title insurance company. He can be reached at mstoler@newyorkrealestatetv.com.