Time and money are two of the most precious resources for Pan Pacific Retail Properties and with the help of Intuit Real Estate Solutions (IRES), the Vista, Calif.-based REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) has been able to manage those resources more efficiently than ever before.

This was never more apparent than when Pan Pacific acquired another California REIT, Center Trust Inc. in January 2003 in a deal valued at $600 million. “Immediately upon learning of the acquisition, I began to think about the additional resources we would need in our department,” said Laurie Sneve, Vice President, Controller at Pan Pacific.

The addition of such a large company could have proved to be a daunting undertaking from an accounting and information technology standpoint. “We thought that we would have to hire at least two more accountants,” said Sneve. “But we didn’t have to. Because of efficiencies generated by IRES over the previous 18 months we acquired a $600 million dollar company and didn’t have to hire any additional accountants.”

Richard Gierke, Director of Information Technology, was also amazed by the relative simplicity of the acquisition because the company acquired was also using IRES. “From an internal application standpoint, the acquisition was easy because of the flexibility of IRES. I flipped a switch after work on Friday and by Monday everything was up and running,” said Gierke.

Pan Pacific also benefits from the power of having a complete solution.“We don’t have to use different software programs for data analysis, reports, budgeting, cam reconciliations, tenant sales and leasing information; we only use IRES, it handles everything we need,” said Linda Gartner, Senior Assistant Controller.

“We like to get as much into IRES as possible,” said Sneve. “The greatest thing about IRES is the database consolidation. It is one point of entry for all of our data.”

IRES' ForeSight module, a business forecasting and budgeting tool, has also been a huge asset to Pan Pacific. “ForeSight has been a tremendous budgeting tool for us,” said Joe Tyson, Chief Financial Officer. “It used to take us three months for the budgeting process and now it takes just one and half months.”

About Pan Pacific Retail Properties, Inc.

Pan Pacific was formed August 8, 1997, as an equity real estate investment trust (REIT) with the successful completion of its initial public offering of 7.0 million shares of common stock. Since 1993 management has grown the Company's portfolio of shopping centers from 18 to 131 properties through acquisition and development focused within the Western U.S. The properties have an average age of approximately nine years and encompass approximately 20.9 million square feet of retail space. For more information, please visit their website at www.pprp.com.