W. P. Carey

William Polk Carey founded W. P. Carey & Co. in 1973, developing a corporate real estate advisory and investment business focused on sale-leaseback transactions — allowing corporations to sell their real estate assets and lease them back for continued operational use. This structure monetized corporate real estate while maintaining occupancy. W. P. Carey grew into a publicly traded net lease REIT with global assets. Carey is credited with developing institutional-quality corporate real estate sale-leaseback as a recognized asset class in real estate investment. The firm's European net lease portfolio, which was developed over decades of sale-leaseback transactions with German, Dutch, and Nordic corporations, gave W. P. Carey a distinctive international diversification compared to most US-focused net lease REITs, and became a significant contributor to its long-term dividend growth.