A Tech-Centric Real-Estate Play

Looking for a tech stock with a 6% dividend, real earnings and a book value of about 40 per share? At least one fund manager suggests looking at Spieker Properties (SPK Quote), a real-estate investment trust.

Sound unusual? It is. Spieker is a unique real-estate play with assets heavily concentrated in Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay area and a savvy management team that shoots straight with investors.

Spieker owns more than 40 million square feet of office and industrial buildings in California and the Pacific Northwest, with a significant concentration -- more than 40% -- in the San Francisco and Silicon Valley markets. The company's buildings are leased primarily to firms that turn the engines of the new economy. "Spieker is the real-estate way to play the technology boom," says Sam Lieber, president of Alpine Management, a real-estate investment management firm that has a position in Spieker. ...