Management

CommonWealth REIT is managed by Reit Management & Research LLC (RMR). RMR is a large real estate management company which was founded in 1986 to manage public investments in real estate. As of December 31, 2011, RMR manages a large portfolio of publicly owned real estate including over 1,470 properties, located in 46 states, Washington, DC, Puerto Rico, Canada and Australia. RMR has over 750 employees in its headquarters and regional offices located throughout the country.

In addition to managing CWH, RMR also manages Hospitality Properties Trust (HPT), a publicly traded REIT that owns hotels, Senior Housing Properties Trust (SNH), a publicly traded REIT that primarily owns healthcare properties, and Government Properties Income Trust (GOV), a REIT that primarily owns and leases office buildings that are majority leased to government tenants. RMR also provides management services to Five Star Quality Care, Inc., a healthcare services company which is a tenant of SNH, and to Travel Centers of America, LLC, an operator of travel centers which is a tenant of HPT. An affiliate of RMR, RMR Advisors, Inc., is the investment manager of a publicly offered mutual fund, which principally invests in securities of unaffiliated real estate companies. The public companies managed by RMR and its affiliates had combined total gross assets of over $20.0 billion as of December 31, 2011.

We believe that RMR management provides a competitive advantage to CWH because RMR has a depth of management and experience which may be unequaled in the real estate industry. We also believe RMR is also able to provide management services to CWH at costs that are lower than we would have to pay for comparable services. CWH’s corporate expenses have historically been lower than the average corporate expenses for many other office REITs as measured both as a percentage of gross revenues and as a percentage of gross assets.