Richard D. Kincaid, the former president and CEO of Equity Office Properties Trust, died unexpectedly at age 58. The Cook County Medical Examiner's office confirms it was a suicide.
Kincaid, with chairman Sam Zell, led Equity Office up through the $39 billion sale in 2007 of the Chicago-based company to Blackstone Group, then the largest real estate deal in history. After completion of the sale, Kincaid got into early-stage investing, founded a nonprofit, served on corporate boards and even pursued a singing career.
Kincaid died March 20, according to a statement from Rayonier, a Wildlight, Fla.-based real estate investment trust that owns timberland. Kincaid, who joined Rayonier’s board in 2004, had served as its chairman since 2014.
“We are shocked and deeply saddened by the passing of Mr. Kincaid,” Rayonier President and CEO David Nunes said in the statement. “Richard brought a wealth of experience, wisdom and business acumen to his role as chairman of our board. He was also a wonderful supporter of our leadership team, as well as a great friend and mentor to me and many others at Rayonier.”
A Rayonier representative did not respond to a request for comment. Kincaid’s wife, Jackie, declined to comment.
Kincaid, a Northbrook resident, grew up in Kansas, earning an undergraduate degree at Wichita State University and an MBA at the University of Texas at Austin. He began his career in banking and entered Zell’s orbit in the 1990s, taking over as chief financial officer of Equity Office at age 33 in 1995, a couple of years before the REIT went public. He became CEO in 2003.
With the economy coming out of a recession, it was a tough time for a lot of office landlords, but especially for Equity Office, the nation’s largest owner of office buildings. The REIT had gobbled up properties in tech-heavy markets like San Francisco and Seattle, bad places to be after the dot-com bust.
“Being CEO of Equity Office was humbling,” Kincaid said in a 2019 interview with Thrive Global, a corporate education and wellness company. “I began my new role right as the office markets in the U.S. were in a steep decline. We went from 95% leased to 83% leased, and it put considerable pressure on the entire organization. I had to lay off 18% of the workforce, cut the dividend and start to shrink the company when our entire focus had previously been on growth.”
But the Equity Office story had a happy ending. Amid a rising economy and office market, the firm became a takeover candidate by 2006, attracting offers from New York-based Vornado Realty Trust and Blackstone, the New York private-equity giant. Blackstone prevailed with a price nearly double Equity Office’s value a year earlier.
Kincaid and other Equity Office executives cashed out for tens of millions of dollars. As the deal closed in February 2007, Kincaid gave Zell credit for taking a risk on him.
“I’ve been in over my head my whole career with him,” Kincaid told the Chicago Sun-Times. “I’ve gotten to do so much stuff that you normally wouldn’t get to do at my age.”
A spokeswoman for Zell did not respond to a request for comment. Kincaid's death was first reported by CoStar Group.
After leaving Equity Office, Kincaid started the BeCause Foundation, a nonprofit that started out making films to highlight social issues. The organization now awards scholarships and grants in the education field.
Kincaid’s venture investments included Sagegreenlife, a Chicago company that makes living walls—large vertical foliage installations that hang on walls. Kincaid was also chairman of Black Creek Diversified Property Fund, a Denver-based firm that owns office, retail, industrial and multifamily properties around the country.
Kincaid spent some of his post-Equity Office time in the recording studio pursuing his interest in music. As a singer, he released three records in the adult contemporary genre, including a Christmas single.
"It's not the straightest path to be in the music business,” he told Northbrook Patch in 2013, “but it worked out for me."
The subheadline on this story has been corrected to say the sale to Blackstone was for $39 billion, not $39 million.
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