To Create Half Million Square Foot Office Property

    BOSTON, Sept. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Beacon Properties Corporation (NYSE: BCN)
has acquired an 11-acre development site on Route 128 near the Massachusetts
Turnpike in Newton, MA, and plans to convert a former warehouse located
there into a Class A office complex to be known as Riverside Center.  The
purchase price was approximately $33 million.
    The Riverside Center development property, at 275 Grove Street, Newton,
MA, was purchased from Cabot, Cabot & Forbes of New England, Inc.
    Alan M. Leventhal, president and chief executive officer of Beacon
Properties, stated: "Riverside Center's superb location at the crossroads
of Route 128 and the Massachusetts Turnpike makes this development project a
unique opportunity for Beacon.  Riverside Center is also a good strategic
fit with our Route 128 developments in Bedford and Waltham, announced
earlier this year."
    Scheduled for completion by year-end 1999, Riverside Center will be a
four-story office building containing approximately 500,000 square feet,
parking for 1,500 cars and pedestrian access to the Charles River and
Riverside Park.  The adjacent Riverside T-station provides convenient rail
and bus service to downtown Boston.
    Including Riverside Center, Beacon's development projects in suburban
Boston total more than 1.1 million square feet.  A three-building, 256,000
square feet expansion of its Crosby Corporate Center property in Bedford, MA,
is scheduled for completion in the second quarter of 1998.  In addition, a
350,000 to 450,000 square foot development project is planned for 175 Wyman
Street, Waltham, MA; final details are expected to be announced within the
next 30 days.
    The impetus behind Beacon's development activity in suburban Boston has
been an exceptionally strong local economy, led by knowledge-based industries
such as computer software and financial services.  According to Spaulding &
Slye, the overall office vacancy rate in suburban Boston at the end of the
second quarter was 4.9 percent.  The vacancy rate in the Route 128/MassPike
sub-market was just 1.5 percent.
    As announced on September 15, Beacon Properties Corporation and Equity
Office Properties Trust (NYSE: EOP) have entered into a definitive agreement
and plan of merger.
    Beacon Properties Corporation, with headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts,
is one of the nation's largest real estate investment trusts (REITs).
Established in 1994 as a self-administered and self-managed REIT, the
company owns or has an interest in a portfolio of office properties located
in major metropolitan areas, including Boston, Atlanta, Chicago, Los
Angeles, San Francisco and Washington DC.  Beacon's office portfolio
currently totals 118 buildings containing 18.8 million square feet.  The
properties are approximately 97 percent leased with over 1,250 tenants.
Additional information about Beacon is available at the company's Internet
site at http://www.beaconproperties.com.
    Certain matters discussed in this press release may constitute forward-
looking statements within the meaning of the Federal securities law.  Although
Beacon believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking
statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, it can give no assurance
that its expectations will be achieved.  Factors that could cause actual
results to differ materially from Beacon's current expectations include
general economic conditions, local real estate conditions, timely releasing of
occupied square footage upon expiration, interest rates, availability of
equity and debt financing and other risks detailed from time to time in the
company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including
quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, reports on Form 8-K and annual reports on Form
10-K.

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