The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday edition that one of Western Canada's largest real estate fund managers is planning initial public offerings for its $9.8-billion apartment building and self-storage property portfolio. The Globe's Andrew Willis writes that on Monday, Calgary's Avenue Living Asset Management launched strategic reviews of its privately owned 23,000-apartment-unit portfolio, the Avenue Living Real Estate Core Trust, and the Mini Mall Storage Properties Trust, which owns 270 facilities. The two Avenue Living offerings could create public companies together worth more than $3-billion. Avenue Living is starting down the road to IPOs during a period when the performance of real estate investment trusts is mixed, with numerous property portfolios trading at significant discounts to book value. Units in Canadian Apartment Properties REIT, the largest player in the sector, are up 2.4 per cent so far this year. Shares in Storagevault, which is about the same size as the Mini Mall trust, are up 6.5 per cent year-to-date, and the company has a $1.8-billion market capitalization. However, apartment REITs that trade for less than their net asset value have attracted takeover bids from institutional investors.