EQC Equity Commonwealth

As previously announced, CommonWealth REIT (NYSE: CWH) will begin trading at Market Open today on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol “CWH”. CWH was formerly named HRPT Properties Trust and traded on the Exchange under the ticker “HRP”. The company’s new website address is www.cwhreit.com.

Before the name and ticker change became effective today, the company implemented a common share combination by which the number of its common shares outstanding was reduced by three quarters: for every four existing common shares owned, shareholders received one new common share.

The tickers and CUSIP numbers for CommonWealth REIT’s publicly traded securities are listed below:

Issue Name       Ticker Symbol       CUSIP # Common shares       CWH       203233-101 Preferred Stock Series B       CWH-PB       203233-200 Preferred Stock Series C       CWH-PC       203233-309 Preferred Stock Series D       CWH-PD       203233-408 7.50% Senior Notes due 2019       CWH-N       203233-507

CommonWealth REIT is a nationwide office and industrial real estate investment trust, or REIT. As of March 31, 2010, CWH owned 518 properties with 66.8 million square feet located in over 60 markets in 34 states and Washington, DC. For the three months ended March 31, 2010, 41% of the company’s property net operating income (NOI) came from suburban office properties, 37% of NOI came from office properties located in central business districts and 22% of NOI came from industrial and other properties. CWH is headquartered in Newton, Massachusetts.