You may not be aware of it, but there's hardly a household in America today that doesn't contain products that have passed through a ProLogis property. And if such a household exists now, that almost certainly won't be the case in the future. The giant DC and warehouse developer has announced plans to buy rival real-estate investment trust Catellus Development Corp., creating the world's largest network of warehouses and distribution centers.

ProLogis, whose clients include consumer goods giants such as Unilever, will pay $3.6 billion for Catellus. Once their assets are combined, the newly consolidated company will control more than 2,250 facilities with 350 million square feet in North America, Asia and Europe as well as more than 100 million square feet of potentially developable land.

"This transaction dramatically changes the landscape of the U.S. industrial real-estate market by consolidating two of the largest industrial property developers in North America," says Jeffrey H. Schwartz, ProLogis's chief executive officer. "The transaction also supports strong development growth with Catellus's quality land bank, [which includes] almost 30 million buildable square feet in the top six distribution markets."

ProLogis, based in Aurora, Colo., will also assume $1.3 billion in Catellus debt and transaction costs as part of the deal. The acquisition is expected to boost ProLogis's funds from operations—a key measure of success for real-estate investment trusts—by about 3 to 5 percent in 2006.