Equity Residential (EQR) will pay a special cash dividend of $8.00 per share. The company expects to announce the record and payment dates for its regular first quarter 2016 dividend on March 11, 2016 in connection with its quarterly Board of Trustees meeting.

“We had a tremendously successful execution on the sale of more than $6 billion of non-core assets, which produced an unlevered internal rate of return of 11.3%, and are pleased to deliver much of the proceeds from these sales to our shareholders on a leverage neutral basis,” said David J. Neithercut, Equity Residential’s President and CEO. “We can now focus solely on our strategy of owning, building and operating assets in coastal gateway cities in higher density urban locations with close proximity to public transportation, job centers and other amenities that these cities have to offer.”

Equity Residential is a real estate company focused on the acquisition, development and management of rental apartment properties located in urban and high-density suburban markets in U.S. cities. Equity Residential owns or has investments in properties consisting of apartment units, primarily located in Boston, New York, Washington, D.C., Seattle, San Francisco, Southern California and Denver. The company’s corporate headquarters is located in Chicago, Illinois and the company also operates regional property management offices in each of its markets. A dividend has been paid every year since 2003 by the real estate investment trust.