OUR PEOPLE. OUR PROPERTY. OUR PLAN. 2002 Annual Report 1 Financial Highlights Financial (For Year Ended December 31) 2002 2001 2000 Total Revenues (In thousands)1 $ 371,601 $ 389,210 $ 388,500 Net Income (In thousands)2 96,971 101,075 85,020 Earnings Per Share on a Fully-Diluted Basis2 $ 2.46 $ 2.56 $ 2.18 Property Portfolio (Owned at Year End) Number of In-Service Properties 908 918 969 Gross Real Estate Assets (In millions)3 $ 2,706.1 $ 2,748.8 $ 2,698.8 Occupancy Rate 89.5% 91.4% 95.3% Dividend Data (Per Share of Common Stock) Dividends Declared $ 2.725 $ 2.6525 $ 2.5175 Annualized Fourth Quarter Dividend $ 2.74 $ 2.72 $ 2.63 1 Total Revenues include total revenues from discontinued operations relating to sold properties and properties held for sale at December 31, 2002, in the amount of $25,036, $37,970 and $33,311 for the three years ended December 31, 2002, 2001 and 2000, respectively. 2 Net Income for common stockholders before extraordinary items. 3 Gross Real Estate Assets include gross real estate assets from properties held for sale in the amount of $8.8 million, $33.9 million and $258.0 million at December 31, 2002, 2001 and 2000, respectively. Total Revenues1 In millions 2000 2000 $ 388.5 2001 2001 $ 389.2 2002 2002 $ 371.6 Gross Real Estate 2000 2000 $ 2,698.8 Assets3 2001 2001 $ 2,748.8 In millions 2002 2002 $ 2,706.1 Dividend $ 2.725 $ 2.6525 Declared $ 2.5175 $ 2.42 $ 2.19 $ 2.045 $ 1.905 $ 1.9675 $ 0.945 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 (6 months) Investment Senior Cumulative Grade Rating Agency Unsecured Debt Preferred Stock Ratings Standard & Poor’s Ratings Group BBB BBB- Moody’s Investors Service Baa2 Baa3 Fitch Investors Service, Inc. BBB+ BBB FIRST INDUSTRIAL REALTY TRUST, INC. As the nation’s largest provider of diversified industrial real estate, First Industrial Realty Trust owns, operates, manages and has under development 71.7 million square feet, with a portfolio comprised of over 900 properties. The Company offers its properties through its unique I-N-D-L operating platform, which utilizes a pure industrial focus and national scope to provide diverse facility types, while offering local full-service management and expertise. The Company’s portfolio is comprised of the diverse range of industrial properties required by today’s leading corporations, including: Regional Warehouse, Bulk Warehouse, Light Industrial, R&D Flex and Manufacturing facilities. First Industrial Realty Trust’s mission is to create value as measured by total return, employing both active portfolio and active investment management strategies to achieve its goals. Its portfolio strategy is designed to produce a portfolio that contributes stable and predictable increases in portfolio cash flow and net asset value (NAV), while continually improving the functional and interactive characteristics of the Company’s I-N-D-L operating platform. The Company’s local market managers play a critical role in managing properties for maximum cash flow generation, and in identifying submarkets and formulating submarket strategies with respect to investments or divestments. This local expertise helps to reduce operating and execution risk, broadens the Company’s investment opportunities and enables First Industrial to provide exceptional service to its customers. The Company’s investment strategy is based on the premise that the targeted industrial asset achieves its maximum value over a five-year period. First Industrial underwrites a value creation plan for every asset in which it proposes to invest, and because it operates nationally and has expertise with a broad range of industrial facility types, its value creation plans result in a continuous flow of investment and divestment opportunities. The investment strategy is intended to, in the aggregate and over the long term, increase the Company’s NAV and generate returns above the Company’s cost of capital, thus producing enhanced shareholder value. A unique characteristic of the industrial real estate market is that it is highly fragmented, with approximately 65% of the 25 billion square-foot market owned by Corporate America. It is management’s belief that this large and highly liquid market provides enormous opportunity for investment management success. Since the Company began its active investment management program in 1999, it has achieved an average 17.5% unleveraged internal rate of return (IRR) on total sales of over $1.5 billion of industrial real estate. 3 Dear Fellow Stockholders, 2002 was one of the most challenging years for industrial real estate, and the most demanding for First Industrial since its initial public offering in 1994. Despite this challenging environment, our Company’s management team, solid operating platform and financial flexibility enabled us to take advantage of the many opportunities that existed. As your management team gathered to formulate its operating plan for 2002, economists and business leaders expected an economic rebound in mid-year, and given the growing level of tenant prospects in the market, we shared their view. Despite the positive activity early in the year, the continued economic weakness and increasing geopolitical risks weighed heavily on business activity, restraining capital investment. Our approach to the economic uncertainty we faced in 2002 was to focus on the fundamentals, and that focus served us well. 2002 was a year that tested—and proved—the strength of our Company, the talent of our team and the ability of our value creation strategy to capture opportunities in any economic environment. The following highlights our 2002 accomplishments: We increased our dividend for the eighth consecutive year. We leased approximately 21.1 million square feet. Our occupancy ended the year at 89.5%, above the national average. We repurchased over 1.0 million shares of common stock at a weighted average price of approximately $27.02 per share. We took advantage of the strong debt market to strengthen our balance sheet by renewing early our credit facility and refinancing out of our series B preferred stock and certain secured debt. We substantially completed our geographic repositioning to focus on higher-growth markets. Over the past five years, First Industrial’s total return to stockholders was 18.0%, slightly above the NAREIT Equity Index. In the challenging equity market of 2002, however, our total return to stockholders was -1.9%, while the NAREIT Equity Index returned 3.8%. We are obviously disappointed in the performance of our stock in 2002, and are working hard to increase demand for our stock and improve stockholder returns going forward. 4 OUR BUSINESS Owning industrial real estate is our business, with the greatest percentage of our revenues derived from leasing industrial property to customers throughout the nation. In addition to rental income, we generate revenue from the development or redevelopment of industrial assets for investment in our portfolio, for corporate customers who require a build-to-suit development, or for sale to one of our joint venture funds or to an investor. Our development capability extends nationwide and encompasses the diverse range of industrial property types. The balance of our revenue is derived from investment returns from buying and selling industrial properties. Corporations own approximately 65% of the nation’s industrial properties. This characteristic, unique among commercial real estate assets, allows for a more liquid market of buyers and sellers, particularly in today’s environment where supply chain reconfigurations, sale-leasebacks and an increased focus on operating efficiency are transforming the industry. Further, the market’s fragmented nature, and the low investment threshold of industrial property relative to other commercial real estate asset classes, provides a large and diverse universe of prospective investors. This further enhances the liquidity of the market and provides First Industrial with an opportunity to maximize its investment returns by selling assets to the most motivated buyer. Our operating platform and financial flexibility were developed with this in mind, and our investment management success continued in 2002, as we achieved a 19.1% unleveraged internal rate of return on the sale of $473.5 million of industrial property. Investment management is a core competency of First Industrial’s local managers, who are experts in their respective markets and who, through their value creation plans, are continuously identifying assets in our portfolio where value creation opportunity has peaked and harvesting is appropriate. In addition to buying and selling properties, our property managers continuously seek to identify opportunities to enhance value through redevelopment and/or stabilization and sale of properties for reinvestment into other higher-yielding assets. This active investment management enables us to maintain a high-quality industrial portfolio, further enables us to reposition our portfolio for longer-term growth and stability, and has provided a growing and recurring stream of income for First Industrial. 5 Michael W. Brennan President and Chief Executive Officer “We manage First Industrial for profitable long-term growth, and in 2002 we capitalized on many opportunities to create value and strengthen your Company.” 6 Despite weak sector fundamentals, investment demand for industrial real estate remained strong in 2002. Seeking to maximize portfolio investment returns, we took advantage of the strong demand for ownership of industrial properties, selling 114 properties and 10 parcels of land for $473.5 million at an average 9.0% cap rate and an average 19.1% unleveraged IRR. While this opportunistic investment strategy benefited our sales program, finding opportunities to reinvest our sale proceeds, while maintaining our high investment standards, was more difficult. Nonetheless, because we invest in a broad range of industrial facility types in markets throughout the nation, we were able to find many such opportunities in 2002, acquiring $237.4 million of property, comprising 5.7 million square feet.