Office owner Joss Realty REIT wants to go public to capitalize on opportunities in the office market that have emerged as office values have stumbled.

Joss filed paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission last week for an initial public offering.

The initial portfolio Joss is bringing to the table is three multitenant office properties in Boston, Philadelphia and the Bay Area. The properties are approximately 70% leased to 31 tenants.

None of the properties require "extensive capital expenditures" and are good candidates for strategic value-add improvements, according to the filing.

The plan is to expand into other top metros where economic growth is expected to continue to drive tenant demand for attractive office space. Joss plans to target "boutique office assets," many of which it anticipates will be value-add properties that will require investment and repositioning to be successful.

Joss' move comes as public office REITs are going private or wrestling with offers to do so. In July, hedge fund Elliott Investment Management made a $1.1B play to take City Office REIT private. The deal is set to close by the end of this year.

Office REIT Orion Properties fielded and ultimately rejected an offer in June from an asset manager interested in taking private its 8M SF portfolio.

Publicly traded office REIT Office Properties Income Trust is facing a one-two punch of maturing debt and cash flow problems, with more than $270M of debt coming due early next year.