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Duke Realty Corporation Business Information, Profile, and History

600 E. 96th Street, Suite 100
Indianapolis, Indiana 46240
U.S.A.

Company Perspectives:

With an emphasis on using real estate to support our clients' businesses, Duke Realty Corporation has grown to become one of the most successful commercial real estate companies in the United States, serving more than 4,500 tenants.

History of Duke Realty Corporation

Duke Realty Corporation is an Indianapolis-based real estate investment trust (REIT) that specializes in the development and management of suburban office and industrial properties located in 13 major midwestern and southern cities. The company owns interests in approximately 110 million square feet of property and also owns or controls more than 4,000 acres of undeveloped land, capable of containing an additional 62 million square feet of rentable space. Duke serves more than 4,500 tenants.

Launch of Predecessor Company in 1972

The man behind the Duke name was Phillip R. Duke, a 1959 graduate of Butler University who started out his business career as a certified public accountant. He switched to real estate development when he became a partner at C.W. Jackson Construction Co. He then struck out on his own, teaming up with attorney John Wynne to form a construction and development company. They brought in someone with a sales background, John Rosebrough, and in 1972 P.R. Duke & Associates was born. The three men pooled their money, a modest $30,000 in operating funds and another $10,000 in development funds. Despite limited capital and no reputation in development, they bought a struggling 324-acre industrial park, Park 100, from Indianapolis businessman Howard Sams. What they may have lacked in experience they compensated for with vision. They were pioneers in the development of flex space--combining office, showroom, and warehouse space in one location. Duke transformed Park 100 into one of the country's largest industrial parks, eventually encompassing some 1,500 acres.

Phillip Duke and his partners adopted a vertically integrated approach to the real estate business, establishing five operating companies to support their development activities: P.R. Duke Co. Construction, Duke Construction Management Inc., Duke Management Inc., Duke Realty Inc., and P.R. Duke Securities. These entities were essentially designed to produce savings for development projects rather than to generate significant levels of profit. The arrangement was summarized in a 1986 Indianapolis Business Journal article: "The relationship between the two P.R. Duke & Associates arms allows the company to retain control of all aspects of the development of its projects from the idea to collecting rents. 'The real business we're in is creating net income streams--rents,' Duke said."

Once the business was well established in its hometown, Duke expanded into its second market, Cincinnati, in 1978. It began testing a third market in 1985 when it built an office building in Nashville, Tennessee. The timing, however, was less than fortuitous due to a number of Texas developers entering the area simultaneously, a situation that led to the area becoming overbuilt. While Duke aggressively added to its holdings in Indianapolis and Cincinnati in a bid to become the dominant developer in those cities, it was content to adopt a wait-and-see approach in Nashville. Ultimately the Texas firms abandoned the market and Duke remained to further develop the area when conditions improved.

Formation of a REIT in 1985

In 1985 Duke decided to package a number of its properties in a real estate investment trust. The REIT had been created by Congress in 1960 as a way for small investors to become involved in real estate in a manner similar to mutual funds. REITs could be taken public and their shares traded just like stock companies and they were also subject to regulation by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Unlike stocks, however, REITs were required by law to pay out at least 95 percent of their taxable income to shareholders each year, a provision that severely limited the ability of REITs to raise funds internally. During the first 25 years of existence, REITs were allowed only to own real estate, a situation that hindered their growth. Third parties had to be contracted to manage the properties. REITs also fell out of favor with investors in the 1970s because of a number of heavily leveraged, poor-performing trusts. Not until the Tax Reform Act of 1986 changed the nature of real estate investment did the REIT gain widespread usage. Tax shelter schemes that had drained potential investments were shut down by the act. Interest and depreciation deductions were greatly reduced so that taxpayers could not generate paper losses in order to lower their tax liabilities. REITs also were permitted now to provide customary services for property, in effect allowing the trusts to operate and manage the properties they owned.

While the tax legislation was being passed in 1985, Duke established a REIT, Duke Realty Investments, in November of that year in preparation for the act taking effect a few months later. The trust was created to have a finite life, 10 to 12 years, which by law meant that it could not add properties to its portfolio, nor could it sell any properties for four years. The REIT completed its initial public offering of two types of shares (income and capital), netting $69 million. By buying the capital shares investors received a share of capital gains as the properties were sold off in the course of Duke Realty's existence. It proved to be an awkward structure, making the company difficult to analyze, and after two years the trust adopted a single class of stock. Regardless, the original incarnation of Duke Realty Corporation was never very popular with investors.

In 1986 Phillip Duke and Rosebrough sold their interests in the five operating companies of P.R. Duke & Associates to a partnership headed by one of the original founders, John Wynne, along with four second-level managers. The three founders, however, retained their share of ownership in the more important development arm of the organization. Duke told the press, "The truth is the younger team has been pretty much getting the job done on their own for some time now." A more dramatic change in the real estate operation would occur three months later when Duke died of a heart attack in Florida.

The Duke development arm expanded in the late 1980s, moving into new territories such as suburban Detroit and a number of markets in Ohio, Illinois, and Kentucky. Like many real estate firms it became dependent on a continually growing economy, steady rent increases, and liberal lending practices. As economic growth slowed and markets became saturated with space, many companies became trapped in a downward spiral of decreasing values. With real estate available at distressed prices in the early 1990s REITs finally became an attractive mainstream investment option. In order to shed massive levels of debt dozens of real estate firms went public as REITs in 1993. The Duke REIT, which had been a sluggish performer, now became a means of revitalizing the fortunes of the Duke enterprises.

In October 1993 Duke Realty Investments acquired Duke Associates, then completed a public offering of stock that raised $312.7 million, of which $290 million was used to pay down debt. The reorganized company was left with approximately $243 million in debt. Duke was now in a position to raise capital to add properties to its portfolio, but management made it clear to investors that it would be circumspect. Chief Financial Officer Gene Zink told the press, "It is not our plan to gobble up properties." Serving as Duke's president and CEO was Thomas L. Hefner, who had been a managing general partner at Duke Associates since 1978 and had recently served as the firm's chief operating officer. Wynne assumed the chairmanship of the REIT.

Duke pursued a strategy of developing a regional REIT that sought to dominate the markets it entered but not become overextended. Isolated projects outside the Midwest, such as one in Florida, were the exception. In 1995 the company established a regional office in St. Louis and acquired 463,000 square feet of office properties as well as 153 acres of suburban land for the future development of industrial properties. In February 1996 Duke established a beachhead in Cleveland, acquiring Farro Enterprises Inc. Over the course of the year Duke acquired additional assets in the region so that by the end of 1996 it had nearly two million square feet of space under management. Altogether, Duke owned interests in 266 rental properties with a total of 31.2 million square feet, the vast majority located in the company's primary markets: Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Detroit, St. Louis, and Nashville.

Duke continued to expand into new markets in 1997. It opened a regional office in Chicago and acquired nearly one million square feet of suburban office space and 160 acres of land for future development. In October 1997 Duke acquired Minneapolis-based R.L. Johnson Company, picking up 3.2 million square feet of industrial and office space. Moreover, in 1997 Duke added to its core markets. The company acquired 982,000 square feet of suburban office space in St. Louis, and also bought significant amounts of land and properties in Cleveland and Indianapolis. Duke began to explore the possibility of expanding further, considering such markets as Kansas City, Missouri; Memphis, Tennessee; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. While it grew at a steady and cautious pace, other REITs were engaged in an acquisition binge and as a consequence took on large levels of debt. The industry average of debt-to-market capitalization was close to 50 percent; Duke maintained a level around 26 percent. Many investors believed that the industry was overbuilding again, resulting in a drop in the price of REIT shares. Reluctant to tap into the capital market at these levels, REITs were unable to complete major acquisitions.

Acquiring Weeks Corp. in 1999

Unencumbered by debt, Duke was positioned to make a major deal. Management also was convinced that its business model was manageable on a larger scale and that the time had come to expand beyond its voluntary confines. In addition, in the rapidly consolidating world of real estate, the company was virtually obligated to grow larger. Duke looked at markets to the southeast of its area of operation and discovered that Atlanta-based Weeks Corp. was a perfect complement. Only in the Nashville market was there any overlap. Weeks was formed in 1965 and went public in 1994. It owned interests in some 300 industrial properties, 34 suburban office properties, and five retail properties in ten Sunbelt cities, including Atlanta, Georgia; Miami, Florida; Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas; Orlando, Florida; and Spartanburg, South Carolina. In March 1999 Duke and Weeks agreed to a $1.1 billion stock swap, creating a company with a market value of close to $5.4 billion. Each share of Weeks common stock was exchanged for 1.38 shares of Duke common stock. The new entity became known as Duke-Weeks Realty Corp., a name it would retain for two years before becoming Duke Realty Corporation. The company's headquarters was located in Indianapolis, and Hefner became CEO and chair. All tallied, postmerger, the company owned 846 office and industrial buildings totaling 90 million square feet.

Management was pleased with the integration of Weeks, which operated in a manner similar to Duke, but found it hard to accept the response from the investment community. In the spring of 2000 shares of its stock were selling in the $19 range, down from a 52-week high of $24.25, a situation all too common for REITs at the time. Although it was eager to strengthen its holdings in such markets as Dallas, Raleigh, Orlando, and Tampa, Duke elected in 2000 to pursue what it called a "capital recycling" program, with the intent of selling around $400 million in assets that year. In reality Duke disposed of $765 million in 2000 and another $541 million in 2001, followed by nearly $230 million in the first several months of 2002. None of the assets were considered to hold strategic value to the company. As a result of the selloff, at a time of economic difficulties for the country, Duke was sitting on some $2 billion in cash and boasted a 25 percent debt-to-capital ratio, down from 38 percent when the program was launched. With such a low debt load the company held a tremendous advantage over competitors in its ability to borrow capital. Management was comfortable returning to the 38 percent level, and investors would tolerate a level as high as 45 percent. Despite its cash and ability to raise additional funds, the company simply did not see strong enough demand in the market to warrant major development projects, nor did it spot any appealing acquisition targets. Instead Duke was willing to maintain what most regarded as the cleanest balance sheet in the real estate industry and wait for economic conditions to improve.

Early in 2003 Duke began a transition in the ranks of upper management when Hefner announced his intention to retire as CEO in April 2004, and then give up the chairmanship a year later. Although his successor was not yet named, speculations in the press centered on the company's president and chief operating officer, Denny Oklak.

Principal Subsidiaries: Duke Realty Limited Partnership; Weeks Development Partnership.

Principal Competitors: Highwoods Properties, Inc.; Liberty Property Trust; Prime Group Realty Trust.

Related information about Duke

In the Byzantine empire, the military head of a district; in Italy, the governor with civil and military powers. Among the Lombards, the dukes were war-chiefs who acquired jurisdictional and administrative powers. The duke is not present among the Carolingians, but the collapse of the empire saw the emergence of the duchies of Normandy, Saxony, Austria, etc. In the 14th-c, the title came to denote the sovereign of territories only formally linked to the empire, such as the duchies of Milan and Mantua. Currently, it is a grade inferior to that of prince and superior to that of marquis.

In the UK, a nobleman of the highest order. A royal duke is a son of the sovereign who has been given a dukedom, such as Queen Elizabeth's son Andrew, Duke of York. Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, is a royal duke, but not a duke of the blood royal, since he is not a descendant of a British sovereign in the male line.

Alternateuses
Duke is a usually hereditary title of nobility which sometimes referred to the male monarch of certain Continental European principalities, called duchy after his title; the highest titular rank in France, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom, and Italy (except in Naples, where the title of principe was held to be higher); It has also often been borne by cadet princes of reigning dynasties, conferred as an individual title or appanage in Britain, Scandinavia, and Latin Europe, or inherited by right in some German monarchies. this Roman rank was below the similar Comes rei militaris (the rank of Comes, which also had various court and other civilian uses, survives in the title Count, which is lower in the feudal hierarchy).

The Germanic Franks converted, under Roman influence, the Germanic concept of Herzog (literally: "war-leader", commonly translated as "duke"), the temporarily elected general for a major expedition of warfare, into military governors for units of up to a dozen counties. In the 7th century these units developed into hereditary clan-duchies of Bavarians, Thuringians, Alemanni, Franks and other Germanic tribes, which Charlemagne crushed in 788, converting the border provinces into margraviates (which however soon emerged as clan-margraviates: Saxony, Bavaria, Swabia, Lorraine...).

The dissolution tendency was counteracted by the appointment of younger sons of the monarchs (royal dukes) as military governors of the important border provinces, which however also soon developed into hereditary duchies and a source of intrigues against the monarch (see for instance: History of Schleswig-Holstein).

In early Medieval Italy, the Dukes of Benevento and of Spoleto were independent territorial magnates in duchies originally created by the Lombards.

In the 19th century, the sovereign dukes of Parma and Modena in Italy, and of Anhalt, Brunswick-L端neburg, Nassau (state), Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Saxe-Meiningen, and Saxe-Altenburg in Germany survived Napoleon's reorganization.

Since the unification of Italy in 1870 and the end of monarchy in Germany in 1918, there have no longer been any reigning dukes in Europe;

The Black Prince was created Duke of Cornwall in 1337. the Middle English duke derives from the Old French duc, which in turn came from the Latin dux/ducis deriving from the verb ducere, meaning "to lead". When this title appeared in the Carolingian empire, stem dukes ruled over non-Frankish nations (dukes of the Alamans, of the Bavarians, of the Aquitans), while counts ruled over a region in the Frankish realm. Currently, there are twenty-seven dukedoms in the peerages of England, Scotland, Great Britain, Ireland and the United Kingdom, held by twenty-four different people (see List of Dukes in order of precedence).

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, a royal duke is a duke who is a member of the British Royal Family, entitled to the style of Royal Highness. In the United Kingdom, the current royal dukedoms are Cornwall and Rothesay (both held by the Prince of Wales), York, Edinburgh, Gloucester, and Kent.

Other dukedoms that have often been awarded to members of the British royal family in the past include those of Albany, Cambridge, Clarence, and Cumberland. The dukedoms of Connaught, Kendal and Sussex have also been royal dukedoms, but more briefly.

The Hanoverians occasionally combined two territorial designations into a single royal dukedom -- for example, the Duke of York and Albany. Other combinations included Cumberland and Strathearn, Clarence and St. Andrews, Kent and Strathearn, Cumberland and Teviotdale, Connaught and Strathearn and Clarence and Avondale. Although the term "royal duke" therefore has no official meaning per se, the category "duke of the Blood Royal" was acknowledged as a rank conferring special precedence at court in the unrevoked 20th clause of the Lord Chamberlain's order of 1520. The order did not apply within Parliament, nor did it grant precedence above the Archbishop of Canterbury or other great officers of state such as is now enjoyed by royal dukes.

Under the November 20, 1917, Letters Patent of King George V, the titular dignity of Prince/Princess and the style Royal Highness are restricted to the sons of a Sovereign, the sons of a Sovereign's sons, and the eldest living son of the eldest son of a Prince of Wales. For example, when the current Duke of Gloucester and Duke of Kent are succeeded by their eldest sons, the Earl of Ulster and the Earl of St. Andrews, respectively, those peerages (or rather, the 1928 and 1934 creations of them) will cease to be royal dukedoms, instead the title holders will become ordinary Dukes. Similarly, upon the death of Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught (1850-1942), the third son of Queen Victoria, his only male-line grandson, Alastair Arthur Windsor, Earl of MacDuff (1914-1943), briefly succeeded to his peerages.

Addressing British Dukes

"Common" Dukes:

Begin: My Lord Duke
Address: His Grace the Duke of _____
Speak to as: Your Grace

Royal Dukes:

Begin: Sir
Address: His Royal Highness the Duke of _____
Speak to as: Your Royal Highness

Belgium

In Belgium, the title of Duke of Brabant (historically the most prestigious in the Low Countries, and containing the federal capital Brussels), if still vacant, has been awarded preferentially to the eldest son and heir presumptive of the King, other male dynasts receiving various lower historical titles (much older than Belgium, and in principle never fallen to the Belgian crown), such as Count of Flanders (king Leopold III's so-titled brother held the title when he became the realm's temporary head of state as Prince-regent) and Prince of Li竪ge (a secularised version of the historical Prince-bishopric; Duke of Gottorp, Duke of Sonderburg, Duke of Augustenborg, Duke of Franzhagen, Duke of Beck, Duke of Glucksburg and Duke of Norburg. The current royal duchesses are: HRH the Duchess of Badajoz (Infanta Maria del Pilar), HRH the Duchess of Soria (Infanta Margarita) (although she inherited the title of Duchess of Hernani from her cousin and is second holder of that title), HRH the Duchess of Lugo (Infanta Elena) and HRH the Duchess of Palma de Mallorca (Infanta Cristina).

Finland and Sweden

Main article: Dukes of Swedish Provinces.

Sweden had a history of making sons of its Kings real ruling princes of vast duchies, but this ceased in 1622. The territorial designations of these dukedoms refer to four of the Provinces of Sweden.

In Finland, while a nominal realm in personal union with Sweden, the ducal title herttua was equally reserved for (Swedish) princes of the blood, without actual feudal estates.

France and other former monarchies

See appanage (mainly for the French kingdom) and the list in the geographical section below, which also treats special ducal titles in orders or national significance.

For Portugal, see below

Territory of today's France

The highest precedence in the realm, attached to a feudal territory, was given to the twelve original pairies, which also had a traditional function in the royal coronation, comparable to the German imperial archoffices. who crown and anoint the king, traditionally in his cathedral)

Two suffragan bishops, styled ev棚que-duc pair de France :

the bishop-duke of Laon (in Picardy; just a description of the wealth and real clout of the 15th century Dukes, cousins of the Kings of France) (bears the crown, fastens the belt)
Duke of Normandy or duc de Normandie (holds the first square banner)
Duke of Aquitaine or duc d'Aquitaine or - de Guyenne (holds the second square banner)

Other duchies of note include:

Duke of Angouleme
Duke of Anjou
Duke of Auvergne
Duke of Bourbon
Duke of Brittany (considered a sovereign state until personal union with France, by the marriage of Anne of Brittany with the French kings Charles VIII and Louis XII and of her daughter Claude with Renaissance King Francis I, who conclude the 1553 treaty rendering the union permanent while granting some autonomy)
Duke of Broglie
Duke of Guise
Duke of Lorraine
Duke of Montpensier
Duke of Savoy (although Haute Savoie is now part of France, the Dukes of Savoy were Princes of the Holy Roman Empire, not peers of France.)

See also List of French dukedoms

Iberian peninsula

When the Christian Reconquista, sweeping the Moors from the former caliphate of Cordoba and its taifa-remnants, transformed the territory of former Suevi and Visigothic realms into catholic feudal principalities, none of these war lords was exactly styled Duke, a few (as Portugal itself) started as Count (even if the title of Dux was sometimes added), but soon all politically relevant princes were to use the royal style of King.

Portugal

This list refers only to the royal dukedoms

Duque de Aveiro
Duque de Barcelos
Duque de Beja
Duque de Bragan巽a (the home principality of the Portuguese royal dynasty after the post-Habsburg restoration of independence), became the primogeniture for the royal crown prince
Duque de Coimbra
Duque da Guarda
Duque do Porto
Duque de Viseu

Spain

No duchies as true politically important principalities, but many domanial or purely titular ones
Many hold the court rank of Grande, i.e. Grandee of the realm, which had precedence over all other feudatories.
Titles in Spain include (very often a single inheritance includes a whole list of ducal and other titles):

Duque de Abrantes
Duque de Acerenza
Duque de Ahumada
Duque de Alag坦n
Duque de Alba
Duque de Albufera
Duque de Albuquerque
Duque de Alcal叩 de los Gazules
Duque de Algeciras
Duque de Algete
Duque de Aliaga
Duque de Almaz叩n de Saint Priest
Duque de Almenara Alta
Duque de Almer鱈a
Duque de Almodovar del Rio
Duque de Almodovar del Valle
Duque de Amalfi
Duque de Andria
Duque de Ansola
Duque de Arco
Duque de Arcos
Duque de Arevalo del Rey
Duque de Arion
Duque de Arjona
Duque de Astrico
Duque de Atrisco
Duque de Aveyro
Duque de Badajoz
Duque de Baena
Duque de Bail辿n
Duque de Ba単os
Duque de B辿jar
Duque de Benavente
Duque de Benvante
Duque de Bivona
Duque de C叩diz
Duque de Cami単a
Duque de Canalejas
Duque de Canovas del Castillo
Duque da Cant叩bria
Duque de Cardona
Duque de Carrero Blanco
Duque de Castro Enriquez
Duque de Castro-Terre単o
Duque de Castroterre単o
Duque de Cea
Duque de Ciudad Real
Duque de Ciudad Rodrigo
Duque de Croiy
Duque de Dato
Duque de Denia
Duque de Atlixco
Duque del Infantado
Duque del Rubi
Duque de Pinohermoso
Duque de Soria
Duque de Durcal
Duque de Escalona
Duque de Estremera
Duque de Feria
Duque de Fern叩n Nu単ez
Duque de Fernan-Nu単ez
Duque de Fern叩ndez-Miranda
Duque de Fernandina
Duque de Francavila
Duque de Francavilla
Duque de Franco
Duque de Fr鱈as
Duque da Gal鱈cia
Duque de Galisteo
Duque de Gandia
Duque de Gor
Duque de Granada de Ega
Duque de Hernani
Duque de Hijar
Duque de Hornachuelos
Duque de Hornes
Duque de Huescar
Duque de Huete
Duque de Infantado
Duque de Jerica
Duque de la Alcudia
Duque de la Conquista
Duque de La Roca
Duque de la Torre
Duque de la Uni坦n de Cuba
Duque de la Vega
Duque de la Victoria
Duque de la Victoria de las Am辿zcoas
Duque de las Torres
Duque de Lecera
Duque de Lerma
Duque de Linares
Duque de Linhares
Duque de Liria
Duque de Lorenzana
Duque de los Castillejos
Duque de Losada
Duque de Lucca
Duque de Lucera
Duque de Lugo
Duque de Luna
Duque de Madrid
Duque de Mandas
Duque de Mandas y Villanueva
Duque de Maqueda
Duque de Marchena
Duque de Maura
Duque de Medina de las Torres
Duque de Medina de Rio Seco
Duque de Medina Sidonia
Duque de Medinaceli
Duque de Miranda
Duque de Moctezuma
Duque de Mola
Duque de Monforte
Duque de Montalto
Duque de Montealegre
Duque de Montele坦n
Duque de Montellano
Duque de Montemar
Duque de Montoro
Duque de Montoroso
Duque de Montpensier
Duque de Najeda
Duque de N叩jera
Duque de Noblejar
Duque de Olivares
Duque de Osuna
Duque de Palata
Duque de Palizzi
Duque de Palma de Maiorca
Duque de Parcent
Duque de Pastrana
Duque de Pe単aranda
Duque de Pinohermoso
Duque de Plasencia
Duque de Prim
Duque de Primo de Rivera
Duque de Regla
Duque de Riansares
Duque de Ri叩nsares
Duque de Ripalda
Duque de Rivas
Duque de San Carlos
Duque de San Fernando de Quiroga
Duque de San Juan
Duque de San Lorenzo
Duque de San Lorenzo de Villahermoso
Duque de San Miguel
Duque de San Pedro Galatino
Duque de San Ricardo
Duque de Sanl炭car la Mayor
Duque de Santa Cristina
Duque de Santa Elena
Duque de Santa Isabel
Duque de Santisteban del Puerto
Duque de Santo Buono
Duque de Santo単a
Duque de Segorbe
Duque de Segovia
Duque de Seo d'Urgel
Duque de Seo de Urgel
Duque de Sessa
Duque de Sevilla
Duque de Silva
Duque de Soma
Duque de Soria
Duque de Sotomayor
Duque de Su叩rez
Duque de Sueca
Duque de T'Serclaes
Duque de Talavera de la Reina
Duque de Tamanes
Duque de Taranc坦n
Duque de Tarifa
Duque de Tetuan
Duque de Tovar
Duque de Trani
Duque de Trujillo
Duque de Uceda
Duque de Uzeda
Duque de Valencia de Campos
Duque de Veragua
Duque de Vergara
Duque de Vigo
Duque de Villafranca
Duque de Villahermosa
Duque de Villena
Duque de Vista-Alegre
Duque de Vistahermoso
Duque de Vitonton
Duque de Zaragoza

Some titles inherited by or conferred on historically important politicians, such as :

Duque de Alva / Duke of Alba
Duke of Medinacelli

Colonial titles

In various Spanish-American viceroyalties (one dukedom in present Chile; in Mexico, in addition to the title Duque de Moctesuma for descendants of the deposed last Aztec ruler of that very name, three: Arion, Atrisco and Regla, all four Spanish Grandees;

Holy Roman Empire

Germany

Although the titled aristocracy of Germany no longer holds a legal rank, nearly all ducal families in West Germany continued to be treated as dynastic (i.e., "royalty") for marital and genealogical purposes after 1918. Some maintain dynastic traditions that are reflected in roles they still play in high society, philanthropy and Germany's version of local "squirearchy".

At first, the highest nobles -de facto at par with several Kings/emperors- were the Dukes of each stem duchy:

Duchy of Saxony
Duchy of Franconia
Duchy of Bavaria
Duchy of Swabia
Duchy of Lorraine (replacing Duchy of Thuringia)

Later, the precedence shifted to the prince-electors, the first order amongst the princes of the empire, regardless of the actual title attached to the fief. From the 19th century, some cadets of the kingly houses of Bavaria and Wurttemberg, and all those of the grand-ducal houses of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Mecklenburg-Strelitz and Oldenburg, took the ducal prefix as their primary style instead of that of Prince (Prinz).

There were many other duchies, some of them insignificant petty states (Kleinstaaterei):

Duchy of Bavaria, elector since 1623
Duchy of Brunswick-L端neburg, divided into various lines, one of which became the electorate of Hanover in 1692
Duchy of Franconia, the secular title of the Bishop of W端rzburg
Duchy of Holstein, in union with Schleswig, in personal union with the Danish crown.
Duchy of J端lich and Berg
Duchy of Lorraine
Duchy of Magdeburg, the former prince-archbishopric after being acquired by Brandenburg-Prussia in 1680
Duchy of Mecklenburg, later divided into various lines
Duchy of Pomerania
Grand Duchy of Salzburg, the secularized prince-archbishopric 1803-1806
Duchies of Saxony, collateral lines of the elector
Duchy of Silesia
Duchy of Westphalia, a territory under the Archbishop of Cologne
Duchy of W端rtemberg, became an electorate in 1803

The Low countries (Netherlands/Belgium/Luxembourg)

Duchy of Brabant
Duchy of Guelders
Duchy of Bouillon in the Ardenne
Duchy of Luxembourg

Austria

the Austrian lands: the Duchies of Austria proper, the Duchy of Carinthia, Duchy of Styria, the Duchy of Krain (today Slovenia). The Habsburg dukes came to style themselves Archdukes

Italy

The earliest territorial titles in Italy rendered as Duke were officially styled Dux in Latin, as they were appointed under Byzantine suzerainty (in the Exarchate of Ravenna), notably in chief of the essentially republican virtual Tyrhenean port cities of Amalfi, Gaeta, Naples until the Germanic takeover by the Italian kingdom of the Longobards. later a principality, since 1051 held from the Pope) and Pontecorvo, both of which became part of the Papal states

the Doges (a variant in Italian) of Genua and of Venice were elective crowned heads of commercial maritime 'most serene republics', in style echoed by the minute Adriatic republic of Senarica

See also Historical states of Italy

Duke of Calabria was the primogeniture for the crown prince of the Neapolitan kingdom.

A unique Napoleonic particularity was the creation by decree of 30 March 1806 of a number of duchテゥs grand-fiefs. Since Napoleon I wouldn't go back on the Revolution's policy of abolishing feudalism in France, but didn't want these grandees to fall under the 'majorat' system in France either, he chose to create them outside the French "metropolitan" empire, notably in the following Italian satellite states, and yet all awarded to loyal frenchmen, mainly high military officers:

In the Kingdom of Italy, in personal union with France, personally held by Napoleon I:

Dalmatia (now in Croatia): for marテゥchal Nicolas Jean de Dieu Soult (1808, extinguished 1857)
Istria: for marテゥchal Jean-Baptiste Bessiティres (1809, ext. Vicenza: for general Armand Augustin Louis de Caulaincourt , also imperal Grand-テ営uyer (ext. 1888)
Rovigo: for general Anne Jean Marie Renテゥ Savary (extinguished in 1872)

In the Principality of Lucca-Piombino, only Massa et Carrara: for Rテゥgnier, judge (extinguished 1962); Otranto: for Joseph Fouchテゥ, minister of Police (1809)

Reggio: for marテゥchal Charles Nicolas Oudinot (1810, main line exting. Parma: for lawyer Jean Jacques Rテゥgis de Cambacテゥrティs, author of the Code (the main European revision since Roman law, still influential in most democratic societies), Arch-Chancellor (24 April 1808, extinguished 1824)
Plaisance, i.e. 1926)
Guastalla (extinguished in 1842)

On the Baltic south coast

The duchies of Courland (now in Latvia) and Pomerellen (Pomerelia;
The Ordensstaat became the Duchy of Prussia in 1525, part of the dynastic home country of the later German Emperor.

Elsewhere in Europe

Nordic

In Denmark, the longest-surviving duchy being Schleswig, i.e Sonderjylland, part of which later was transferred to Germany; ultimately both ended up joint as the German federation's Bundesland of Schleswig-Holstein.
- duchies of Laland, Halland, Jutland, Reval and Osilia.
In Sweden, medieval duchies of Finland, Sudermannia, Scania and Halland, and in modern ages almost each province.

Hungary

In the Kingdom of Hungary no ducal principalities existed but duchies were often formed for members of the dynasty as appanage. During the rule of the テ〉pテ。d dinasty dukes held territorial powers, some of them even minted coins, but later this title became more often nominal.
These duchies usually were

the Duchy of Nitra
the Duchy of Bihar
the Duchy of Slavonia or whole Slavonia (consisted Slavonia and Croatia).
the Duchy of Transylvania (consisted the voivodship of Transylvania and some other counties)

In the Jagellonian era (1490-1526) only two dukes did not belong to the royal dynasty: John Corvin (the illegitimate son of Matthias Corvinus) and L?rinc テ嗚laki (whose father was the king of Bosnia), while both bore the title as royal dukes.

After the Battle of Mohテ。cs the Habsburg kings rewarded Hungarian aristocrats (like the Esterhテ。zys) with princely titles, but they created these titles as Holy Roman Emperors, not as kings of Hungary.

Greece

As the Catholic crusaders overran orthodox parts of the Byzantine empire, they installed several crusader states, some of which were of ducal rank:

duchy of Athens, to which duchy of Neopatras (in Thessaly) was later linked
the Aegean insular duchy of Naxos, more officially "Duchy of the Archipelago"
duchy of Negroponte, i.e. Doge of Crete -->.

Byzantines had used the title Dux, still a military office for them, also territory-specifically: Dux of Dyrrhachium, Dux of Thrakesion.

Palaiologos emperors, living under much more feudalized necessities, granted fiefs to some westerners: Duke of Leucadia, Duke of Lemnos.

Sometimes in Italy and other Western countries, the later Byzantine appanages were translated as duchies: Peloponnese, Mistra, Mesembria, Selymbria and Thessalonike. However, as these had Greek holders, they were titled Archon ('magistrate') or Despotes (rather Prince of the blood).

After Greece's post-Ottoman independence as kingdom of the Hellenes, the style of Duke of Sparta was instituted as primogeniture for the royal heir, diadochos, the crown prince of Greece.

Slavic countries
Generally, confusion reigns whether to translate the usual petty ruler titles, knyaz/ knez/ ksiaze etc. Examples of such: Kujavia, Masovia, Sandomir, Greater Poland, Kalisz and Silesia (Lower Silesia and Upper Silesia), as well as various minor duchies, often short-lived and/or in personal union or merger, named after their capitals, mainly in the regions known as Little Poland and Greater Poland, including (there are often also important Latin and/or German forms) Cracow, Opole, Ratibor, Legnica, Zator, Leczyca and Sieradz.
In Pomerelia and Pomerania (inhabited by the Kashubians, different Slavic people from the Poles proper), branches of native ruling dynasties were usually recognized as dukes, quite similarly to the pattern in Poland.
in Russia, before the imperial unification from Muscovy; later, in Peter the Great's autocratic empire, the russification gertsog was used as the Russian rendering of the German ducal title Herzog, especially as (the last) part of the full official style of the Russian Emperor: Gertsog Shlesvig-Golstinskiy, Stormarnskiy, Ditmarsenskiy i Oldenburgskiy i prochaya, i prochaya, i prochaya "Duke of Schleswig-Holstein see above, Stormarn, Dithmarschen and Oldenburg, and of other lands", in chief of German and Danish territories to which the Tsar was dynastically linked.

Post-colonial non-European states

Brazilian empire

In this former Portuguese viceroyalty, after separation ruled by a branch of the Portuguese royal dynasty (house of Braganテァa), three dukedoms were created (being its highest ranks for non-members of the imperial dynasty), two of which were for illegitimate sons of the Emperor. In certain instances, some titles were held by Right of Perpetual Inheritance Shih Hssi Wang T'i.

Japan

The highest-ranking of the fives titles of the kazoku (jp: ??, literally "flowery lineage"), the hereditary peerage of Japan between 1869 and 1947, k?shaku, is rendered in Western languages either as prince or as duke.

Chronology

Key Dates:
1972: P.R. Duke and Associates is founded in Indianapolis.
1978: Duke moves into its second market, Cincinnati.
1985: Duke Realty Investments is formed as a REIT.
1986: Phillip Duke dies of a heart attack.
1993: Duke Realty acquires Duke Associates.
1999: Duke acquires Weeks Corp.

Additional topics

Company HistoryFinance: Holding Companies

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