Description of business:

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2011

Description of business: [Abstract]

Description of business:

1. Description of business:

Capital Properties, Inc. and its wholly-owned subsidiaries, Tri-State Displays, Inc., Capital Terminal Company and Dunellen, LLC (collectively referred to as “the Company”), operate in two segments, leasing and petroleum storage.

The leasing segment consists of the long-term leasing of certain of its real estate interests in downtown Providence, Rhode Island (upon the commencement of which the tenants are required to construct buildings thereon, with the exception of a parking garage), the leasing of a portion of its building (“Steeple Street Building”) under short-term leasing arrangements and the leasing of locations along interstate and primary highways in Rhode Island and Massachusetts to Lamar Outdoor Advertising, LLC (“Lamar”) which has constructed outdoor advertising boards thereon. The Company anticipates that the future development of its remaining properties in and adjacent to the Capital Center area will consist primarily of long-term ground leases. Pending this development, the Company leases these parcels for public parking under short-term leasing arrangements to Metropark, Ltd. (“Metropark”).

The petroleum storage segment consists of operating the petroleum storage terminal (the “Terminal”) and the Wilkesbarre Pier (the “Pier”), both of which are owned by the Company and are collectively referred to as the “Facility,” located in East Providence, Rhode Island, for Global Companies, LLC (“Global”) which stores and distributes petroleum products.

The principal difference between the two segments relates to the nature of the operations. In the leasing segment, the tenants under long-term land leases incur substantially all of the development and operating costs of the assets constructed on the Company’s land, including the payment of real property taxes on both the land and any improvements constructed thereon; whereas the Company is responsible for the operating and maintenance expenditures, including a portion of the real property taxes, as well as certain capital improvements at the Facility.