Two real estate investment trusts filed for initial public offerings on Friday, bringing to eight the number of applications since early July by REITs created by real estate companies seeking to take advantage of the distressed commercial property market.

Brookfield Realty Capital Corp, will originate, invest in, and manage, a portfolio of commercial mortgage loans and is seeking to raise up to $500 million in a deal to be managed by Goldman Sachs, according to a prospectus filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Brookfield said it will use the proceeds from its IPO to originate and acquire mortgage loans, and mezzanine loans, and possibly commercial mortgage-backed securities.

The REIT will be managed by a wholly owned subsidiary of Brookfield Asset Management Inc.

Another REIT, Marathon Real Estate Mortgage Trust, filed on Friday to raise up to $300 million to invest primarily in mortgage-backed securities, mortgage loans and other real estate-related loans and securities.

Marathon will be externally managed and advised by Marathon Asset Management LP, which in July was among nine fund managers chosen by the U.S. Treasury to take part in its Public-Private Investment Program, or PPIP, designed to remove from banks' balance sheet toxic assets whose values have been crushed by the financial crisis.

Other PPIP managers that have created REITs and filed for IPOs since July include AllianceBernstein, and Invesco Ltd.

Marathon's IPO will be led by Credit Suisse and JP Morgan.

Investors have shown renewed interest in IPOs by REITs. The largest U.S. IPO of 2009 was by Starwood Property Trust Inc which raised $951.5 million earlier this month.

Neither of the two latest REITs set terms for their IPOs, including the number of shares to be sold or the timing, although both said they had applied to list their shares on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Phil Wahba; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

Credit Suisse Investment Goldman sachs