Commercial Real Estate News

July 3
2:47 PM cpnonline $250M Fund to Target Value-Add M-F Opportunities Mid-America Apartment Communities Inc. has established a $250 million fund that will target apartment properties in the Sunbelt region. July 3
2:47 PM cpnonline Blackstone Closes Latest European Real Estate Fund with $4.3B in Commitments As is the case in the U.S., the commercial real estate market in Europeis in flux, but when those price tags begin to drop, as is widelyexpected, the Blackstone Group will be ... July 3
2:47 PM cpnonline CBRE Nabs 335,400SF Minneapolis Distrib Center CB Richard Ellis Realty Trust has purchased a Class A industrialwarehouse facility that is fully leased to Walgreens in the Northwestsubmarket of Minneapolis. July 3
2:47 PM cpnonline Condon to Head Grubb & Ellis Seattle Office Real estate services firm Grubb & Ellis Co. has appointed BillCondon managing director of its Seattle office. July 3
2:47 PM cpnonline Downtown Miami Condo Market Showing Signs of Life--Contrary to Popular Opinion Rumors of the Downtown Miami condominium market's death have beengreatly exaggerated. The Miami Downtown Development Authority recentlycommissioned the Residential Closings & ... July 3
2:47 PM cpnonline Economic Update - Office Buyers Slowly Creep Back Job-cutting is still the rule in the U.S. economy. The question now is whether the pace going forward will continue to be as relentless as earlier this year. July 3
2:47 PM cpnonline Economic Update - ProLogis Sells in Big Way to Deleverage The difficult year 2009 is half over, and recent deals by one of the world's largest landlords show two things about the current climate. First, deleveraging is in. Second, there ... July 3
2:47 PM cpnonline Economic Update - Wal-Mart Takes Historic Healthcare Position, But Why? It's a peculiar time in history when a retailer can influence the debate about national healthcare policy. Yet Wal-Mart is doing just that by coming out earlier this week in favor ... July 3
2:47 PM cpnonline Economic Update - Worldwide CRE Still Feels Recession's Reverberations Sometimes lost in the din of bad economic news in the United States isthe worldwide impact of the current recession on commercial realestate. Markets everywhere have been affected ... July 3
2:47 PM cpnonline Green Building Council Steps Up LEED Requirements With an eye toward maintaining long-term sustainability, as opposed torewarding good intentions, the U.S. Green Building Council has justadded a new requirement for owners ... July 3
2:47 PM cpnonline Green Building Legislation Could See Amendments Before Reaching Senate Green building efforts continue to gain momentum with the House passage of energy and climate legislation that provides incentives while accelerating the benefits of ... July 3
2:47 PM cpnonline HUD Awards Over $1B in Recovery Act Funds to Jump Start Affordable Housing Construction The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is approving plans submitted by state housing finance agencies for $1 billion to jump start affordable housing programs in ... July 3
2:47 PM cpnonline Hartz Mountain Gets $19M Refi for Secaucus Complex Hartz Mountain Associates has secured a $19 million mortgagerefinancing loan for a 197,400-square-foot office/warehouse property in Secaucus, N.J. July 3
2:47 PM cpnonline JLL: Midtown NYC Submarket Dives in 2Q; Downtown Fares Better New York City's office market is still feeling the effect of the global industry and economic turmoil, according to a new report by Jones Lang LaSalle. July 3
2:47 PM cpnonline Perez Asked to Join Dolphins Management Team New Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, chairman & CEO of The Related Cos., has asked Related Group chairman Jorge Perez to become vice chairman of the team, according to the Miami ... July 3
2:47 PM cpnonline Record Central/Eastern European Deal Closes Despite Global Real Estate Downturn Warsaw's first certified green building also earned the recognition as the largest commercial real estate transaction so far this year for Central and Eastern Europe, selling for ... July 3
2:47 PM cpnonline Research Facility in Boston's Healthy Life Science Market Attracts $350M Loan Flying in the face of the frosty credit market, BioMed Realty Trust Inc. has just gotten its hands on a $350 million loan secured by its successful new 700,000-square-foot Center ... July 3
2:47 PM cpnonline Stable Skilled Nursing Sub-Sector Lures Health Care REIT into $55.5M Purchase While many real estate investors sit on the sidelines waiting for property prices to fall dramatically or the credit market to defrost, National Health Investors Inc. is actively ... July 3
2:47 PM cpnonline Susoreny to Lead Grubb & Ellis' Corporate Services Group Grubb & Ellis Co. has tapped David Susoreny as its new executive vice president, corporate services group. July 3
2:47 PM cpnonline With Fannie, Freddie Still Active, DC-Area Portfolio Fetches $79M in Financing Throughout the credit crisis and their own internal financial trials,government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have continued to steadily dole out loans in the ... July 3
10:54 AM cpnonline Economic Update - Consumer Spending, Saving Up; Will Retailers Benefit? This might count as good news: U.S. consumer spending and personal income both rose in May. Spending jumped by a small but noticeable 0.3 percent when compared with April, and ... July 3
10:54 AM cpnonline Houston Mixed-Use Opens Amid Uncertain Economy While Texas struggled later and possibly not as much as the rest of the country when the bottom fell out late last year, Houston's office market continued to thrive until just ... July 2
11:58 AM bizjournals D.C. area office vacancies reach 12.3% The D.C. area’s commercial real estate market saw a net absorption of negative 726,100 square feet in the second quarter, the third straight quarter of negative absorption, ... July 2
11:05 AM bizjournals Opus Northwest siblings file for bankruptcy Opus Corp. said Wednesday its Opus East and Opus West subsidiaries will file for bankruptcy, citing deteriorating conditions in the commercial real estate market. July 2
9:29 AM cpnonline Green Building Legislation Passes House, Faces Senate Later This Month Green building efforts continue to gain momentum with the house passage of energy and climate legislation that provides incentives while accelerating the benefits of ... July 2
3:49 AM cpnonline 60,400SF Virginia Medical Office Trades JAG Associates L.L.C. has acquired a seven-story medical office building in Alexandria, Va. July 2
1:48 AM cpnonline California M-F Scores $18M in Financing Ory Schwartz, senior director of NorthMarq Capital's Los Angeles office, has arranged an $18 million first mortgage for Meadowridge Apartments, a 176-unit multi-family complex ... July 2
1:48 AM cpnonline Economic Update - CRE Still Faces Stress, Distress Not-quite-so-bad news still passes for good news: the U.S. Department of Commerce has revised its estimate of the annualized contraction of the American economy in the first ... July 2
1:48 AM cpnonline Office Tenants Now in the Driver's Seat Even before the financial meltdown last fall, most U.S. office markets were going noticeably soft. In particular, vacancies were rising as businesses downsized, reorganized or ... July 2
1:48 AM cpnonline Q&A with Steve Bram: Shortfall of Supply When Recession Ends in 2011 Steve Bram is president & co-founder of George Smith Partners Inc. An expert on multi-family finance, he has personally arranged over $2.5 billion of financing in over 150 ... July 1
11:19 PM costar 126-Store Crabtree & Evelyn Chain Files Bankruptcy Woodstock, CT-based Crabtree & Evelyn, purveyor of fine bath and body products, filed Chapter 11 on July 1, 2009. A global company, Crabtree said its affiliates in Canada, Europe, ... July 1
9:17 PM costar REITs Move Off Bottom, Can Commercial Real Estate Be Far Behind? Data from the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (NAREIT) clearly show that investors have smiled on REITs so far this year. There were 45 secondary equity ... July 1
9:07 PM costar Bank Watch (June 28-July 4): Citizens Republic Needing To Raise Capital Citizens Republic Bancorp Inc. is exploring several initiatives to bolster capital and strengthen its balance sheet. Citizens based in Flint, MI, has been hurt by deteriorating ... July 1
9:03 PM costar Lease Cancellations (June 18-July 4): MagnaChip Dropping Five U.S. Locations Crescent Resources, a land management and real estate development company based in Charlotte, NC, with interests in 10 states in the Southeast and Southwest, and certain of its ... July 1
9:01 PM costar Closures & Layoffs (June 28-July 4): Imperial Shutting Down Just-Rite Supply Imperial Industries Inc. has terminated and discontinued all operations of its Just-Rite Supply Inc. distribution facilities. Based in Pompano Beach, FL, Just-Rite will be sold ... July 1
8:53 PM costar Opus Opts to Liquidate Opus East; Put Opus West into Chapter 11 The Opus Group today announced that two more of its independent operating companies will join Opus South in bankruptcy. Opus East, LLC and certain related subsidiaries filed for ... July 1
6:09 PM cpnonline Cobalt Capital Takes 1.7MSF Atlanta Industrial Portfolio Cobalt Capital Partners L.P., through its Cobalt Industrial REIT II affiliate, has acquired a 1.7 million-square-foot, nine-building industrial portfolio in Atlanta. July 1
2:47 PM retailtrafficmag Dollar Stores Rise; Blockbuster Quarter for REITs, In-Store Shops (Wednesday’s News & Notes) There were two stories in the past three days looking at grocery stores and prices. Reuters has a piece up about how grocers are on the defensive because of dollar stores. Such ... July 1
2:10 PM retailtrafficmag Comment on Concessions I found this comment–in response to our “Retail Landlords Grant Temporary Deferments, Come Up with Barter System to Set Off Rent Declines” news analysis to be ... July 1
1:01 PM google Is Multifamily Immune from Commercial Real Estate Decline? While the turmoil in the residential real estate markets continues to make headlines, some analysts and prognosticators are questioning whether we will see the same kind of ... July 1
11:38 AM retailtrafficmag McDonald’s Adds Angus McDonald’s is adding some pricier Angus burgers to its menus nationwide. It’s had these in test markets–including New York and Los Angeles. Now it’s taking ... July 1
10:56 AM retailtrafficmag NRF “Flabbergasted” By Wal-Mart’s Support of Obama Health Plan Given that many retailers don’t supply employees with health care, it’s no big surprise that the National Retail Federation is against any legislation that would ... July 1
10:33 AM cpnonline Moody's Pricing Index Shows Worst One-Month Decline in April In a stark illustration of just how far pricing has fallen in the industry, Moody's/REAL commercial property price index showed a decrease of 8.6 percent for April--the single ... July 1
10:10 AM wsj Room to Let: Finance Firms Need Tenants After loading up on lavish office space near the top of the market, some firms are trying to sublease what they don't need for as much as 30% less than their rental rate. July 1
9:53 AM nytimes Organic Farms as Subdivision Amenities Developers are trying to make lots more attractive by putting crops in the ground. July 1
9:28 AM retailtrafficmag William Rudin on the State of Commercial Real Estate William Rudin, president of Rudin Management, discusses the future of the commercial real estate market with CNBC. July 1
9:16 AM wsj Flipping Sides The number of former mortgage lenders and brokers finding ways to make a living from the foreclosure crisis continues to mount. July 1
9:03 AM wsj Bumpy Recovery in the U.K. Industry experts say the United Kingdom's commercial-property market is starting to recover, but property companies are facing declining rents. July 1
8:02 AM bizjournals Monument defaults on $69.8M Watergate loan Monument Realty has defaulted on a $69.8 million loan on the Watergate Hotel, according to Real Capital Analytics, a New York commercial real estate tracking firm. July 1
7:28 AM wsj REITs Book a Blockbuster Quarter Real-estate-investment trusts staged the best performance in their history during the second quarter on growing perceptions that most REITs are out of immediate danger.