the Editors of Commercial Property Executive
Economic Climate Promises to Wear Down High-Street Retail’s Strength
Retail property sales worldwide experienced a year-over-year skid through June of 54 percent, but deals involving high-street assets–including single shops, department stores and urban malls in central business districts–were a silver lining, according to Real Capital Analytics Inc.’s latest global capital trends report, “Investment Market Erosion Spreads and Intensifies.” Sales of those properties took a plunge, but the decline clocked in at 25 percent, still markedly better than the sector’s aggregate percentage drop, for a total of $15 billion in high-street sales. Comparing June 2008 to the same period one year ago, Tokyo realized the highest average price per square…
In Change of Approach, U.S. Adopts a European Rescue Strategy
Call it the First National Bank of Uncle Sam. Those who will be implementing the Bush administration’s new $250 billion initiative to stabilize the floundering financial system aren’t calling it bank nationalization, but perhaps that’s a distinction without much of a difference. Under a plan announced this morning by President Bush at the White House’s Rose Garden, the federal government will spend up to $125 billion to buy preferred shares in nine major U.S. banks: Bank of America Corp., Bank of New York Mellon Corp., Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Merrill Lynch & Co., Morgan…
Financial Market Update: After the Closing Bell-Tues., Oct. 14
Was Monday’s upward rush of stock prices an example of a dead-cat bounce (a really big dead cat, maybe a puma bounce)? Hard to tell after today’s performance. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost ground, but not much: 76 points, or a scant 0.82 percent. The Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 0.53 percent, and the Nasdaq lost somewhat more as a percentage–3.54 percent–but then again tech stocks seem to have issues not directly related to the credit meltdown, such as anxiously waiting for Intel Corp. to report its profits (which after the bell turned out to be 12 percent up)….
NBA China Partners with AEG, Plans to Develop Venues
Less than a year after the National Basketball Association created NBA China, the organization has formed a joint venture with Los Angeles-based sports and entertainment presenter AEG to design, market, program and operate multi-purpose, NBA-style sports and entertainment arenas in major cities throughout Greater China. NBA officials called China an exciting marketplace with a growing appetite for sports and entertainment. AEG, the developer and operator of the O2 arena in London, will work with the NBA to create relationships with the Chinese government as well as local developers to oversee the design and development of arenas and entertainment districts. The…
Mann Tapped by Mansur to Head U.S. Commercial Development
HDG Mansur has tapped James Mann to be the managing director, head of commercial development in the United States. He will be responsible for overseeing the company’s existing and new commercial developments on a national basis. Before coming to HDG Mansur, Mann was with LNR Property Corp. in Atlanta, Ga., for 14 years in a variety of positions. He also held senior management positions with Equitable Real Estate Investment Management, Union Pacific Realty Co., Chevron Land and Development Co., and Oppenheimer Cos.He earned an MBA from Harvard a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from Northwestern University. HDG Mansur provides…
Will California’s Fiscal Pain Spread to Commercial Real Estate?
California’s looming fiscal crisis is likely to take its toll on the state’s commercial real estate sector. The credit freeze-up had deprived California of up to $7 billion in short-term financing necessary for day-to-day operations. The fiscal difficulties will likely manifest themselves in two ways. If the state is forced to raise taxes to cover the budget shortfall, job losses may result if higher taxes slow the economy, so office vacancy may increase, said Gary Painter, professor of policy planning and development, and director of research at the Lusk Center for Real Estate at the University of Southern California.He told…
Swig Completes Recapitalization of One Beach Street in San Francisco
The Swig Co. has announced it has completed its planned recapitalization of One Beach Street, a 97,000-square-foot office building acquired by the company earlier this year. The asset is situated in the North Waterfront submarket of San Francisco. The recapitalization includes the creation of an equity joint venture with Angelo, Gordon & Co. This is the second joint venture between Swig and Angelo, Gordon. Last year, the two investors entered into a joint venture to own 115 Sansome Street, a 128,000-square-foot Class A office building in San Francisco’s Financial District. In addition to forming this second joint venture, the partners…
ProLogis Takes 300,000 SF near Tokyo
ProLogis Japan Properties Fund II has acquired a $65 million portfolio near Tokyo, it has reported. The deal includes three buildings totaling 300,000 square feet, all fully leased to three separate Japanese companies, located in Akishima City, a logistics hub approximately 50 kilometers from Tokyo’s central business district. Akishima City provides a base to support a vast distribution area encompassing Tokyo’s city center, northern Kanagawa and southern Saitama, according to Masato Miki, co-president of Japan for ProLogis.The property, to be called ProLogis Park Akishima, offers exceptional access to Route 16, Chuo Expressway and Ken-Oh Expressway, as well as the Akishima…
Coping with the Capital Markets
Back in early 2007, many industry observers suggested that pricing in the commercial real estate markets did not reflect traditional risk and that a correction was likely. Of course, they did not expect residential subprime lending to ignite one of the biggest meltdowns in the history of the global credit markets.In a little over a year, debt markets that were once a punchbowl from which everyone could drink have halted their flow, resulting in limited credit, failures of major financial institutions and significant government intervention. Right now, fundamentals in the multi-family and commercial sectors are not expected to reach distressed…
From CPN’s Morning Newsletter–Columbus Day Discovery: Global Recapitalization
As CPN reported exclusively in our Daily News REport Morning Edition(subscribe here), with a shoutout to Bette Davis, it’s been a bumpy weekend. First off, is it just us, or does recapitalizing every bank in the world sound a bit like global socialism?No matter, after a Saturday of President Bush and G-7 platitudes, as reported by CPN, world leaders got busy with specific action plans. On the heels of Britain’s and the United States’ pay-for-equity bank-bailout plans, Germany and France announced Sunday respective pledges to take equity stakes in distressed banks and to guarantee bank lending for periods up to…