the Editors of Commercial Property Executive
Orlando Office Market Struggling to Stay Even
Mounting concerns surrounding the health of the economy, meshed with sluggish employment growth, continue to drag down markets across the country. Orlando’s office market–although somewhat buoyed by employment growth experienced in the hospitality and tourism sectors–is no exception. “[People] don’t know where the bottom is and when they’re going to it,” said John Crossman, president of Crossman & Co. They are waiting to see “where this lands and what the next step looks like.” CB Richard Ellis Inc.’s third quarter MarketView report pits Orlando’s vacancy rate 12 percent in the third quarter. Cushman & Wakefield Inc.’s figure, however, trends somewhat…
Financial Market Update-Mon., Oct. 13
Stock markets in Asia and Europe were up on Monday, after their significant losses Friday. Hong Kong was the star performer, up 10 percent, while various Euro-markets were up between 5 percent and 8 percent. Compared to the aggregate declines of last week, however, these were fairly modest gains. No one is predicting that any of the equities markets around the world will out of the woods soon, or even near a path that would take them out of the woods. Still, it looks like it might be a good day for Morgan Stanley. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is going ahead…
U.K. Shows New Initiatives, Europe Increases Coordination of Bailout
Following an emergency summit Sunday in Paris, the 15 countries of the Euro zone agreed to guarantee new bank debt until the end of next year. The move will let governments prop up struggling banks by buying preferred shares. Although the coordination effort, for better or worse, will still allow individual governments to decide exactly how they’ll implement the measures, it does represent a new level of continent-wide cooperation in the face of the worst financial and credit crisis in decades. Within its own borders, the U.K. has committed $64 billion to shore up the Royal Bank of Scotland, HBOS…
Investor Group Snaps Up Stake in Maguire
With its stock having vacillated between a high of $30.73 per share and a low of $3.31 per share over the last 52 weeks, Los Angeles-based Maguire Properties has had a rough year. However, a recent stock purchase proves that investors remain interested in the REIT that boasts the title of the largest owner of Class A office buildings in Downtown Los Angeles. Between Sept. 29 and Oct. 7, California Capital L.P. shelled out a total of nearly $27.5 million to acquire 4,650,000 shares of Maguire common stock accounting for 9.7 percent of the company’s total outstanding common stock. California…
NetLease Q&A: Randy Blankstein Says Market is Slowest in Career
Early this year, when CPN last spoke with Randy Blankstein, president of Northbrook, Ill.-based Boulder Group and Boulder Group Net Lease Funds, the credit crunch was clearly affecting deal volume in the net lease world, but not quite as much as it would later in the year. Now, in the midst of financial turmoil unheard of since the 1930s, the outlook for net lease is even less promising. Blankstein foresees a recovery period of a year or more, with possible reverberations affecting net lease property valuations well into the 2010s. CPN: How much is net lease deal volume off now?…
FINANCIAL MARKETS UPDATE: AFTER THE BELL–October 10
“Catching a falling knife” is the analogy used lately to describe trying to figure out just the right time to buy a stock these days, since presumably the Dow Jones and all the other indexes will not, in fact, descend to zero. Eventually, fundamentals will re-assert themselves in the case of some stocks, and some will rise again. But when? Not Friday, at least. The DJIA ended down 128 points at 8,451.19, after bounding up and down all day (at one point, below 8,000). About 2.95 billion shares changing hands on Friday, a very high volume. Some investors are trying…
Bush Meets with G-7, Speaks of Crisis
President Bush spoke to the public from the Rose Garden Saturday after meeting with financial ministers from the G-7 nations. Bush met with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and finance ministers from the G7 — Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, and Japan. With Bush while he spoke were Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker of Luxembourg, president of the Eurogroup of countries, managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn of the International Monetary Fund, president Robert Zoellick of the World Bank, Chairman Mario Draghi of the Financial Stability Forum.Saying it was important for citizens to understand that what “affects Wall…
Federal Capital Partners Closes $230M Fund, Will Seek Debt Investments
Armed with a $230 million private equity fund that could allow up to $900 million in investments, Federal Capital Partners said it would continue to seek deals on value-added assets, but would also move into lending. “While FCP’s investment strategy in the past has been focused on acquiring under-managed and under-capitalized assets in need of repositioning and reinvestment, this fund format gives us tremendous flexibility to also work with existing owners and lenders who may need debt or joint venture capital in this challenging climate,” Esko Korhonen, FCP co-founder & managing partner, said in a news release. FCP said the…
Houston Firm Bought in August Sells Manufacturing Facility
Less than two months after being absorbed by a Russian manufacturer, the largest independent tubular manufacturer in North America, John Maneely Co. (JMC), has sold its 188,800-square-foot facility in eastern Houston to Miami-based Elite Sales Inc., an importer and wholesale distributor of wire rope, cable, strand, chain and hardware, for an undisclosed amount. The building is situated on approximately 10.82 acres and housed the company’s Seminole Wheatland Tube Facility before its acquisition by Novolipetsk Steel, a Russian steel producer. Novolipetsk purchased the company last month from The Carlyle Group, a global private equity firm. The sale of the business coincides…
HFF Arranges $97M Refi for Industrial Portfolio
The Dallas office of Holliday Fenoglio Fowler L.P. has secured $97.5 million in refinancing for a seven-property industrial portfolio comprising 2.2 million square feet in Florida, New Jersey, Oregon and Texas. The cluster of properties includes: Madison industrial Park Building A in Tampa, Fla.; 34 Englehard in Monroe, N.J.; 888 Doremus in Newark, N.J.; Columbia Corporate Park Buildings 1 & 2 in Portland, Ore.; 2755 Regent Blvd. in Dallas; Stafford Distribution Buildings 1-3 in Stafford, Texas; and Port 225 A, B and C in Pasadena, Texas. The portfolio is 93 percent occupied overall. HFF managing director John Rose worked exclusively…