the Editors of Commercial Property Executive
Mixed Messages from Congress after Historic Day of Meetings on $700B Bailout Plan
Following closed door meetings on Capitol Hill today, where a tentative agreement was reached on the administration’s $700 billion bailout plan, Congressional leaders joined President Bush and presidential candidates Senators Barack Obama and John McCain at a historic White House meeting. Although Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, told reporters shortly before 1:30 EST that an agreement on a “set of principles” had been reached and officials were prepared to act quickly to “send a message to the markets,” some Republicans were still apparently balking at the plan. Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby, the leading Republican on the…
Hines Proposes $235M for Transbay Tower Parcel in San Francisco
Real estate firm Hines and equity partner MetLife Real Estate Investments have settled on terms with the Transbay Joint Powers Authority for an Exclusive Negotiations Agreement for Transbay Tower, a 1.6 million-square-foot office high-rise Hines plans to develop in San Francisco. The deal, the specific terms of which will be heard in public at a TJPA board meeting on Sept. 29, involves a price formula that calls for Hines to shell out $235 million for the 49,000-square-foot parcel of land that will become home to the Transbay Tower (pictured). Negotiations of the terms of the agreement come one year after…
Credit Crunch Hinders Pair of Vegas Hotel Projects
Morgans Hotel Group has entered into an agreement with Boyd Gaming Corp., relating to the firms’ joint venture on the development of a Mondrian hotel and Delano hotel within Boyd’s existing Ecehlon development in Las Vegas. Under the terms of the revised deal, Morgans’ $30 million deposit will be returned with interest. Additionally, Morgans will no longer be responsible for $41 million in future funding and will not have to provide a construction loan guaranty on the project. Also, the agreement awards Morgans Hotel Group sole control over the Mondrian and Delano brands in connection with the project. The agreement…
CBRE Investors Chairman Zerbst to Retire
After more than a decade with CB Richard Ellis Investors, Robert Zerbst, now the company’s chairman, will bid adieu to the firm. The industry veteran’s retirement from CBRE Investors will be effective December 31 of this year. Zerbst kicked off his career at CBRE Investors in 1997 as CEO of the company, bringing to the table his real estate expertise honed as founder and CEO of Piedmont Realty Advisors and partner with RREEF Funds, as well as a history in academia and research. He served as CBRE Investors’ CEO until last year, when he was named chairman, and Vance Maddocks…
GoldenTree InSite Invests $222M in Brazilian Real Estate JV
New York City-headquartered GoldenTree InSite Partners has signed on to invest as much as $222 million of equity in a joint venture with São Paulo, Brazil-based LDI – Inteligencia Urbana Completa, for the development of real estate projects in the São Paulo, Brazil region. GoldenTree InSite’s investment will finance ground-up developments that will ultimately be valued at more than $1.1 billion. The transaction marks GoldenTree InSite’s largest single investment over the last two years in the country, where it has committed in excess of $300 million in partnership agreements during that period. “We will probably focus primarily on for-sale residential…
Construction of 670,000 SF San Francisco Office Building Wraps Up
Just under two years after its groundbreaking, the office building at 555 Mission St. in the burgeoning Mission Street Corridor of San Francisco’s South Financial District has reached completion. Acting on behalf of Tishman Speyer, owner of the 670,000-square-foot tower, general contractor Turner Construction hammered in the last nail right on schedule, marking the debut of the first Class A office building to be developed in San Francisco in the last four years. Stretching 33 stories high, 555 Mission (pictured) also features 3,400 square feet of ground-level retail space, an 11,000-square-foot plaza and a two-story below grade parking facility. Some…
$705M Hard Rock Resort Proposal Wins Kansas City Competition
Kansas Entertainment L.L.C., a joint venture involving Kansas Speedway and The Cordish Co., has won a coveted casino management contract by the Kansas Lottery Gaming Facility Review Board for the development of a casino resort in Wyandotte County, Kans. The joint venture, which competed with a handful of teams for the right to develop a gaming property in the county, plans to erect an upscale 1.5 million-square-foot Hard Rock Hotel & Casino property that will cost an estimated $705 million to build. With a designated site off 1-70 and I-435 about 15 minutes from downtown Kansas City, the gaming and…
Kemp, Mitchell Shine at DLA Piper Summit
The two speakers at the lunch session during “What Comes Next: Opportunities, Risks and Rewards,” at the 2008 DLA Piper Global Real Estate Summit held Tuesday in Chicago, were a power pair indeed: Jack Kemp, former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and Republican vice-presidential nominee in 1996, and George Mitchell, former U.S. Senator (D-Maine) and currently global chairman of DLA Piper.The session’s title was “Stay Red? Go Blue? What November 4 Will Tell Us,” but the kickoff topic was the $700 billion federal bailout of the financial markets, aka TARP, or the troubled assets relief program. Though Kemp and…
Kor Hotel Sells Half Stake to UAE Firm, Plans International Expansion
Kor Hotel Group has just taken on a new partner. The Los Angeles-headquartered hospitality company sold a 50 percent stake to Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala Development Co. for an undisclosed amount. With the new investment, Kor will expand its Tides and Viceroy brands to major gateway cities and leading resort destinations in the Middle East, North Africa and Asia. Kor’s decision to sell part of its company was not a calculated move, but a simple evolution of a partnership. “This relationship has been developed over several months, allowing each party to discuss and strategize the best possible scenarios for cooperation,” a…
Financial Market Update-Wednesday, Sept. 24
Wall Street needs plumbers? That plumbing metaphor came up again during testimony today about the financial crisis. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke called credit markets the “plumbing” of the U.S. economy this morning before Congress, warning of the dire consequences if consumers and businesses turn on an empty tap. By the end of the trading day, the market seems to have said, nice going Mr. Buffet, but things are still scary otherwise, especially with Congress dickering over the bailout. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 29 points, down 0.3 per cent.As CPNnoted last week, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson talked of…