the Editors of Commercial Property Executive
IBM to Build $360M Data Center in Research Triangle Park
IBM will expand its presence in Research Triangle Park, N.C., with the development of a $360 million data center on its campus. The green facility will offer cloud computing capabilities and will bring the company’s portfolio of cloud computing centers up to nine. The new state-of-the-art center will emerge from an existing building that will be redeveloped. In its first phase, the data center will yield 60,000 square feet of raised floor space. The building will be constructed as part of IBM’s Project Big Green initiative, a $1 billion program designed to increase energy efficiency at its data centers. In…
Inland American Sees Opportunity in RE Debt
Inland American Real Estate Trust Inc., through a subsidiary, has committed to invest $100 million in Boston-based Concord Debt Holdings L.L.C., whose specialty is the acquisition of real estate securities and other real estate-related loans. The initial investment is $20 million, with as much as $80 million more over the next 18 months. Concord Debt Holdings is a joint venture between Winthrop Realty Trust and Lexington Realty Trust. Both companies are REITs, with Boston-based Winthrop owning a variety of commercial properties, and New York-based Lexington specializing in net-leased properties. Under the terms of the deal, contributions by Inland American will…
Realty Income’s Lewis Sees Slow Recovery for Retail Net Lease Market
Current tepid deal volume in the net lease market should continue, though the impact on his company would be relatively small, Realty Income Corp.’s CEO Tom Lewis advised during his latest company conference call. This assessment comes not long after he struck an agreement with the bankrupt Buffets Holdings Inc. regarding 104 net leased retail properties (as reported by CPN in July). Realty Income ended its second fiscal quarter with occupancies of 96.8 percent among the 2,367 properties that it already owns, or about 60 basis points lower than at the end of the first quarter, he noted. “I think…
Hill International to Project Manage SmartCity Kochi in India
Hill International has announced it has been awarded a contract by SmartCity (Kochi) Infrastructure Private Ltd. to provide project management services for the SmartCity Kochi development in India. Hill’s services on the development will include project administration, document control, master scheduling, budgeting and cost management, project reporting, design management, value engineering, construction tendering, construction program management and claims management. The two-and-a-half year contract has an estimated value to Hill of approximately $9 million. Located in the southeastern Indian coastal city of Kochi, SmartCity Kochi will be a technology epicenter. The development, built on approximately 300 acres and developed as a…
GE Real Estate Names New President, Plans Expansion of Arden Realty
Just a day after Michael Rowan took the helm as president of GE Real Estate Americas’ equity business unit, he announced today that Arden Realty Inc. will expand its role from working on just the West Coast into a national office platform. Rowan (pictured) will lead all GE Real Estate equity investing operations, which include venture investments, direct investments, the Arden and InterPark operating platforms, its Canadian and Mexican equity investment portfolios and emerging markets equity investing in South America. GE Real Estate and Arden merged in May 2006. Over the past two years, Arden closed approximately $6 billion in…
$84M in Financing in Place for Fort Lauderdale Hotel Transformation
Plans for the conversion of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.’s Sheraton Yankee Trader Hotel into the 433-room Westin Beach Resort (pictured) have gotten a big boost with the closing of an $84 million financing deal for the project. Borrower A1A Trader L.L.C., an affiliate of Starwood Capital Group, was able to obtain a senior secured increasing term loan from ING Real Estate Finance, which took on the roles of Administrative Agent and Sole Lead Arranger on the transaction. After having occupied the oceanfront site at 321 N. Fort Lauderdale Beach Blvd. for 44 years, the Sheraton Yankee closed its doors in April…
37-Acre Mixed-Use Project to Open in Houston in 2009
Midway Companies recently unveiled plans for CityCentre, its 1.8-million-sq.-ft. mixed-use project in Houston featuring 650 residential units, 400,000 square feet of retail, restaurants and entertainment, a 144,000-sq.-ft. urban Life Time Athletic fitness facility and 425,000 square feet of Class A office space. CityCentre is spread across 37 acres at the intersection of Interstate 10W and Beltway 8 (Sam Houston Parkway) in the Memorial area of West Houston. When complete in 2009, approximately 1,500 people will occupy the project’s residential section, which includes 370 multifamily residential units, 250 urban apartment lofts, 35 brownstones and 22 condominium-style penthouse residences atop a 245-room…
Nation’s Bridge Infrastructure Still Shaky One Year After I-35 Collapse in Minnesota
Just one year after the catastrophic collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minnesota, it isn’t a matter of whether another bridge will crumble, but when, according to an infrastructure expert. The danger goes beyond the mere safety of individuals traveling on that bridge, but also to the infrastructure of the nation’s business environment, too. “Infrastructure is the backbone of our whole commercial world. It keeps us competitive around the globe by moving products and people safely,” Barry B. LePatner, founder of the New York City-based law firm LePatner & Associates L.L.P., which advises on business and legal issues affecting real…
CBRE’s Torto Sees CRE Correction, No Catastrophe
More pain is in store for the U.S. commercial real estate market and the for the rest of the year, but reports of a meltdown are greatly exaggerated. That is the conclusion of CB Richard Ellis Inc.’s global chief economist, Raymond Torto (pictured), in a mid-year report. Difficulties in areas ranging from the job market to CMBS that will take time to resolve. Still, the economy should avoid the severity of the doldrums a generation ago, Torto argued. “We feel the headlines do not accurately reflect U.S. or global real estate fundamentals,” the report states. A generation ago, 12 months…
South Florida CBD’s to Feel Pinch: CresaPartners’ Barton
A flood of new office product in Miami and a slowing local economy will combine to start driving down rents in South Florida’s central business districts, predicts CresaPartners principal Charles Barton. ‘This one is an easy call,” Barton told CPN. Central business district office markets in Miami, West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale are feeling the pinch of the housing market crisis, as the mortgage industry and related businesses industries cut personnel and space. That trend compounds one that has already been unfolding for several years; commercial banks’ decisions to reduce space and move some back-office operations to South Florida…