the Editors of Commercial Property Executive
Safe Harbors: Worden Steers Scout Real Estate Capital to Resort Success
In the year it took Alan Worden and his wife to sail from Nantucket, Mass., to New Zealand, plenty of unexpected events barraged the CEO of Scout Real Estate Capital L.L.C. The 2000 voyage navigated through multiple storms and a near collision with a freighter while anchored off the coast of the Galapagos Islands.Alongside their boat, the Windwalker, tagged along a leaky yet effective dinghy that allowed them to explore. Aptly, it was named Scout. Five years later, it seemed only natural for Worden to name his new company after the dinghy. “As a company, we will consider many opportunities,…
New York City Hotel Market Segments Alleviate Demand
International travel to New York City, inspired by the weak dollar, has helped the market maintain its good health. That momentum, however, has not yet yielded much new development in demanding price points and parts of town.“There’s simply more demand in the New York hotel rooms than there has ever been, and there really hasn’t been an increase in supply to meet that increase in demand in the full-service and luxury sectors,” said Mark Gordon, head of the U.S. hotel group for Cushman and Wakefield Sonnenblick-Goldman L.L.C. Indeed, according to a PKF Consulting survey of 77 hotels encompassing 33,162 rooms,…
Search for Savings: How to Work with the GSA
Rising rental rates are making it more difficult to structure lease renewals in many markets. But the General Services Administration’s Public Buildings Service has an even tougher challenge. When the organization, which handles both leased and owned space for federal agencies, needs either a new lease or an expansion, it is federally mandated to look first at buildings that it already owns.That was the case when it needed to consolidate the space used by the Department of Homeland Security, which occupies 60 locations in Greater Washington, D.C. For example, St. Elizabeth’s Hospital’s West Campus in Southeast D.C. will house 4…
Arizona Biltmore to Get $300M Facelift
The Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa is set to undergo a $300 million renovation. Initial plans for the renovation call for the addition of 300 guest rooms, a spa and expanded restaurant facilities. The resort’s owners are hoping that the city of Phoenix will approve their zoning request, which was filed on July 9. Assuming the zoning change is approved, renovation is expected to commence in 2009. The owners of the property have been working with community groups including the Arizona Biltmore Estates Village Association and the Camelback East Village Planning Committee in order to build goodwill with the community…
Element Hotel Brand to Make EMEA Debut with New Property in Abu Dhabi
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. has joined forces with Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Co. to open Element Abu Dhabi, which will be the first property in the Europe/Middle East/Africa region to operate under Starwood’s new green-centric Element brand. The 270-room extended-stay hotel will be located in the sprawling $2.3 billion Capital Centre commercial and residential micro-city development. In addition to upscale guestrooms, Element Abu Dhabi (pictured) will feature a restaurant and fitness center as part of the property’s group of offerings designed to accommodate business and leisure travelers. Starwood’s partner, ABNEC, points to Abu Dhabi’s strong economic growth and…
ING’s New Global Real Estate Fund Kicks Off with $300M Investment
London-based ING Real Estate Select has just introduced its Global Osiris Property Fund to the market. Seed investor London Pensions Fund Authority has thrown in approximately $297 million to get Global Osiris off the ground, and other institutional investors seeking to diversify assets through the penetration of international property markets can join in with a minimum investment of about $12 million. Global Osiris is being touted as one of the first open-ended, core-balanced global funds. The investment vehicle, which is aiming for an 8 to 10 percent net return, will have few boundaries, targeting premium real estate in all property…
Eastat Office Tower Plan Would Spare Historic Boston Restaurant
Boston-based developer Eastat Realty Capital L.L.C. has submitted a notice of project change with the Boston Redevelopment Authority in connection with a proposed $140 million, 24-story, 248,000-square-foot office building in Boston’s theater district. To Bostonians, the point of the project, however, seems less what will be built than what won’t be coming down; the plan would leave the adjacent Jacob Wirth Co. building untouched.The historic Wirth building (pictured) was completed in 1844, and the German-style restaurant there was founded in 1868, making it the city’s second-oldest operating eatery. The restaurant was added to the National Register of Historic Places in…
6N Silicon Wins Government Money for Development Near Toronto
The province of Ontario has granted nearly $8 million to support the expansion of 6N Silicon Inc., which specializes in turning low-grade silicon into the purified form of the material need to produce solar cells. The funding will aid in the development of a $50 million, 120,000-square-foot manufacturing plant for the company currently under way in Vaughan, Ontario, a city north of Toronto. According to 6N Silicon, the company will be able to use warehouse-type facilities in more urban locations for the process at the new plant. This is a considerable real estate advantage over other silicon purification processes, which…
RioCan in $40M Sale-Leaseback of Ottawa Retail Property
RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust, Canada’s largest REIT, has purchased a 142,000-square-foot, two-story retail building in Ottawa for $40 million and agreed to a 15-year lease to the seller and primary tenant, Canadian Tire. The property was acquired for cash, at a cap rate of 6.4 percent, according to a prepared statement. The building has a Canadian Tire store on the second floor and a Mark’s Work Wearhouse (a subsidiary of Canadian Tire) on the first floor, along with two smaller occupancies. The sale-leaseback is structured as a headlease, Rags Davloor, RioCan’s senior vice president and CFO, told CPN, under…
Suburban Phoenix Mixed-Use Project Nets $65M Financing
With construction starting earlier this year on Park Place, a mixed-use development in the Phoenix suburb of Chandler, Ariz., developer Cybert Hall Partners has gained $65.2 million in financing for the project. Buchanan Street Partners negotiated the financing package on behalf of Cybert Hall. Park Place is planned to be a 100-acre mixed-use business park located at the intersection of Highways 101 and 202 in Chandler. The business park is located across the highway from the popular Chandler Fashion Center and is near the corporate campus corridors on Price Road, which is home to many Fortune 500 companies including Intel,…