the Editors of Commercial Property Executive
New CRE Website Combines 3D Mapping, Property Data for NYC, NJ
Taking real estate expertise and combining it with technology has given birth to REonomy.com, a real estate information Web site designed to serve a range of professionals, from investors to brokers, by providing integrated parcel data, MLS and comprehensive property research tools in one location.The Web site, which launched earlier this month, targets both commercial and residential real estate professionals in New York City’s five boroughs and the majority of New Jersey. The goal of the site is to provide the most up-to-date property information and never-before-seen tools like 3-D bulk study renderings.Founders Charlie Oshman and Jonathan Arnold developed the…
Sizable Manhattan Office Lease May Indicate Impending Uptick
The New York City office market has taken its hits with the tanking of the economy, but accounting firm Marcum & Kliegman L.L.P.’s new lease agreement for nearly 67,200 square feet at 750 Third Ave., the largest tenant relocation lease in Midtown Manhattan this year, is sparking hope that the worst will be over sooner rather than later. Marcum & Kliegman will move from its current home down the block at 655 Third Avenue to the 11th and 12th floors of the 857,400-square-foot Class A building at 750 Third Avenue (pictured), which has been owned by SL Green Realty Corp….
Economic Update – Commercial, Residential Prices Deflate Like Stuck Balloon
Commercial property prices sank by 5.8 percent in 1Q09, according to the MIT Center for Real Estate’s Transactions-Based Index, which saw its fourth quarterly drop in a row during the quarter. The index is now 21 percent lower than in 1Q08, and fully 26 percent below its peak in mid-2007. According to MIT, that drop is similar to the index’s 27 percent drop during the commercial property slump of the early 1990s. “It’s possible that the first quarter of 2009 was the nadir in market sentiment,” said David Geltner, director of research at the MIT Center for Real Estate, in…
JLL Study: RevPAR to Spring Back by 2013
Hospitality has been among the most hard-hit sectors during the commercial property industry’s current slump. But according to a pair of new reports, a bounce back is only a few years away.But for now, economic woes darken the doors of the hospitality industry, with RevPAR dropping from 2007 to 2008 in all but three of 25 markets surveyed by Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services. On the bright side, another report, this one from Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels, anticipated that RevPAR is expected to bottom out in 2010, an indicator of upward momentum on the horizon. JLL’s five-year forecast…
Government-Related Niche Keeps Active as Brandywine Gets Funding for IRS Projects in Philly
Brandywine Realty Trust is the latest firm to take advantage of the relatively stable government-related development market. Despite the continuing credit crunch and still-foundering economy that has laid low commercial property deals across the globe, Brandywine has received funding commitments of $209.3 million and $46.7 million, respectively, for a Philadelphia office rehabilitation and nearby parking garage project, both of which will be occupied by the Internal Revenue Service. The office project involves the redevelopment of the 862,000-square-foot 30 South Street building in the city’s University City neighborhood, which carries a total cost of $260.5 million. Across the street from that…
Economic Update – AIG Unloads Choice Tokyo Property for $1.2B
American International Group is finally in the news for something other than being a multibillion-dollar black hole for the U.S. Treasury; namely, a property sale. The beleaguered insurer has inked a deal to sell the AIG Otemachi Building and a one-acre site in Tokyo to Nippon Life Insurance Co. AIG will receive about $1.2 billion in cash for the property–a drop in the vast AIG bucket, perhaps, but still a tidy sum. It is a choice bit of real estate. Not only is it in the traditionally expensive Tokyo market, the building overlooks the Imperial Palace, one of the few…
Bloomberg Arranges Meeting to Address Conflict Between WTC Developer, Port Authority
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is considering downsizing the World Trade Center redevelopment, but project developer Silverstein Properties wants to stick to the plan–and so does New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is orchestrating a meeting between the two parties at Gracie Mansion this week in an attempt to keep the multi-billion project on track. According to an article by the New York Daily News, the Port Authority has proposed downsizing the number of planned skyscrapers at Ground Zero from five to two, ultimately leaving the site with just 5 million square feet of office…
Downtrodden Detroit to Get $145M Arts Center
While office builders and the like struggle to obtain money for projects in the midst of the credit crunch, the College of Creative Studies in Detroit has managed to secure $145 million for the transformation of the long-vacant Argonaut Building (pictured) into a facility to house its second campus, as well as an arts-centric middle school and high school. The federal government’s nine-year-old New Markets Tax Credit Program played a major role in financing the redevelopment of the former General Motors Corp. property, which locals expect will help revitalize the city that began feeling the impact of the car industry’s…
The Expert: The Emerging Minority Majority
As new demographic estimates become available, I make it a practice to review the similarities and differences between the new numbers and last year’s estimates. This time around, the significance that the role ethnic households will play in future growth struck me, specifically the Hispanic segment.As we all know, immigration has driven and will continue to drive the nation’s population growth. No single group has boosted growth more than the Hispanics segment. In 1990, the Hispanic population in the United States was 7.9 percent. Today, Nielsen Claritas estimates, Hispanics account for 15.5 percent. And if the segment continues to grow…
The News: RECon Veterans Head to Vegas with Modest Hopes
Signs of the times will be inescapable in Las Vegas next week, when the International Council of Shopping Centers raises the curtain on the 2009 edition of RECon. After astounding growth brought attendance to 50,000 two years ago, ICSC is expecting a considerably smaller crowd of 30,000 during this year’s show, which runs from Sunday through Wednesday. Smaller staffs, fewer exhibitors and even the conspicuous absence of a few giants will also mark the show.Yet some senior executives and veterans of the Las Vegas show suggest that the re-sizing from gigantic to merely very big may prove an advantage. “The…