the Editors of Commercial Property Executive
Management Matters with Mike Myatt: How to K.I.S.S Problems Goodbye
Keep It Simple Stupid. One of the most effective ways to order your world is to simplify everything you encounter. The problem is that keeping it simple often becomes very difficult when our basic human nature is to overcomplicate everything we touch. In thinking about the people I respect the most, to the one they possess the uncanny ability to take the most complicated of issues and simplify them. You will find that the best leaders, communicators, teachers, and innovators have a true knack for taking extremely dense or intricate content and making it engaging and easy to understand. In…
Transbay Project Promises Upgrades for San Francisco
It’s been a long time coming, but San Francisco’s Transbay Terminal is set to break ground this year. Ultimately, the plans to redevelop a blighted and underutilized transit terminal and dilapidated area promise to bring extended rail access, jobs, housing and other real estate uses to the city, according to Transbay Joint Powers Authority executive director Maria Ayerdi-Kaplan, who presented the keynote address at CPN’s San Francisco Property Opportunities conference yesterday. The authority signed architect Cesar Pelli to design the transit center in mid-May. The multi-phase project got its beginnings in 1999, when the approval of Proposition H made it…
Deutsche Bank Tower Cleanup at WTC Forges Ahead; Removal to Follow
After a nearly 10-month delay that followed a fatal fire last summer, cleanup of the contaminated Deutsche Bank building at the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan is proceeding full speed ahead, a top Downtown official said yesterday. At a meeting of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., board chairman Avi Shick said that contractors should finish cleanup of the contaminated dust in the former Deutsche Bank by the end of the year. Work resumed last month on the deconstruction of the tower at the southern end of the World Trade Center, which was damaged beyond repair in the 2001 terrorist…
Inmobiliaria Colonial Moves Closer to Selling Off Key Asset
Spanish real estate powerhouse Inmobiliaria Colonial SA has reaffirmed its commitment to selling its 15 percent stake in Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas SA (FCC), Spain’s third-largest construction company, according to a Bloomberg report. At the end of March, CPN had covered press reports that FCC was trying to pull together a plan under which a consortium of six investors would jointly purchase Colonial’s stake in FCC. Colonial, which is laden with 8 billion to 9 billion euros of debt, has for some months been both working to sell off individual assets and entertaining various suitors for the company itself….
Kennedy Wilson Takes 214,000SF LA Office
Kennedy Wilson has agreed to purchase a 16-story office tower in Los Angeles. The building, 6100 Wilshire, is located adjacent to Beverly Hills at the southwest corner for Wilshire and Fairfax. Financial details of the deal were not revealed.The 214,000-square-foot property is currently 85 percent occupied by tenants including CBS, Ovation, World Link, Fulfillment Fund, Idea Asylum and City National Bank. Upon purchase, Kennedy Wilson plans to redevelop the building by undertaking a comprehensive modernization of the property, which was originally built in 1986. Kennedy Wilson is confident that the building will retain its value because of the low supply…
Thompson’s Comeback Bid Caps Dramatic Month for Grubb & Ellis
After the events of the past month, the leadership of Grubb & Ellis Co. may welcome some peace and quiet this summer. In what could be the capper in a series of personnel shufflings, former board chairman Anthony Thompson, who helped engineer a blockbuster merger with NNN Realty Advisors and is still the company’s second-largest stockholder, wants to rejoin the firm’s board of directors.Thompson’s filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission expressed dismay over the company’s leadership and direction, citing in particular falling stock prices. In a letter to Grubb & Ellis’ leadership filed with SEC and dated Thursday, Thompson…
KBS REIT Closes With $2.1B in Assets
Nearly two years after its first shares were offered for sale, KBS Real Estate Investment Trust Inc. has closed. The non-traded REIT raised $1.67 billion and bought $1.65 billion in income-producing commercial real estate and other assets, bringing the total acquisitions to more than $2.1 billion. With KBS Capital Markets Group as its dealer manager, KBS REIT used the proceeds to buy 61 properties with more than 20 million square feet of office, industrial and retail space primarily in large U.S. cities and metropolitan areas. KBS REIT also bought $543 million of strategic debt real estate-related assets. Charles Schreiber, CEO…
Phase I of 1.6MSF LA Office Project Kicks Off
Construction has commenced on the first phase of The Campus at Playa Vista, a new 1.2 billion, 1.6 million-square-foot office complex in West Los Angeles that is being developed by Tishman Speyer on behalf of its joint venture with Walton Street Capital L.L.C. The initial segment of the project (pictured) will bring 325,000 square feet of premium space to the tight Los Angeles market, 150,000 square feet of which has just been claimed. Situated between the Marina del Rey and Westchester communities at the intersection of Jefferson Blvd. and Centinela Ave., The Campus will occupy a 64-acre parcel that the…
DC Officials Plan TIF Package for $260M Mixed-Use Project
Roadside Development, the company behind the planned CityMarket at O mixed-use redevelopment endeavor, is on track to get a helping hand from the District of Columbia for the funding of the $260 million project. Mayor Anthony Fenty just revealed today that the city has facilitated an agreement with Roadside that calls for the District to provide a $35 million tax increment financing package to assist the development of the project. CityMarket at O will sprout up at the site of the historic O Street Market located just two blocks from the 2.3 million-square-foot Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Shaw,…
Fed Pauses Rate as Inflation Fears Rise
The Federal Reserve opted to hold a key interest rate steady for the first time in nine months–even amidst a sluggish economy–due largely to increasing fears of inflation. By maintaining the federal funds rate at 2 percent yesterday, the Fed was attempting to curb inflation in the wake of skyrocketing commodities prices, especially oil. Though in its statement, the Fed said it expected inflationary pressures to ease later this year, the decision to hold the rate indicated that, at least for the time being, inflation is a more pressing concern than the economic slowdown which spurred the previous rate cuts….