the Editors of Commercial Property Executive
ING Initiates $1.2B European Healthcare Fund
Targeting the growing demand for healthcare properties in Europe, ING Real Estate launched the ING European Healthcare Property Fund today. The investment vehicle, which will ultimately have an anticipated total of about €800 million, or approximately $1.2 billion to play with, will focus on cure, care and commercial healthcare real estate. As is the case in the U.S., the mushrooming population of aging individuals and the general increase in demand for healthcare, are spurring the growth of Western Europe’s healthcare property sector, currently valued at approximately €400 billion. “We have the same demographic issues of double aging and more senior citizens;…
Court Overrules Town, OKs Taubman Long Island Mall
The New York State Supreme Court has issued a ruling that the Town of Oyster Bay, on the north shore of Long Island, must issue a long-delayed special-use permit to Taubman Centers Inc. for The Mall at Oyster Bay. The mall, an 750,000-square-foot, roughly $500 million regional center to be anchored by Barneys New York, Nordstrom and what will be Long Island’s only Neiman Marcus, has so far spent more time in court than under construction. “The court has now definitively ruled that there is no legal basis for the town to further delay the mall,” Steve Kieras, Taubman’s senior…
Pair of Luxury Resort Condo Projects Planned for Denver Ski Community
Fairmont Hotels & Resorts will soon debut two new upscale resort condominium properties just outside of Breckenridge, Colo., about 80 miles from Denver. Mesa Homes Development Co. is behind the development of the projects, Fairmont Residences Shock Hill and Fairmont Residences on the River, which carry a total price tag of approximately $270 million. Shock Hill will sit within close proximity to Mt. Baldy and the White River National Forest, and will feature 87 condominium and penthouse residences, as well as a luxury spa. About two miles away is the site of On the River, which will encompass 60 condominiums…
SL Green Announces Leasing Trifecta in NYC
SL Green Realty Corp. today announced that is has completed three separate but linked leasing deals.West LB (Westdeutsche Landesbank) surrendered the entire 7th floor at 1185 Avenue of the Americas covering 27,500 square feet, which had eight years of a remaining term at below market rent. The surrender included a buyout fee paid to the landlord. RSM McGladry, an accounting and tax services firm, expanded into the space surrendered by West LB. Additionally, RSM extended its existing lease term within 1185 Avenue of the Americas by three years and eliminated an existing right to cancel in 2011 resulting in a…
Commercial Real Estate Investments Hang Tough
Despite the sputtering economy, credit crisis and sagging dollar, the commercial real estate market is growing–unlike other investment areas. Commercial property for the four quarters ended March 31, 2008, showed a total return of 13.6 percent, according to the NCREIF-NPI index, which serves as the gauge of the sector’s investment performance. The TIAA-CREF Weekly Market Monitor for June 2 reported that the total return includes income of 5.41 percent and capital appreciation of 7.86 percent. All four major property types shared in the strong performance, continued the Monitor. Office produced a returns to 17.5 percent, with industrial at 13 percent,…
240,000 SF of Industrial Space Sold in Southern California
Despite a market with slowing momentum, Los Angeles-based commercial real estate developer Overton Moore Properties has sold three industrial buildings at the Pacific Gateway Business Center in Seal Beach, Calif., for $38.8 million. The buildings total 240,000 square feet. The buyers are Affliction Clothing, Jerry Turpanjian (Amonix) and Magtek. These deals bring the occupancy of the development to six of 10 buildings sold, representing 450,000 square feet of the project’s total 831,000 square feet of space committed. Brokers in the deal said the building sales are the result of a project goal of offering corporate, industrial for-sale product to healthy,…
NYC Crane Inspector Accused of Taking Bribes
A New York City buildings official has been accused by the city’s Department of Investigation of accepting bribes for reporting that cranes had been inspected, and that crane operators were fully certified, when they were not. The department charges that James Delayo, an assistant chief inspector with the Department of Buildings, accepted thousands of dollars in bribes from an unnamed crane company over a period of eight years. Investigators charged that Delayo took money for signing-off on mobile crane inspections he did not perform, providing in advance the questions and answers for one or more “Class C” Hoisting Machine Operator…
Solidere International Launches U.A.E. Mixed-Use Project
Solidere International announced it will build a $63 billion mixed-use development, Al Zorah, in Ajman, United Arab Emirates. Al Zorah (pictured) will be a self-contained, master-planned city, containing residences, offices, retail, schools, hospitals, a championship golf course, marinas and five-star resort hotels. The development will cover approximately seven square miles. Of the area to be developed, residential buildings will make up 52 percent; offices will make up 22 percent; retail will make up 8 percent; and warehouse storage and infrastructure the final 7 percent. Other amenities include a retail mall; an equestrian center; jogging and horse trek tracks; hospitals and…
ProLogis Report Details Role of Economic Zone in Opening China
A new research report by industrial landlord ProLogis posits that China’s Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and Economic and Technological Development Zones (ETDZs) have been, and even continue to be, catalysts in that country’s economic transformation. The report, called “China’s Special Economic Zones and National Industrial Parks–Door Openers to Economic Reform,” credits the zones with attracting foreign companies to invest in China and thereby nurturing China’s economic revitalization in the last 30 years or so. Currently there are five SEZs and 54 ETDZs in China. Foreign enterprises establishing operations in these zones are granted tax breaks, the ability to repatriate profits…
$95M Vegas Casino Deal Fizzles
Marking yet another failed Las Vegas property trade in recent months, plans for 155 East Tropicana L.L.C. to sell its Hooters Casino Hotel to Hedwigs Las Vegas Top Tier L.L.C., an affiliate of the investment group led by NTH Advisory Group L.L.C., have disintegrated. The $95 million deal was declared null and void on June 6 due to the buyer’s failure to make a previously agreed upon payment. It was on April 30, 2007 that 155 East Tropicana entered into an asset purchase agreement for the sale of Hooters Casino to Hedwigs, which made an unsolicited offer for hotel. The…