the Editors of Commercial Property Executive
Management Matters with Mike Myatt: Movies Can Teach Leaders Cannes-Do Attitude
The best leadership movies…you’re likely thinking right now, “can anything about leadership actually be learned by watching movies?” You bet. I was recently asked for my opinion about which movies I felt were the top leadership movies of all time. After thinking about my answer for a few minutes, I realized that, while not all leaders are fans of cinema, all leaders can certainly learn valuable leadership lessons by watching movies with a critical and discerning eye. You’ve probably surmised by now that this week’s column is not going to be a real brain-teaser. However, it will nonetheless offer you…
Small Luxury Hotels of the World Top Brand for Wealthy: Survey
The Small Luxury Hotels of the World brand kept its first place status, winning number one for the second year in a row in the fourth Luxury Brand Status Index, LBSI, a survey released from the New York City-based Luxury Institute. The survey polls wealthy Americans.RockResorts took to second, while Peninsula and Ritz-Carlton tied for third. Last year, Club Med was first, Conrad Hotels & Resorts second, and Crillon Hotels third. In April of 2006, however, Ritz-Carlton was first, Peninsula was second, and Small Luxury Hotels and Four Seasons tied for third. “To score high in this category is like…
JPMorgan Sued Over Bear Stearns HQ Building
An entity called 383 Madison L.L.C. has filed suit against Bear Stearns & Co. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., asserting that it owns the land on which Bear Stearns’ New York City headquarters stands, and that it has the right to make the first offer to buy the building. The suit was filed in New York State Supreme Court yesterday, according to various media reports. When JPMorgan offered to acquire Bear Stearns, the deal included an option to buy the Bear Stearns building for $1.1 billion, regardless of whether the acquisition went through. Now JPMorgan plans to move its investment…
$100M Entertainment Complex Opens in Arizona
Glimcher Ventures Southwest has unveiled its new $100 million mixed-use entertainment complex, The Boulevard, in Surprise, Ariz. Glimcher opened the doors on the new project with the opening this week of anchor tenant UltraStar Cinemas. The Boulevard (pictured) features 250,000 square feet of entertainment venues, retail shops and restaurants. Previously dubbed the Shoppes at Surprise Pointe, The Boulevard is a new brand of mixed-use entertainment centers by Glimcher that will focus on bringing together tenants with unique and successful entertainment concepts into an open-air, pedestrian-friendly setting to create a central destination. “Look at how Warren Buffet does things. His main…
San Diego’s Mayor Resists Blackwater Training Center
San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders and Blackwater Worldwide, a security contractor whose armed personnel in Iraq have been involved in several controversial incidents, are embroiled in a skirmish over what perhaps should have been a very routine matter: a building permit in an industrial area. The San Diego Union-Tribune reported Wednesday that Sanders has decided that a training center Blackwater wants to develop inside a leased 61,600-square-foot warehouse in a business park near the Mexican border will require a full public review by the city council and the planning commission. The permit application had already passed a review by city…
Work Gets Underway on $118M Suburban D.C. Mixed-Use Project
Construction has kicked off on Clarendon Center, a 471,000-square-foot mixed-use complex less than four miles from Washington, D.C., in Arlington, Va.’s Clarendon submarket. The project, a Saul Centers Inc. endeavor, carries a development price tag of $118 million. Designed by the architectural firm of Torti Gallas & Partners Inc., Clarendon Center will occupy nearly two entire city blocks just a stone’s throw from a Metro station. The south block of the project will encompass a nine-story structure with 85,000 square feet of office space, 244 apartment residences within a 12-story, 240,000-square-foot building, 34,000 square feet of ground-level retail space, as…
Versace to Design Interior of Panama City High Rise
Fashion house Versace has been tapped to design the interior of the Vita Tower in Panama.Versace Design will team with architect Alfonso Pinzon Mendez to design the interiors of the private residential high-rise in Panama City. Versace brands will be featured in the building’s common areas, which include a spa. To date, Versace Design has worked on a limited number of luxury developments, most notably the Plaza Hotel in New York. The Vita Tower is being developed by firms Grupo Attie, Consorio General and Grupo H. The development team is responsible for numerous high rises in Panama City, including Yoo…
Kite Realty OKs Notre Dame Lease, Set to Begin Mixed-Use Project
Kite Realty Group Trust has arranged a long-term ground lease with the University of Notre Dame and acquired land to begin the first phase of a 24-acre mixed-use project near the college’s South Bend, Ind., campus. The first phase of the development–dubbed Eddy Steet Commons–is expected to cost about $70 million and will include 90,000 square feet of ground-level retail and restaurants on both sides of Eddy Street; 75,000 square feet of Class A office space on three floors above a building to be constructed at Eddy Street and Angela Boulevard; 266 rental apartments in buildings along Eddy Street and…
NetLease Q & A: Calkain’s Hipp on Survival in Changing Times
Can a specialist in the net lease business survive and even prosper in an ill-starred real estate market? Jonathan Hipp, president & CEO of Reston, Va.-based Calkain Cos. Inc., has no doubt of it. In fact, he says, he’s looking forward to the rest of the year, as opportunities occurring in a down market tend to reveal themselves. Also, Calkain recently buttressed its platform by making a strategic alliance with McLean, Va.-based Fraser Forbes Co. L.L.C. to improve the services they each offer. Fraser Forbes focuses entirely on raw land deals, while Calkain focuses on income-producing properties stabilized by a…
Hyatt Regency Montreal Trades for $59M
Ownership of the 605-room Hyatt Regency Montreal has changed hands, courtesy of a $59.2 million transaction. With the assistance of real estate services firm CBRE Hotels, Ashford Canada Trust sold the property to Pandox AB. Pandox will continue working with Hyatt as the manager of the property, and will ponder further development of the hotel down the road. For Pandox, the acquisition marks a big step forward in the company’s North American expansion plan, and increases its portfolio of guestrooms in Canada’s second largest city to 1,000. Pandox first entered North America’s hospitality market in 2007 with the purchase of…