the Editors of Commercial Property Executive
Management Matters with Mike Myatt: How to Become a Great CEO
What does it take to become a great CEO? Much more than it did even five years ago to be sure. The rapidly changing global landscape and the evolving complexity of business makes the job of CEO something that is only well-suited for a rare few. For these reasons sustainable success at the C-suite level is an elusive thing in today’s business world. With the average tenure of a CEO being less than 5 years it is critical for executives to understand what it takes to beat the odds. In today’s column I’ll examine the characteristics that a CEO must…
Suburban Chicago’s Purple Hotel Slated for Redevelopment
Inland Real Estate Acquisitions Inc. and TMK Development Ltd. have unveiled plans to acquire and redevelop the Purple Hotel in the suburb of Lincolnwood, Ill., just north of Chicago. The mixed-use project, known as Legacy Place, may include as much as 800,000 square feet of residential, retail, office and hotel space. The plan includes over 100,000 square feet of restaurants and retail space, a health club and a movie theater, more than 200 condominiums or apartment units, a 350-room boutique hotel, and about 40,000 square feet of office space. Construction is expected to begin in 2009. The Purple Hotel, which…
Second, Third-Tier Cities New Hotspots for Corporate Development: Report
Second-, and even third-tier cities, should be on corporations’ radar screens. They are good places to locate new manufacturing plants, call centers and IT hubs, a study on corporate development hot spots has concluded.The study, released at the CoreNet Global Summit in May, found that rising labor shortages, and high employee turnover, plague cities such as Bangalore and Shanghai. The study concluded that corporate investment dollars can be put to better use in some lesser-known locations. Wadley-Donovan-Gutshaw Consulting co-authored the study, along with Tractus Asia Ltd. and Buck Consultants Intl. Dennis Donovan, principal at Wadley-Donovan-Gutshaw, recently discussed some of the…
Daniel Corp. Teams Up with MetLife in Atlanta on Office Leasing
Daniel Corp. is expanding its reach in the Atlanta office market and its relationship with MetLife as it takes on management and leasing duties for 890,000 square feet in three MetLife-owned office properties in the Atlanta region. Beginning in July, Daniel Corp. will run and lease TownPark Commons, Midtown Heights and Georgia 400 Center for MetLife. The two companies have worked together for 25 years, including several development projects in Atlanta. “Although we only accept limited third-party assignments, given the scope of the development activity we have with MetLife and the success of those projects, it made sense for both…
GE Finances $67M for Offices
GE Real Estate has announced two financing deals for office buildings, with total funding of some $67 million. GE will provide Vision Equities with $30.6 million to refinance Parkway 120, a Class A office building located in Old Bridge, N.J. Vision Equities acquired the 211,900-square-foot office in 2001 and has increased its occupancy from 47 percent to 79 percent since then. Vision Equities will use the money to invest in the building to attract new tenants to the property. Vision Equities, which operates approximately 15 million square feet of office space in Northeast New Jersey, has previously worked with GE…
IPG to Add Luxury Hotel to Argentine Wine Resort
The city of San Rafael, in western Argentina, has approved a major expansion of Algodon Wine Estates, a winery and luxury resort, an expansion that will include a luxury hotel of about 50 suites, according to an announcement by InvestProperty Group L.L.C., the resort’s developer and owner.Algodon Wine Estates encompasses more than 2,000 acres in the foothills of the Sierra Pintada Mountains at the base of the Andes. The property currently has a boutique winery, lodge, clubhouse, restaurant and nine-hole golf course. The expansion will add, in addition to the hotel, four residential villages; two world-class 18-hole golf courses; a…
Rudin, St. Vincent’s Hospital May Revamp Greenwich Village Plan
New York City is a tough place to build, and no areas are more challenging to developers than the city’s historic neighborhoods, as the experience of the Rudin Organization and St. Vincent’s Hospital Manhattan has just proved again. The developer and the hospital will have to come up with a new plan to build a new hospital and market-rate residential units after the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission turned down the team’s $1.6 billion redevelopment proposal in Greenwich Village. Objections from community groups over the project’s scale helped scuttle the proposal for a 329-foot-tall, 625,000-square-foot hospital building and 400 units of…
ProLogis to Increase Presence in Fort Worth with New 2MSF Park
Later this year, Denver-headquartered ProLogis will commence development of ProLogis Park Fort Worth on a 130-acre site in the North Fort Worth submarket. At full build-out the industrial complex will encompass seven structures containing a total of 2.1 million square feet of distribution space. ProLogis will invest $100 million to develop ProLogis Park Fort Worth, its first project in the North Fort Worth submarket. “Demand in North Fort Worth has been consistent and we have been monitoring the area for a while,” Rob Huthnance, first vice president & Dallas market officer, told CPN today. “It is very well-leased compared to…
San Francisco’s Transbay Officials Lock in Architect with $105M Contract
The board of directors for The Transbay Joint Powers Authority has signed off on an agreement with Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects for the firm’s design of the new Transbay Transit Center & Tower, which will feature 1.6 million square feet of office space. Pelli’s contract for the Downtown San Francisco project, which is being developed by Hines, is valued at $105 million. Located at First and Mission Streets, the Transbay Transit Center was conceived to serve as the West Coast equivalent of New York City’s Grand Central Station. The office tower, featuring 50,000 square feet of ground-level retail, will rise…
Bouyed by Retail News? Curb Enthusiasm, Grubb & Ellis’ Dee Advises
To the surprise of many analysts, retail sector seemed to catch a break from months of downbeat news this week. Leading the parade was the U.S. Commerce Department’s disclosure that consumer spending outside of the automotive industry ticked up a half-percent in April. Chain stores had a good month, too, as sales improved by 3.6 percent from March to April. And the country’s biggest retail REIT, Simon Property Group Inc., reported that funds from operations inched up about 7 percent compared to the same period last year. Both retailers and retail real estate professionals undoubtedly welcome any signs that the…