the Editors of Commercial Property Executive
Trammell Crow Affiliate Develops Suburban Dallas Transit-Oriented Projects
Anticipating the arrival of light rail into the city in 2010, the Dallas suburb of Carrollton has signed an exclusive master developer contract to spearhead private investment for three Transit-Oriented Development areas with High Street Residential, a wholly owned subsidiary of Trammell Crow Co. High Street has been assigned three sites to create high-density residential, office and retail space. The areas are the Downtown Carrollton Transit Center District, the Trinity Mills Transit Center District and the North Carrollton Station Development Site. Each site anchors an existing or planned DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit) light rail line. Financials of the project…
Catellus to Develop 550-Acre Mixed-Use in Northern California
The San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors has completed an agreement with Catellus Development Group to serve as master developer of a new mixed-use complex in Stockton, Calif. The project, Airport East Business Park, will encompass over 6 million square feet of commercial offerings and open space.Located about 80 miles outside San Francisco along bustling Highway 99, Airport East will sit within close proximity of the Stockton Metropolitan Airport on a 550-acre parcel that has been designated for development for about a decade. Outlined in the plans for the sprawling development are as much as 2.5 million square feet of…
LifeAt Aims to Provide Building-Based Social Networking for Residents
Social networking–such as MySpace and Facebook–is a huge trend, of course, but till now it’s been based primarily on shared interests, age, school affiliation and so forth. But a New York City company has been trying to prove that useful services can be provided, and a profit made, through social networks based on the buildings people live in. LifeAt, founded in March 2007, creates password-protected intranets for buildings that have signed up for its service, after which residents can, for no charge, create personal profiles, find other residents with similar interests, send messages, post pictures, participate in online discussions, rate…
Canyon-Johnson Closes $1B Fund
The Canyon-Johnson Urban Funds has just completed Canyon-Johnson Urban Fund III with equity commitments totaling $1 billion. The vehicle will make $4 billion accessible for real estate projects in underserved urban areas across the country.CJUF III marks Canyon-Johnson’s largest fund ever, as the previous two accounted for a total of $900 million. Investors included a range of pension funds, endowments, foundations and other entities from across the country. Interest in the fund was very high. “I cut it off at $1 billion because I don’t like to raise too much money,” Bobby Turner, the fund’s managing partner, told CPN today,…
Cushman & Wakefield Steps Up Focus on Latin America
Real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield has initiated a more aggressive campaign to further penetrate the Latin American market with the appointment of industry expert Miles Glascock to the role of senior managing director for Strategic Planning and Business Development for Latin America. Glascock spoke to CPN about the firm’s goals in the region: CPN: What areas of Latin America are the hottest for real estate development right now and why? Glascock: Brazil and Mexico. Brazil has the largest GDP in the region with $1.3 trillion, and Mexico has a GDP of $800 billion. Everything else is dwarfed by…
Cleveland Office Market Revs Engine
The Cleveland office market is shaping up to be a destination where local owners, investors and developers can go to increase their revenue streams and asset values, according to Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services Inc. regional manager Michael Glass.”It is a great time to invest in the Cleveland market, as we are seeing some of the best numbers in more then a decade.” Class A space is seeing vacancies in the single digits for the first time since 2001, and absorption has gone positive for the first time in almost two decades. Additionally, asking rents grew 1.9 percent…
Evaluating Options
It’s a frustrating time for investors. Those with capital are eager to invest, seeing opportunity in a down market. But with that market still weakening, owners are reluctant to sell their properties, which reduces the number of available options. And while some properties are expected to go up for sale by midyear out of necessity—many of them properties with short-term debt and just enough issues to render them unlikely to be refinanced—the dormant financing markets make competing tough for any buyer that can’t proceed with cash alone. Meanwhile, those that can take the all-equity route are in the catbird seat,…
After Town Approval, $1.5B Ritz Carlton Community to Get Summer Start
After a unanimous vote on April 10 by the Paradise Valley Town Council, the $1.5 billion Ritz-Carlton Paradise Valley has been approved, and will be the first resort master-planned community under The Ritz-Carlton brand. The approved 110 acres of the 123-acre site includes villas, estate homes, and one-acre home sites, all of the properties branded and serviced by The Ritz Carlton. The community will be located in both Paradise Valley and Scottsdale. Construction for The Ritz-Carlton, Paradise Valley is slated to begin this summer, with completion of the entire community and hotel expected Fall 2010. The master planned community will…
ProLogis to Do Two Build-to-Suits for Crate and Barrel
ProLogis has announced it has signed two new build-to-suit agreements with Crate and Barrel for two distribution centers. These will be in Tracy, Calif., approximately 54 miles east of Oakland, Calif. The first, which will be approximately 827,000 square feet, will be used by Crate and Barrel to store its furniture products. The second, with more than 398,000 square feet, will be used as a distribution center for its housewares products. The pair of buildings are being developed both to accommodate growth and to improve efficiencies. The retailer is consolidating three Northern California distribution facilities that it has outgrown. According…
Palazzo Named Largest LEED Certified Building, Sands Plans New Convention Center
While projects across the country move to the back burner while waiting for the economy to turn around, in Las Vegas development continues to move forward. The December opening of the eco-friendly Palazzo Las Vegas yielded the project (pictured) a Silver LEED certification on the heels of the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s story that the Palazzo’s developer, Las Vegas Sands Corp., plans to replace its existing convention center with a $680 million facility. With an economic downturn making headlines nationally, how can Sands afford to move forward? Because Las Vegas has one of the most robust economic foundations in the nation,…