UDR Inc. has completed its major portfolio sale of 86 apartment properties in 10 states totaling 25,684 units to a joint venture between DRA Fund VI L.L.C. and Steven D. Bell & Co., as previously reported by CPN. The portfolio traded for about $1.7 billion.For UDR, the portfolio disposition represents a strategy to tack against economic winds buffeting the REIT industry. According to NAREIT’s REIT Watch, apartment REITs saw an average decline of 25.43 percent in share prices during 2007. In early March 2007, UDR traded in the low $30s per share, dropping by January of this year to just…

The new international airport in Panama City, Fla., the nation’s first new airport since Sept. 11, 2001, continues under way without interruption, following an appellate court’s denial yesterday of a motion that would have halted construction.  The injunction had been sought from the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, by the Natural Resources Defense Council, Defenders of Wildlife and two other environmental organizations.   Randy Curtis, the airport’s executive director, told CPN that the airport authority’s ability to overcome these obstacles (this was the sixth consecutive court ruling in favor of the airport, according to the airport authority) rests…

After nine years of ownership, SL Green Realty Corp. has sold 1250 Broadway, a 39-story, 670,000-square-foot Class A office tower, to Murray Hill Properties for $310 million, or approximately $463 per square foot.The capitalization rate on the deal was 4.5 percent. SL Green, which also managed the building at 31st Street near Penn Station, said today the property value on it had more than tripled. The company paid $93 million for the building in 1999.  In 2001, it sold a 45 percent stake to SITQ for $126.5 million.  In October, 2006, SL Green recapitalized 1250 Broadway to reflect the increase…

A deal has been struck between Lion’s Gate Development and Hilton Hotels Corp.  for the  Waldorf=Astoria hotel and residential property to become one of the centerpieces of The Proscenium, Lion’s Gate’s proposed $1 billion mixed-use project in Sarasota, Fla.Rising 18 stories, the upper-upscale Waldorf=Astoria Sarasota will feature 225 guestrooms, as well as 67 Waldorf-Astoria Residences. The property, which will feature a bridge providing access to the neighboring 800-seat Nederlander performing arts hall, will also offer 38,000 square feet of meeting and event space, a 12,000-square-foot spa and various restaurant options. Beyond the hotel, The Proscenium will encompass 130,000 square feet…

Shadow Creek Ranch Town Center, a 616,400-square-foot shopping center in Pearland, Texas, that is scheduled to reach full completion this spring, has been sold by the property’s developers Transwestern, Buchanan Street Partners and WCF Development. A fund affiliated with AmREIT partnered with JP Morgan Strategic Property Fund to acquire the retail asset, which carries a development price tag of $130 million.Located about off State Highway 288 Shadow Creek sits within a rapidly growing community about 15 miles south of Houston. Already, the center’s anchor, H-E-B grocery store, has opened its doors in a 150,000-square-foot space. Buchanan Street Partners had been…

Spanish property firm Colonial announced it enjoyed a substantial increase in profits in 2007, as the firm faced an acquisition deadline of today from Investment Corp. of Dubai.  The investment group has offered $4.5 billion for the Barcelona-based developer.   Colonial said net profit jumped last year to $129.7 million from $26.1 million, due to its acquisition of Spanish mall developer Riofisa, and a nearly $840 million increase in the value of its assets. Many real estate firms in Spain have been confronting significant financial problems of late, especially if they have large residential divisions, as residential housing has been overbuilt…

Forest City Enterprises Inc. has refinanced Promenade Bolingbrook town center in Chicago’s southwestern suburbs with a $100 million mortgage loan from The Prudential Insurance Co. of America. The mortgage, which replaced the property’s construction loan, illustrates that the capital markets are providing liquidity to borrowers with strong track records, high quality assets and strong management teams, a Forest City spokesperson told CPN today.  “The terms of specific transactions may be less attractive than 18 months ago, but we have plenty of access to liquidity,” he added. “In fact, we recently exercised the accordion feature in our revolving credit facility and…

The Silverman Group has just taken a premier office property in downtown Hartford, Conn., off the hands of New Boston Fund. The Silverman Group snapped up the building, which will soon have a total vacancy of about 50 percent, for $18 million, according to sources familiar with the transaction. New Boston Fund had owned 100 Pearl (pictured) since 1999, when it acquired the property for nearly $33 million via its Fund IV. Located in the heart of Hartford’s Central Business District,100 Pearl was developed nearly two decades ago by Fusco Corp. as the headquarters for Mechanics Savings Bank and Bank…

Real estate developer the Related Group and franchise operator Meritage Hospitality Group have formed a joint venture called TRG-Meritage Bahamas L.L.C. to develop an 884-acre resort property on the island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas.The partnering comes in the wake of the project’s approval in principal by the Bahamian government’s National Economic Council.According to the JV’s plans, the project is intended to be a low-density, low-rise resort community. Eleuthera is a narrow island about 110 miles long and a mile wide at places, roughly 50 miles east of Nassau. Currently, many of its resort properties are on the small offshore…