Capella Healthcare Inc. has completed the purchase of nine acute care facilities from Community Health Systems Inc. The transaction, valued at aggregate $315 million, involved a total of 1,070 beds located in Alabama, Arkansas, Missouri, Oregon and Tennessee. Capella and CHS, both headquartered in Franklin, Tenn., first announced the deal in late November of last year. “Each of these hospitals is located in a steadily growing market that offers potential for expansion of healthcare services,” Tom Anderson, president of Capella Healthcare, told CPN today. With four hospitals, Alabama is the site of the majority of the portfolio. The properties–Decatur’s Parkway…

With flourishes like 24-karat gold–plated sinks and solid white marble vanities, The Plaza Hotel in Manhattan reopened Saturday following a two-year, $400 million renovation by Fairmont Hotels & Resorts. A grand opening celebration is scheduled for May.  “This dramatic renovation has restored The Plaza’s famous spaces to their previous opulence and raised standards for luxury hotels around the world through unrivaled service and extraordinary amenities,” Fairmont president & COO Chris Cahill said in a prepared statement.  The hotel, which includes 180 guest rooms and 102 suites, is managed by Fairmont and owned jointly by the El Ad Group, based in…

Each year, our Hot Brokers feature reveals interesting characteristics to which the brokers’ success may be attributed. Some traits are unique and tough to emulate, but other ideas may be applied elsewhere. Still other qualities seem to be quite common among star brokers, if not across the brokerage world at large.This year’s crop of top dealmakers, presented on page 25, is no exception. Reviewing their profiles, I find a great deal of enthusiasm for making deals and getting to know clients. Interest in their clients’ business and respect for the importance of relationships are also oft-quoted values. Other terms that…

Any thought beyond the daily crush of deals and deadlines often falls to the bottom of a real estate executive’s to-do list. Still, imagine trying to accomplish all those everyday tasks without the support of a team. Many real estate companies will face just that pinch as Baby Boomers begin to retire en masse, leaving large gaps in management.Succession planning should be an integral part of any company’s strategy, whether large or small, public or private. Without an integrated, long-term view of its importance to the company’s success—and sometimes even its survival—an unexpected staffing change, particularly at the middle- and…

Though larger office investment has been profoundly affected by the credit crunch, the smaller office-condo subsector has not been hit as hard in certain U.S. markets.Ford Gibson, principal of Gibson Development Partners, has mainly seen big lenders pulling away from buyers in South Florida. “The buyers just went out and found another lender,” he said. “It seems like the big lenders have made a portfolio decision not to finance these properties.” Local banks swooped in quickly, however, noting that transactions did not lose much time.    As an office condo developer, Gibson is careful where he builds. “We did not go…

Rather than close the market-starved Desert Sky Mall, built in 1981, Westcor transformed the center late last year into a retail destination targeting the West Valley’s large Hispanic population. The newly relaunched retail center includes a Mexican-film movie theater, Cinema Latino, and a 100,000-square-foot La Curacao, a first-to-market department store carrying appliances and electronics serving the Latino customer, noted Rick Murphy, senior vice president of retail brokerage services for CB Richard Ellis Inc. “Westcor took what was an unsuccessful mall and went with the demographics around it,” he said. “It will likely be 100 percent Hispanic-geared in the next few…