the Editors of Commercial Property Executive
517,000SF Suburban D.C. Office Complex Trades
Lowe Enterprises Investors has taken a 517,000-square-foot office complex in Arlington, Va., off the hands of Equity Group Investments L.L.C., which made the sale on behalf of a client. The property, Jefferson Plaza, boasts an occupancy level of 96 percent. Jefferson Plaza had been part of the portfolio of Equity Office Properties Trust, which was acquired by Blackstone last year in a $39 billion deal. Originally developed in 1970 and renovated a decade ago, the complex sits in Northern Virginia’s Crystal City submarket, located about three miles from the White House and just a stone’s throw from the Pentagon. The…
Moody’s Reports Q4 Improvement in Loan Quality for Commercial Real Estate
According to Moody’s Investor Services, the commercial real estate finance market showed signs of positive change during the last quarter of 2007. Among the conclusions reached in the firm’s recently released Structured Finance Special Report is that an upturn in loan quality is playing a role in offsetting the weaker fundamental outlook. “Last year, Moody’s was prompted to start requiring higher subordination levels because we saw that credit quality within commercial real estate was deteriorating,” Sally Gordon, senior vice president with Moody’s, told CPN today. Gordon and colleagues Tad Philipp, Nick Levidy and Paolo Obias co-authored the report. But, Gordon…
Management Matters with Mike Myatt: The Conflicted Executive
When it comes to productivity at the C-suite, many CEOs tend to struggle with deciding what constitutes highest and best use of their time. It has been my experience that all CEOs, regardless of tenure or ability, tend to find themselves conflicted with this issue at some point in time. While all employees deal with this same issue, it is infinitely more complicated for the chief executive. In this week’s column I’ll provide some thoughts about how to maximize the use of your time, while removing some of the more typical internal decisioning conflicts. One of the root issues that…
Jobs Dip by 17,000 in January
In yet another sign of the economy’s struggles, U.S. employers cut 17,000 jobs from payrolls in January, marking the first monthly employment decline since August of 2003. There were, however a few bits of good news for the economy today, as December’s job creation figure was revised upward, to a gain of 82,000 jobs from its original reading of just 18,000 new jobs. And unemployment dipped slightly, from 5.0 percent in December to 4.9 percent last month. “(The figures were) certainly weaker than expected,” noted Ken McCarthy, managing director of New York area research for Cushman & Wakefield Inc, who…
State of Texas Sells 152 Acres in Houston Suburb
Just a few months after a 134-acre land sale in the Houston suburb of Sugar Land, the General Land Office (GLO) of the state of Texas sold another 152 acres on behalf of the Permanent School Fund to LRI Partners Ltd. Financials on the deal were not disclosed.The tract, located 22-miles southwest of Houston near Sugar Land, is situated in Fort Bend County between Grand Parkway, also known as State Highway 99, and Farm-to-Market Road 1464. The subject property has approximately 3,850 feet of frontage along Grand Parkway on the west, 1,150 feet along FM 1464 on the east, and…
Taubman Asia Commits $200M to Macao’s Mall at Studio City
Taubman Asia, a Hong Kong–based subsidiary of Taubman Centers Inc., will be acquiring a 25 percent stake in The Mall at Studio City, the retail component of Macao Studio City, a $2 billion mixed-use project under construction in Macao, on China’s southern coast.Subject to conditions that are expected to be satisfied within the first half of this year, Taubman’s investment will consist of an initial cash payment of $54 million, as well as allocation of construction debt and additional payments anticipated in years two and five after opening. The investment, expected to total approximately $200 million, is in a joint…
Digital Realty Trust Undertakes $291M Public Offering
Digital Realty Trust Inc., a specialty REIT that owns corporate datacenters and Internet gateways, has undertaken a public offering of 12 million shares of Series D Cumulative Convertible Preferred Stock at $24.25 per share. All together, Digital Realty estimates that net proceeds of the underwritten public offering will be about $291 million, or $333.6 million if the overallotment option is exercised in full.Digital Realty plans to use the net proceeds to pay down debt from its revolving credit facility, and to fund acquisitions and redevelopment activities. Currently the company owns 70 properties in North America and Europe comprising about 12.3…
Macklowe May Lose Manhattan Trophy Portfolio in $5.8B Debt Squeeze
Macklowe Properties’ reported decision to give up control of a $7 billion Manhattan office portfolio to Deutsche Bank AG may be the prime example of how turmoil in the capital markets can cause havoc for refinancing. Only a year after buying seven trophy towers in the blockbuster deal, the firm is apparently on the verge of losing the portfolio because it cannot refinance $5.8 billion in debt provided by Deutsche Bank. Reports of Macklowe’s troubles in refinancing the properties began surfacing last year, so the latest twist comes as little surprise. According to a report by Jennifer Fortsyth in today’s…
CBL, Benchmark Team Up to Develop Florida Shopping Center
Construction started this week on Hammock Landing, a 750,000-square-foot, regional shopping center just off Interstate I-95 in West Melbourne, Fla., that will have six major anchors along with smaller shops and restaurants.It’s the second Florida shopping center for joint venture partners CBL & Associates Properties Inc., a Chattanooga, Tenn.-based REIT, and The Benchmark Group, a private real estate development and management company headquartered in Amherst, N.Y. The two firms are also developing The Pavilion at Port Orange, in Port Orange, Fla., a 550,000-square-foot lifestyle shopping center, according to an Oct. 17, 2007, CPN story.Geoff Smith, vice president of development at…
TIF Approval Fuels $400M St. Louis-Area Mixed-Use Stadium Project
With the city of St. Louis spoiling for a major league soccer team to make its home in the area, plans for the development of a mixed-use soccer stadium project have taken a much-needed step forward with the Collinsville City Council’s approval of a tax increment financing plan for the approximately $400 million endeavor. The city of Collinsville and St. Louis Soccer United, a professional soccer investment and development group, are working together to bring the massive project to fruition. A 400-acre site in Collinsville, about 10 miles from downtown St. Louis, has been designated for the project, which will…