the Editors of Commercial Property Executive
Industrial, Retail Developers Look to Mexico, Overseas for Growth in 2008
Development of industrial and retail properties may remain stable or slow a bit in 2008, but five top officials of companies in those sectors say growth will be strong in Mexico this year as well as in Europe, China and Japan.The executives made their comments during a panel discussion this morning at Deutsche Bank’s 2008 Real Estate Outlook Conference at The Grand Hyatt in New York City. Responding to questions from moderator Louis Taylor, Deutsche Bank managing director, and the audience were: Gene Reilly, president of AMB Property Co.; Michael Brennan, CEO of First Industrial Realty Trust; David Henry, vice…
565,000SF Manhattan Building to Become Ogilvy’s New Global HQ
In what’s presumably the biggest office lease so far in 2008–and likely to still be one of the biggest at year’s end–marketing and advertising giant Ogilvy has signed a lease for the entire 11-story, 564,800-square-foot building at 636 Eleventh Avenue on Manhattan’s West Side. The building, completed in 1913 and originally a chocolate factory, will become home for all of Ogilvy’s New York–based companies, including Ogilvy & Mather Advertising. Ogilvy expects to move into the building in 2009.A spokesperson for The Hakimian Organization, the building’s owner, along with Peykar Brothers Realty and Gorjian Properties, said that Hakimian had bought the…
GGP Outlines Debt Refi Plan
In the wake of market-spanning questions of the viability of debt loads held by major real estate ownership entities–with Centro as a poster child for owners struggling with the problem–Chicago-based General Growth Properties Inc. has unveiled a “capital roadmap” for the new year and 2009 as well. The document was filed as an 8-K with the SEC, which is used to “announce major events that shareholders should know about,” according to the agency.”Refinancing properties every five years or so is a normal part of our business,” Timothy Goebel, GGP’s director of investor relations, told CPN this afternoon. “CMBS lending has…
Rebuilding Downtown Update: LMDC Hires New Subcontractor for Deutsche Building Demolition
Lower Manhattan has been busy, as demolition is set to resume at the former Deutsche Bank building at 130 Liberty St. and a major tenant enters final negotiations for a lease renewal at the World Financial Center, according to media reports. The New York Times reports that after nearly five months of inactivity, the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. is close to restarting the demolition of the Deutsche Bank building. Work on the building stopped last August after two firefighters died while trying to bring a fire in the tower under control. According to government sources quoted in the report, a…
Purchase of Marriott Munich Paves Way for JER’s Entrée into Germany
McLean, Va.-based JER Partners has made its first move in Germany with the acquisition of the 348-room Marriott Munich hotel from Marriott Internatioanal, which had acquired the four-star property from Blackstone Group L.P. in 2005. Built in 1990 the Marriott Munich (pictured) sits near Parkstadt Schwabing within close proximity to the Munich city center. The seven-story structure encompasses 9,300 square feet of meeting space, three restaurants and a fitness facility. JER’s purchase of the hotel marks the third time the property has changed hands in the last five years; Blackstone had purchased the hotel in 2003 before selling it to…
Despite Iffy Capital Markets, Class A Buyers Remain
Class A properties continue to attract plenty of buyers in all four major commercial property sectors. “A plethora of buyers interested in Class A properties are still in the market,” Kevin Nunnink, chairman of New York City-based Integra Realty Resources, Inc., told CPN today. “Of course, there aren’t as many buyers as there were before. The declining demand may be flattening prices and giving these investors opportunities to corner institutional grade property at a good price. This is very real.” Nunnink’s observation is one of the major conclusions of an IRR report on the commercial real estate markets released yesterday….
AMB Takes Fully-Leased Distribution Center in The Netherlands
Stepping up its presence in The Netherlands, one of the top logistics and distribution hubs in the world, AMB Property Corp. has acquired a 100 percent occupied, 560,000-square-foot industrial facility in Tilburg. The San Francisco-based industrial real estate company has renamed the 100 percent-occupied facility AMB Tilburg Distribution Center 1. Tilburg has become a leading logistics hub abroad, providing convenient access to the Dutch distribution market, as well as to other regions of Europe. With a location off A58 motorway, one of the most vital transportation corridors in The Netherlands, AMB Tilburg sits within easy reach of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and…
370-Acre JV Land Buy to Facilitate New Jersey Mixed-Use Project
A 370-acre site in Harrison Township, N.J., will soon become the home of the mixed-use Richwood Village, now that Madison Marquette has partnered with Canuso Communities to acquire the land and construct the sprawling commercial and residential development, which will boast a location about 20 minutes outside of Philadelphia. The Richwood Village, also offering the convenience of sitting about an hour northwest of Atlantic City, will encompass a 300,000-square-foot town center, as well as an aggregate of as much as 700,000 square feet of office, commercial and additional retail space. Residential offerings will consist of 1,200 single-family, townhomes and multi-family…
Hines-CalPERS Partnership’s ING Complex Buy Proof of Tightening Minneapolis Office Market
The sale by ING North America Insurance Corp. of its nearly 1 million-square-foot Minneapolis office complex is partly “an asset efficiency play,” according to a party to the deal, and partly a response to a tightening office market in downtown Minneapolis.The campus, purchased by National Office Partners LP, an investment partnership between Hines and the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, consists of three office buildings built over a 20-year span. ING’s Minneapolis headquarters, 20 Washington Avenue, is a six-story, 148,000-square-foot office building designed by Minoru Yamasaki & Associates and completed in 1964. It’s fully occupied by ING. The largest building,…
Situs Takes Stake in Loan Processing Software Developer
Houston-based SITUS Co. has invested in software-developer Conjunction Consulting’s CLOSER, a software package for commercial loan origination, securitization and enterprise reporting for commercial real estate lenders. Situs, in business since 1985, has been working with CJS for two years. The key advantage of this package, according to Conjunction CEO Brett Williams, is that it lets commercial lenders move away from internal systems into a scalable off-the-shelf product. “We got tired of seeing shortcomings in the market with other applications, so we created our own product,” he told CPN. “We brought out CLOSER at the beginning of the year.” The software…