Every professional, regardless of his or her position or stature, should go back to basics on a regular basis to ensure that bad habits have not been formed. In that vein, I cannot think of a better time to review some fundamentals than at the beginning of a new year. I have watched the undisciplined and casual choice of vocabulary cause even the most savvy executives to lose productivity and leverage without even realizing it. The simple reality for leaders is that what you say, and how you say it, does in fact matter. In today’s column I want to…

As economic uncertainty and consolidation create challenges for investment sales nationwide, NorthMarq Capital Inc. is quietly laying the groundwork to expand beyond its long-time capital markets business and become a major investment sales player. This year, NorthMarq will open as many as three dedicated investment sales offices, company CEO Edward Padilla told CPN exclusively today. By the end of January, NorthMarq plans to reveal the location of one of those offices. All told, NorthMarq could end 2008 with investment sales offices in California, Texas, Washington, D.C., and the Minneapolis area, where NorthMarq’s corporate headquarters is located. Padilla (pictured) detailed NorthMarq’s…

There were new developments at the end of this week for Centro, the credit-squeezed owner of retail properties in the United States and the Antipodes. According to statements the company made to the Australian Securities Exchange earlier today, Centro can no longer extend its interest rate hedges. “As a result,” the statement said, “Centro’s current interest rate hedging is now below historical levels. This has increased Centro’s exposure to interest rate movements, and could translate into volatility in Centro’s earnings if interest rates rise or fall significantly.” The company noted that about half of its Australian-dollar debt and about 40…

A Holliday Fenoglio Fowler L.P. managing director said today that the firm’s New York office had secured a $163.5 million acquisition and pre-development loan enabling the joint venture between Taconic Investment Partners and Square Mile Capital to buy a nearly 1.1 million-square-foot condominium interest in Lower Manhattan’s 375 Pearl St. As reported Dec. 18 by CPN, the partnership had acquired 29 stories in the 32-story building at the base of the Brooklyn Bridge from Verizon. The joint venture is planning extensive renovations that reportedly may cost as much as it did to buy the space, including installing a new façade,…

ProLogis has just revealed plans for the development of ProLogis Park Howbury, a 2.1 million-square-foot environmentally-friendly distribution center complex in Southeast London. Development of the rail-served project dovetails with the U.K. government’s new strategy for facilitating sustainable distribution throughout the country, particularly through the conversion of road usage to rail usage wherever feasible. Sited on 158 acres off the vital M25 motorway about 12 miles from the heart of London, Howbury will encompass four industrial warehouses and a new intermodal facility. ProLogis expects to commence construction of the park early this year. Howbury will be just one of a bevy…

Redback Networks, a maker of telephone and broadband routers that was acquired by telecommunications equipment giant Ericsson last January, has doubled its space in San Jose’s Corporate Technology Center. The 318,000-square-foot lease was reportedly one of the three largest office leases in San Jose in 2007. The lease covers four buildings that will also accommodate employees from other Ericsson acquisitions in Silicon Valley, including Entrisphere, which makes fiber access gear, and Tandberg TV, which makes equipment for Internet television. Overall, the Redback-Ericsson campus will be the R&D center for most of Ericsson’s fixed and mobile Internet infrastructure. Redback has doubled…

Development of Capitol View, a new 317,000-square-foot trophy office building in Washington, D.C., has recently reached completion. Clark Construction Group L.L.C. was behind the construction of the Class A property, which is owned by Square 537 Associates. Carrying the address of 425 3rd St., SW, Capitol View sits sit in just south of the U.S. Capitol. In addition to the office space, Capitol View also features approximately 24,000 square feet of street-level retail, as well a three-level underground parking facility. The architectural firm of Shalom Baranes Associates designed the 12-story structure, the construction of which Clark kicked off less than…

Houston-based developer Lasco Ventures L.L.C. has purchased 9.4 acres of undeveloped property with plans for an office tower in the Galleria area of Houston.Financials of the transaction were not disclosed. The property was sold by Rich Oak Properties L.L.C. of New York. Located at the northwest corner of Richmond Avenue and Post Oak Boulevard in Houston’s Galleria area, the site is currently a vacant parking lot, CB Richard Ellis Inc. first vice president Simmi Jaggi, who represented the seller, told CPN today.“It is an undeveloped tract that has been sitting there,” she said. “The whole south side of Post Oak…

Construction on Cameron House, a 15-story, 325-unit, luxury apartment building in Silver Spring, Md., is expected to begin within a month and take nearly two years to complete, a Behringer Harvard executive told CPN. Behringer Harvard, a Dallas-based real estate company, is investing in its third luxury apartment community in the suburban Washington, D.C., market and it’s first in Maryland. All three projects are being developed by Fairfield Residential, based in Grand Prairie, Texas, and San Diego. Two of the three, including Cameron House, are also being funded through a joint venture with the Brookfield Real Estate Opportunity Fund. “We…

Phoenix-based mall builder and operator Westcor is poised to receive a permit allowing it to make plans for the future development of 12,000 acres of state-owned land in southeastern Tucson. Arizona Star reporter Rob O’Dell wrote in the newspaper’s Jan. 2 edition that officials of the Arizona State Land Department and Westcor, a wholly owned subsidiary of Macerich Co. in Santa Monica, Calif., are about a week away from signing off on a deal that would allow Westcor to create a master plan for the area. City officials told O’Dell that Westcor could spend up to $12 million in the…