Once regarded as the center of community activity, the enclosed regional mall is, unfortunately, becoming the center of rising concern as it increasingly falls victim to today’s economic recession.To combat the harsh reality of record-level store closings that are driving mall vacancies up and asset values down, investor/owners are now being forced to rethink the future of the nation’s 2,000 enclosed regional malls, particularly those classified as “dead,” or centers with acres of undeveloped parking lots and underutilized land. Owner/investors are seeing that the same dicey economic environment, characterized in part by shifting demographics and a growing antipathy toward suburban…

Many economists warn against reading too much into last month’s surprising increase in retail sales, arguing that the data could be a mere blip on the way to the next round of bad news about consumer fears. But at least one top executive suggests that the results could actually be a genuinely, if modestly, positive sign.“I don’t think you can throw the January report out the window,” said Terry Brown, CEO of Edens & Avant, which operates 130 lifestyle centers, power centers and neighborhood centers in 14 East Coast states. “It does create a slight bit of optimism when there…

At the Americas Lodging Investment Summit held in San Diego in late January, Hilton Hotels Corp. announced Home2 Suites by Hilton, a midscale extended-stay brand. Bill Duncan, global head of brand management for Hilton’s Homewood Suites and Home2 Suites, talked with hospitality editor about the brands.Gilligan: How did Home2 Suites come to be?Duncan: We have worked on this since March of last year. We have received a large amount of owner input, and that information has helped us build and design the brand. We talked to the owners of our focused-service brands, and we received input from customers, as well….

The most surprising metric for the office market last year was that, despite the recession, net absorption totaled negative 3.4 million square feet, a paltry sum compared with the 111 million square feet of negative absorption during the 2001 recession and 2002-03 jobless recovery. Why hasn’t the office market reacted more forcefully to what will soon become the longest postwar recession? The most plausible explanation is that tenants haven’t had time to react. The labor market fell off a cliff in September 2008 with payroll job losses totaling 2.5 million during the five months since then. That’s on top of…

Citing a commitment to green energy, growing corporate demand and stable costs, an office owner/developer have made a major commitment to wind energy.Earlier this month, Foulger-Pratt Cos., an office owner and developer that focuses on the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, committed to a purchase of 34 million kilowatt-hours of wind energy, in the form of Renewable Energy Credits, for each of the next two years. The agreement totals $325,000. The purchase will offset 54 million pounds of carbon, equal to removing 4,500 cars from the road, per year, and it will power 4.8 million square feet of office space in…

Last year marked a turning point for the economy and the national industrial sector, but the future looks even more challenging. CBRE Torto Wheaton Research’s Spring 2009 Industrial Forecast indicates that this global economic crisis will have a deeper impact on the national industrial sector than any recession since the late 1980s.The market experienced a total negative net absorption of 95 million square feet during 2008. With 168 million square feet of new space completed, the availability rate increased 190 basis points to 11.4 percent. The pace of deterioration does not match that of the 2000-01 recession, in which availability…

As the vacancy rate for distribution facilities edged up nationwide in 2008, one category beat the long odds. Almost all the locations that trimmed warehouse vacancy were hundreds or thousands of miles removed from the nation’s struggling coastal ports.Inland markets were the surprise standouts during a year when the national warehouse rate rose from 7.9 percent at the end of 2007 to 9.1 percent during the fourth quarter. Of the 54 major warehouse markets surveyed by Colliers International, 12 reduced vacancy last year. Detroit cut vacancy from 13.2 percent to 11.5 percent, Minneapolis vacancy dropped 60 basis points to 10.4…

Las Vegas’ economic travails have led to a spike in Las Vegas apartment vacancies and tumble in rental rates. According to research firm Applied Analysis, demand for professionally managed apartment communities in the area fell to its lowest level since the beginning of 2003.The market recorded average occupancies of 92 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008, down from the previous quarter’s 93.7 percent and from the 92.3 percent reported during the fourth quarter of 2007. The rates also fall considerably below the historical five-year historical average of 94.6 percent and 10-year average of 94.4 percent.Additionally, average asking rents reached…

In light of slowing freight demand, BNSF Railway Co. is putting the brakes on plans for a 2008 construction start of a 500-acre intermodal hub in Gardner, Kans., about 25 miles southwest of Kansas City. Together, the intermodal center and a neighboring 600-acre logistics center make up the $735 million Logistics Park Kansas City. Still, BNSF insists that the move marks only a delay, not a cancellation. “We’re still proceeding with the project,” a spokesperson for BNSF told CPN. “We’re not to stick with the previous 12- to 18-month time frame.” The spokesperson explained that BNSF will eventually need the…

Economic turmoil has touched every segment of real estate, but there are signs that some sectors, like life sciences, are faring better than others. According to civil engineering firm Giffels-Webster Engineers’ list of top five real estate and development trends, life sciences is the fourth hottest growth market. And BioMed Realty Trust’s closing of a $203 million refinancing of a loan for a 600,000-square-foot portfolio indicates that lenders still have faith in the market. With KeyBank National Association acting as the administrative agent of a syndicate of lenders, BioMed refinanced what was originally a $550 million secured acquisition and interim…