the Editors of Commercial Property Executive
Survey: London, Moscow Still Most Expensive Office Markets, Rents Dropping Across North America
London and Moscow remain the worlds’ two most expensive places to rent office space, according to a survey by CB Richard Ellis Inc. The just-released report tracked 172 markets worldwide for the 12 months ending Sept. 30. The report found that the average growth rate for office occupancy costs was 8 percent. And Abu Dhabi emerged with far and above the fastest growing rate of occupancy costs, showing an increase of 94.6 percent. Dr. Raymond Torto, CBRE global chief economist, told CPN, “While Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Ho Chi Minh City are among the fastest growing markets, there are a…
More Financial Reports to Be Released, Obama to Announce National Security Team
Following a brief Thanksgiving respite, a number of reports ranging from November’s jobless claims, retailer reports on November same-store sales and the Fed’s monthly beige book will all be released this week providing data for investors on the continuing crisis state of the economy. A more complete sales picture of how the Thanksgiving weekend fared won’t be known until Thursday, when the nation’s retailers report November same-store sales, considered a key indicator of retailer’s health, the Associated Press reported. The Labor Department will release its report on non-farm payrolls on Friday, the government will report weekly jobless claims on Thursday…
Slowdown Ties Up Boston Builders
The combination of Boston’s softening leasing market and the restrictive debt market will create high hurdles for office development through most of 2009. “A lot of (projects) may sit in limbo,” said Stephen Brodsky, senior vice president and head of Grubb & Ellis Co.’s Boston regional office.Few developers find themselves in Boston Properties Corp.’s fortunate position. The company is developing the $500 million Russia Wharf project on the Boston waterfront. Last spring, it signed Wellington Management Co. as a 15-year, 450,000-square-foot tenant to anchor the office component. And the pharmaceutical company Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. is continuing negotiations with The Fallon…
Starting Line: New Tools for a New Time
Hearing from our 2008 Executive of the Year Award winners has given me new reason to think about what it takes to surmount difficult markets. The executives’ reflections on achieving in markets good and bad reveal no traits that are unusual in and of themselves. Nor are their efforts foolproof, as the resignation of our top award winner days before the award ceremony indicates. But the executives’ application of a series of simple, even old-fashioned traits has for the most part to date won survival, success and certainly the admiration of their peers.Those traits include a focus on both internal…
Recession is Officially Here, Says Group
Who decides when it’s a recession? The Business Cycle Dating Committee of the nonprofit research organization known as the National Bureau of Economic Research, that’s who, at least as far most economists and parts of the U.S. government are concerned. Today the organization issued the following statement: “The committee determined that a peak in economic activity occurred in the U.S. economy in December 2007. The peak marks the end of the expansion that began in November 2001 and the beginning of a recession. The expansion lasted 73 months; the previous expansion of the 1990s lasted 120 months.” So the economy’s…
General Growth Wangles Extensions on $900M in Mortgages
General Growth Properties Inc. has reached an agreement with a six-lender consortium to extend the maturity date for $900 million in mortgage loans on the company’s Fashion Show and Palazzo malls on the Las Vegas strip. In an attempt to raise cash, the retail REIT has put both malls on the block, along with a third Las Vegas property, Grand Canal Shoppes. Six lenders holding pieces of the mortgage loans agreed to the two-week extension after General Growth failed to make a scheduled payment last Friday, Nov. 28. Negotiations for the extension lasted all weekend when Citigroup Inc. refused at…
UDR Closes $400M Financing Package Through Fannie Mae
Denver-based multi-family REIT UDR Inc. has closed a $225 million secured loan that includes an option to borrow an additional $175 million. The 10-year credit facility was originated by PNC ARCS L.L.C., for repurchase by Fannie Mae. The $225 million consists of $70 million that carries a fixed rate of 5.85 percent and $155 million that carries a variable rate, currently set under two- and three-year LIBOR swaps at 4.35 percent. UDR has the option to fix all or a portion of the variable note at any time during the next five years. The current all-in blended rate of the…
Matrix Takes 82-Acre New Jersey Site
Matrix Development Group has acquired an 82-acre site in New Jersey that includes a total of some 342,000 square feet across 13 office and labratory buildings. The site has 2,000 feet of frontage on the New Jersey Turnpike near exit 8A. The price for the property has not yet been revealed. Steven Tolkach, managing principal of Newmark Knight Frank’s Princeton, N.J., office, represented Matrix in the deal. NAI Fennelly and Larry Doyle of Preferred Unlimited represented the seller. The 82-acre property includes 13 buildings that range from 5,000 square feet to almost 100,000 square feet, and the total property including…
Bascom Nabs Denver-Area M-F for $32M
The Bascom Group L.L.C. has acquired a 320-unit Class A apartment community in the Denver suburb of Aurora, Colo., in a $32.2 million deal with seller Steadfast Cos. The complex (pictured), known as Saddle Village Apartments, is located on 23 acres in a in the Saddle Rock subdivision of Aurora. The units range from one to three bedrooms, and were built in 2002. The property also features a swimming pool and spa, clubhouse with business center, playground, fitness centers, as well as basketball and volleyball courts. Additionally, Saddle Village is located within walking distance of the 1.7 million-square-foot Southlands Mall,…
$300M California Hospital Expansion Gets Nod from City Council
The City Council of Valencia, Calif., has approved the $300 million expansion plan for Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital, under which the facility will gain a new patient wing and three additional medical buildings, along with a helipad and new parking structures. The 15-year master plan for the expansion aims to allow the hospital to better accommodate the growing population of the surrounding Santa Clarita Valley. A total of 120 new beds will be added over that time, as well as more surgery suites and new clinical services not currently provided by the facility. “By approving the master plan, our City…