the Editors of Commercial Property Executive
Financial Market Update-TARP Shifts Focus to Consumer Markets
The Dow Jones index went down early today and stayed there, ending with a 411-point loss, or down about 4.73 percent. The S&P 500 was down 5.19 percent and the Nasdaq was down 5.17 percent. Part of the decline involved retailer Best Buy Co. (listed on the S&P 500), whose stock lost 8 percent today. “Since mid-September, rapid, seismic changes in consumer behavior have created the most difficult climate we’ve ever seen,” Best Buy CEO Brad Anderson said in a statement today.Standard & Poor’s has removed the troubled General Growth Properties from its index. As reported by CPN, the Chicago based…
ING Clarion Signs 62,000-SF Lease Expansion with Hudson Group in New Jersey
ING Clarion Partners L.L.C., the North American investment management division of ING Real Estate, has leased 62,000 square feet at Metropolitan Center to travel retailer Hudson Group. Hudson Group has been Metropolitan Center’s tenant since 1995 and has agreed to a 10-year, 31,000-square-foot expansion and extension of its current 31,000-square-foot premises. The company will now occupy the entire ninth and eleventh floors of the building.Cushman & Wakefield Inc. represented both the landlord, ING Clarion Partners, and the tenant in the transaction.Situated at Exit 16W off the New Jersey Turnpike at the junction of Routes 3 and 120, Metropolitan Center is…
Brownfield Cleanup Completed, New Jersey Mixed-Use Moves Forward
Environmental remediation has been completed on the 132-acre Riverbend District, formerly known as Harrison MetroCentre, in Harrison, N.J., which will allow owner-developer Advance Realty Group to move forward with construction of infrastructure such as roads and utilities. Phase I of the Riverbend District will include more than 800,000 square feet of retail space, including an anchor grocery; a 16-screen cinema; restaurants; a 200-room hotel and a 350-room hotel with 25,000 square feet of conference space; a wellness center; 1.5 million square feet of office; and about 1,800 for-sale and rental residential units. Construction on these elements is expected to begin…
Freddie Mac Funds $50M for Pair of Alabama M-F Properties
The Dallas office of Holliday Fenoglio Fowler L.P. has secured a $50.78 million loan through Freddie Mac for the owners of two Alabama multi-family properties with a total of 792 units. HFF director Brian Carlton arranged the 10-year, fixed-rate loan on behalf of the borrower, The Greens at Tuscaloosa, a limited partnership, and Lindsey Management Co. Proceeds were used to retire construction financing for The Links at Tuscaloosa, a 408-unit community, and The Greens at Tuscaloosa, a 384-unit development. The properties, located at 1800 Links Boulevard in Tuscaloosa, Ala., were completed in 2007 and are about 97 percent leased. Despite…
Circuit City Files for Bankruptcy, Starbucks, GM Continue Downward Skid
Looking for good news on the economy? It is still hard to find. Aside from McDonald’s, there are few companies making a profit. American Express Co. added 15 cents to $24.13 in Germany after the company won U.S. Federal Reserve approval to become a commercial bank, gaining access to government funds as credit- card defaults climb with economies slowing around the world. The Fed waived a 30-day waiting period on the application because of “the unusual and exigent circumstances affecting the financial markets,” Bloomberg reported. Circuit City and 17 of its affiliates filed for bankruptcy Monday. Both Starbucks Corp., which…
Bill Winn: Times Are Tough, Not Impossible
CPN Contributing Editor Dees Stribling caught up with William Winn— president-elect of the Tenant-In-Common Association and president & partner in Passco Cos., a specialist in commercial real estate acquisition and management that in recent years has also developed a thriving subspecialty in sponsoring TIC deals. Like pretty much every corner of the real estate industry, TICs have seen better days, but Winn holds out long-term hope.CPN: Next year is going to be another tough year for TIC deals, isn’t it?Winn: Properties aren’t performing as well as they were, and I expect that to continue into 2009, so we’re having the…
The News: Executive Confidence Plunges
Fading consumer confidence is taking an increasing toll on retail executives’ fortitude. After a roller coaster of a year, the view of market conditions among shopping center executives’ is heading sharply south, according to the most recent monthly survey by the International Council of Shopping Centers, released last Wednesday.The organization’s benchmark barometer, measuring retail executives’ views of current business conditions and their six-month outlook, fell to a record low 31.1 percent in October. That rating is on a scale in which 50 percent represents unchanged conditions and anything lower indicates deterioration. The recent score also marks a 16 percent falloff…
The Trends: Gloomy Confidence Pummels Transaction Value
The shaky economy has bruised the retail sector, as jittery consumers keep a tight rein on their expenditures and investors examine the market with a more cautious eye. To that end, third-quarter retail property sales transactions totaled $3.4 billion, a staggering, year-over-year drop of 80 percent, according to a Real Capital Analytics Inc. Capital Trends Monthly report. In fact, sales volume for the entire year will probably come in lower than that tallied during just the first half of 2007.The number of deals also fell considerably, down 70 percent from the same period a year ago, to 283. Of those,…
The Expert: Brazil Boasts Development Opportunities
Brazil’s strong domestic demand is boosting hotel fundamentals and creating an abundance of development opportunities. Its increased sovereign credit rating has further opened the country to foreign institutional and private equity investors.The country is insulated from the economic slowdown felt elsewhere in the world. As such, investing in hotel real estate there presents a countercyclical investment opportunity. Faced with declining fundamentals in the United States and Western Europe, hotel investors and operators are aggressively looking to Brazil to expand their brands.New development presents the primary investment opportunity, as there is little existing product. Fourteen Brazilian cities host more than 1…
The News: Philadelphia Lands Luxury Hotel
Announcements of major hotel projects have become rare this year, but an October 30th announcement that a $420 million Waldorf-Astoria Hotel & Residences will rise in Philadelphia illustrates that some blockbuster projects are still possible.The 670-foot-tall structure, slated to break ground in January 2010, will contain 175 guest rooms and 136 residences for sale, starting at $1 million. Gatehouse Capital Corp. and Mariner Commercial Properties Inc. are co-developers.Mariner Commercial president & CEO Tim Mahoney and Brook Lenfest acquired the site, at the northeast corner of 15th and Chestnut streets, in 2000, planning to build a 50-story condominium, Mahoney reported. The…