Business Specialties
Guardian Rolls Out Affordable Housing Advisory Division
Portland, Ore.-based management and investment firm Guardian Real Estate Services is planning to roll out a new advisory division. The company’s new unit will be headed by Brad Bullock, who will join Guardian as senior vice president, advisory services.
Northstar Makes 370,000SF Distressed Play Near Houston
Northstar Commercial Partners has acquired a 370,000-square-foot distribution center in Sugar Land, Texas, near Houston.
McShane Snags 380,000SF Healthcare Facility Management Contract
McShane Medical Properties has been awarded the management and leasing assignment for Nationwide Health Properties, a portfolio containing a total of 380,000 square feet across 12 buildings throughout suburban Chicago.
Russian Equity Partner Comes Aboard on $4B Atlantic Yards Project
The $4 billion Atlantic Yards mixed-use development–the centerpiece of which will be the Barclays Center sports and entertainment arena, future home base of the NBA’s Nets team–has new financial backing. Developer Forest City Ratner Cos. Inc. and Nets Sports and Entertainment have just signed a letter of intent to form a strategic partnership with an affiliate of Moscow-based international private investment fund Onexim Group for the development of the 22-acre project. The multi-faceted deal calls for Onexim to invest $200 million.
Anticipating Demand for Mixed-Use, DC Selects Team for 510,000SF School Redevelopment Project
The real estate sector in Washington, D.C., has suffered blows from the economic downturn and credit crunch just as other major cities have, but that is not preventing District officials from making plans to capitalize on widely anticipated demand down the road. The city has just chosen a team involving Stanton Development Corp. and EastBanc Inc. to spearhead the redevelopment of the former Hine Junior High School in the Capitol Hill Historic District into a 510,000-square-foot mixed-use destination.
As San Antonio Office Market Rebounds, Transwestern Takes Over at 2MSF Mixed-Use
With San Antonio’s office market rebounding in the third quarter, Transwestern’s local office hopes to take advantage of that good karma with the contract to handle the real estate services assignment for the Brooks City-Base development there.
Economic Update – Starwood Eyes Distressed Sector with $500M Fund
Yet another deep-pocketed real estate entity has jumped into the grave-dancing game—only please, don’t call it that, but rather strategic investment in distressed properties. The player is a newly formed investment company called Starwood Property Trust Inc., a creation of Starwood mogul Barry Sternlicht, which filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission late last week for a public offering that aims to raise half a billion dollars to do the distressed-property boogie. It will invest in not only physical properties, but mortgages and mortgage-backed securities. “We believe that the next five years will be one of the most attractive real…
CRE Mortgage Starts Plummeted in ’08: MBA
After seeing phenomenal commercial mortgage originations in 2006 and 2007, figures from 2008 show a 65 percent decrease in volume, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s 2008 commercial real estate/multi-family finance report. “This is an important sign of the capital availability,” Jamie Woodwell, MBA’s vice president of commercial real estate research, told CPN. “While in 2006 and 2007, there were lots of loans being done very quickly, what this is showing is that there are fewer loans that are also probably taking longer to do.” If someone is looking to go into the market to borrow, it is important to…
Economic Update – Retailers See May Malaise
May comparable-store sales numbers are filtering down from various retailers, and the results aren’t inspiring confidence in the prospects for recovered consumer spending. Actually, most analysts expected average retail same-store sales to decline in May 2009 when compared with May 2008, but the trouble was they declined more than expected. On average, comps were down 4.8 percent in May at the 30 major retailers tracked by Thomson Reuters; analysts had predicted a 4.1 percent drop. In today’s climate, a decline of more than expected = bad news, while a decline of less than expected = good news. Target Corp., for…
Lack of Leverage Lends Strength, REIT Week Panel Maintains
The bad news is, the United States is in a Great Recession and the commercial real estate market is likely to feel continued pain during the next two years as corporate cutbacks result in weaker fundamentals. The good news is, the public equity markets have been improving in the past few months, with returns bouncing back substantially and multiples back down to more reasonable levels as the market has responded to REIT success at raising capital through secondary offerings. In fact, the re-equitization of the market—with about $12 billion worth of common stock raised–has been extremely helpful to the market,…