Business Specialties

Wall Street must be getting desensitized to bad news. While the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment rose to 669,000 last week from a revised 657,000 in the previous week, the market seemed anything but worried. Much of the optimism might have sprung from the G-20 meeting in London, where the member nations agreed to a $1 trillion boost for the International Monetary Fund, and to closely monitor the global financial system.On the New York Stock Exchange, winners beat losers by more than seven to one on volume of 1.87 billion shares with advancers topping decliners by more…

As the job market continues to erode, it is employees at medium-size companies who are suffering the most. According to the newest ADP national employment report, almost one-half of the jobs lost from February to March were at companies with 50 to 499 workers. Overall, U.S. private employment decreased 742,000 from February to March, the report stated.The estimated change of employment from January to February was revised down by 9,000, from a decline of 697,000 to a decline of 706,000. March’s ADP Report estimates private employment in the service-providing sector fell by 415,000. Employment in the goods-producing sector declined 327,000,…

The volume of sale-leasebacks took a nosedive late last year, but given the credit environment, that can be said of most kinds of real estate transactions. However, there are hints that as the recession grinds on, companies will once again look to monetize their physical assets through sale-leasebacks, provided investors can be found with ready cash and an interest in long-term real estate holdings. In fact, the current state of the capital markets might even provide an incentive for companies to seek sale-leasebacks. “That’s because the current debt market is presenting a challenge for borrowers,” Maureen Ehrenberg, a principal with…

GM and Chrysler’s efforts so far to turn themselves around have proven to be lemons. That was the contention of the Obama administration as it gave failing grades to the automakers and vowed to perform a sweeping overhaul of both firms if they failed to get their financial ducks in a row soon. Under the current plan, the federal government will foot the bill for GM and Chrysler to operate over the next several weeks–with plenty of strings attached. The companies will have to undergo major restructuring, said the administration, lest the government make good on its threats of a…

The demise of familiar national brands like Circuit City, Linens ’n Things and Mervyns is having as big an impact on single-tenant leasing and investment as it is on the retail sector itself. Of the 73,000 store closings that the International Council of Shopping Centers estimates will take place during the first half of 2009, hundreds will involve net-leased properties. That, in turn, poses the challenge of re-tenanting properties ranging in size from a few thousand square feet to big-box locations of 100,000 square feet and up. On the whole, stores with small footprints may be relatively easy to re-tenant….

For the moment, the CityCenter development in Las Vegas–lately bedeviled by a feud between co-owners MGM Mirage and Dubai World–is still an ongoing thing, thanks to a $200 million payment by MGM to the joint venture late last week. “It is as an acceptable, albeit temporary, solution to the liquidity issues that MGM Mirage is facing,” Dubai World, which is owned by the emirate, said in a statement. Left unspoken was the fact that CityCenter’s main problem seems to be the unlucky timing of getting under way just ahead of a severe recession, something not even $200 million is likely…

Are the recent economic initiatives by the U.S. government putting the country on “the road to hell,” to quote a certain Czech politician whose own government imploded recently? It is worth noting that good intentions are known to be a common paving material on the road to that unpleasant destination. Or will our ultimate destination be a little less dramatic? The recently announced plan to get rid of toxic assets on the books of financial institutions through public-private action seems to be getting a positive, if cautious, reception. “We’re still learning about the plan, pretty much like everyone else,” Neil…

With the credit crisis in full swing, even secured loans are hard to come by, but Liberty Property Trust has managed to snag six of them totaling $317 million. Relying on industrial and office properties as collateral, the Malvern, Pa.-based REIT obtained the mortgage loans through several leading life insurance concerns.Liberty depended on industrial portfolios to back five of the mortgages, and utilized office properties to secure an additional loan. The company, which did not make specifics regarding the properties readily available, has a portfolio totaling 77 million square feet of office and industrial space in the U.S. and the…

Action in Asia is proving to be fruitful for ProLogis. The Denver-based industrial REIT has just walked away with $845 million in cash on a $1.3 billion transaction involving the disposition of its operations in China and property fund interests in Japan to GIC Real Estate, the real estate investment company of the Government of Singapore Investment Corp. The sale is just one of many recent steps ProLogis, which saw its stock go as high as $66.58 and dip down as low as $2.20 within the last 12 months, has taken as part of a plan to bolster its balance…

After the surprising announcement earlier this week that existing home sales jumped in February, the housing market got another bit of unexpected news on Tuesday, when the Federal Housing Finance Agency said that housing prices actually moved up a little in January 2009 compared with December 2008. The agency’s House Price Index increased 1.7 percent, representing the first time in fully a year that the index has not moved downward. This is good news, conceivably, but may or may not be a sign of an approaching bottom in the housing market. In a statement Tuesday, the FHFA said as much:…