Business Specialties

St. Paul, Minn.-based AEI Capital Corp. has revealed a planned $100 million equity contribution for the development and purchase of net leased retail properties in various markets across the U.S., but primarily in Minnesota. The capital is being raised through the company’s net lease property investment funds. AEI is an all cash-investment concern, so its pursuit of properties to buy and projects to develop is not hindered by today’s chilly lending market. As for buying existing net leased retail assets, competition in the market is anything but steep. The unavailability of viable debt in the capital markets and the fact that…

For those waiting to see if any of the $700 billion federal bailout fund would deal with rising numbers of foreclosures and homeowners with distressed mortgages, help could be on the way. Major news organizations have reported that the Treasury and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. are working on a plan to have the government back mortgages of up to 3 million struggling homeowners who would get their mortgages lowered. The Washington Post reported that the plan, if approved, could cost between $40 billion and $50 billion, and would lower interest rates for homeowners in danger of foreclosure for up to…

Kilroy Realty Corp has reported financial results for its third quarter ended September 30, 2008 with net income available for common stockholders of $13.2 million, or $0.40 per share, compared to $9.0 million, or $0.28 per share, in the third quarter of 2007. Revenues from continuing operations in the third quarter totaled $77.1 million, up from $65.1 million in the prior year’s third quarter. Funds from operations (FFO) for the period totaled $34.5 million, or $1.00 per share, compared to $28.2 million, or $0.81 per share, in the year-earlier period.  For the first nine months of 2008, KRC reported net…

New Britain EMS got a unanimous OK from the common council recently to let it sell its assets to the city. It will then lease them back, according to a report in the Hartford Courant.  EMS in New Britain has been hit hard in recent years, as have other such emergency medical service providers nationwide. The New Britain provider has been buffeted by expenses and low-ball Federal payments that don’t cover true costs of many of its services.Three years ago the city loaned $2.1 million to the EMS. The heart of the trouble, according to lawmakers is that the Federal…

The sale-leaseback deal was mostly invented to provide an alternate source of capital for a company that dislikes too much debt, or simply wants more capital than its bank cares to lend it. These days, it seems, that alternative can be all the more useful for corporate finance, now that banks in general are hesitating to lend, regardless of the creditworthiness of the borrower. One real estate owner tapping into the sale-leaseback source in a big way recently is DineEquity Inc., franchisor and operator of Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill & Bar and IHOP Restaurants, which just inked deals with an assortment…

For the first nine months of 2008, REITs trounced the broader stock market indexes. As of Sept. 30, equity REIT stock performance was up 1.76 percent for the year, according to the FTSE NAREIT Equity REIT Index. By contrast, the NASDAQ Composite was down 21.13 percent, the S&P 500 was down 19.29 percent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 18.2 percent.Then came October. Through yesterday, the FTSE NAREIT Equity REIT Index had plunged 32.37 percent for the month of October. As of October 21, then, equity REITs had fallen 31.18 percent for the year. “October changed the REIT…

Wachovia Corp. has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Manhattan against the group of homebuilders behind a gargantuan planned community in the Las Vegas area, in hopes of recouping at least $358 million in loans made for the $565 million project, which has been scrapped. While the specific name of the project is not identified in Wachovia Bank National Association v. Focus Kyle Group L.L.C. et al, the description of the development and of those behind it match a project called Kyle Canyon Gateway.  In addition to Focus Kyle Group and Focus Property Group chief executive John A….

In early October, Buchanan Street Partners announced plans to accelerate its principal platform. Buchanan Street’s president & CEO, Robert Brunswick (pictured), recently discussed this new initiative, and about the state of the commercial real estate market and capital markets overall.CPN: Please discuss the main reasons you are going to be more focused on principal investments?Brunswick: When we started the company, and we are now in the 10th year, our goal was to be a pure real estate investment management firm. It has taken some stops to get there. The market excelled our business plan, and a good part of our…

Going against the tide of the currently stalled credit markets, German-based DekaBank has provided financing totaling $241.5 million for the acquisition of office properties in Los Angeles and Montreal over the last few weeks. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale closed a $175 million financing to Hines U.S. Office Value Added Fund II L.P. for the acquisition of Citigroup Center, a 48-story landmark office property in Downtown Los Angeles, which CPN reported on Sept. 19. The seven-year loan is fully underwritten and funced by DekaBank, A spokesman for Estate Lending North America at DekaBank said the Hines deal is a good example of…

In the wake of the final presidential debate last night at Hofstra University on Long Island, N.Y., both candidates have developed and presented economic plans aimed at addressing key concerns for many Main Street voters and calming their fears over the financial crisis. Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain both made distressed mortgages part of their rescue packages, but with different twists. One of Obama’s new proposals calls for a 90-day moratorium on foreclosures for homeowners that are acting in “good faith” to pay their mortgages. Banks and financial institutions that have benefited from the federal $700 billion rescue…