Uncategorized

FirstCal 3, a joint venture between First Industrial Realty Trust’s Strategic Land and Development and the California State Teachers’ Retirement Pension Fund, CalSTRS, has acquired a 261-acre site near DuPont, Wash. The deal is the third major acquisition announced by the pair this year. The site is located near I-5, which serves all the major cities in the area including Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia, and Portland. The development, First Park Northwest Landing, is now in its initial stages for entitlements. The motivations for the project stem from the projected growth, both of population and port activity in the region, according to…

Just a few days after bringing former Amgen executive Richard Nanula onboard as a principal, Los Angeles-based private investment firm Colony Capital L.L.C., according to reports by various New Jersey media outlets, has offered to acquire Atlantic City’s Tropicana Casino & Resort for $850 million. The bid is one of many that have come to the fore within the last month. Nanula brings to the table six years of experience as a leader at Amgen, where he held the roles of executive vice president & CFO, and took the lead on financing, corporate strategy and mergers and acquisitions activities. He…

Las Vegas-based gaming and entertainment company MGM Mirage and U.A.E. investment holding firm Dubai World, which owns approximately 19.5 million shares of MGM Mirage common stock, have revealed pans to join forces in a cash Dutch auction tender offering of as many as 10 million shares of MGM Mirage common stock. The stock will carry a price between $75 and $80 per share.  At last count two days ago, there were about 293.8 million shares of issued and outstanding MGM Mirage stock. While MGM Mirage and Dubai World are putting a portion of their stock holdings up for grabs, majority…

The planned World Jewelry Center in Las Vegas has moved a substantial step forward with the completion of all local approvals. The Las Vegas City Council has approved the Disposition and Development Agreement, Owner Participation Agreement and related documents, allowing the Jewelry Center to proceed as part of the master-planned 61-acre Union Park redevelopment in Downtown Las Vegas, between The Strip and I-15. The multifaceted project will include 800,000 square feet of Class A office condo space, gem-grading labs, educational facilities, and meeting and exhibition space. In addition, the tower’s top seven floors will feature 20 to 25 luxury residential…

Development of industrial and retail properties may remain stable or slow a bit in 2008, but five top officials of companies in those sectors say growth will be strong in Mexico this year as well as in Europe, China and Japan.The executives made their comments during a panel discussion this morning at Deutsche Bank’s 2008 Real Estate Outlook Conference at The Grand Hyatt in New York City. Responding to questions from moderator Louis Taylor, Deutsche Bank managing director, and the audience were: Gene Reilly, president of AMB Property Co.; Michael Brennan, CEO of First Industrial Realty Trust; David Henry, vice…

In what’s presumably the biggest office lease so far in 2008–and likely to still be one of the biggest at year’s end–marketing and advertising giant Ogilvy has signed a lease for the entire 11-story, 564,800-square-foot building at 636 Eleventh Avenue on Manhattan’s West Side. The building, completed in 1913 and originally a chocolate factory, will become home for all of Ogilvy’s New York–based companies, including Ogilvy & Mather Advertising. Ogilvy expects to move into the building in 2009.A spokesperson for The Hakimian Organization, the building’s owner, along with Peykar Brothers Realty and Gorjian Properties, said that Hakimian had bought the…

In the wake of market-spanning questions of the viability of debt loads held by major real estate ownership entities–with Centro as a poster child for owners struggling with the problem–Chicago-based General Growth Properties Inc. has unveiled a “capital roadmap” for the new year and 2009 as well. The document was filed as an 8-K with the SEC, which is used to “announce major events that shareholders should know about,” according to the agency.”Refinancing properties every five years or so is a normal part of our business,” Timothy Goebel, GGP’s director of investor relations, told CPN this afternoon. “CMBS lending has…

Lower Manhattan has been busy, as demolition is set to resume at the former Deutsche Bank building at 130 Liberty St. and a major tenant enters final negotiations for a lease renewal at the World Financial Center, according to media reports. The New York Times reports that after nearly five months of inactivity, the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. is close to restarting the demolition of the Deutsche Bank building. Work on the building stopped last August after two firefighters died while trying to bring a fire in the tower under control. According to government sources quoted in the report, a…

McLean, Va.-based JER Partners has made its first move in Germany with the acquisition of the 348-room Marriott Munich hotel from Marriott Internatioanal, which had acquired the four-star property from Blackstone Group L.P. in 2005.  Built in 1990 the Marriott Munich (pictured) sits near Parkstadt Schwabing within close proximity to the Munich city center. The seven-story structure encompasses 9,300 square feet of meeting space, three restaurants and a fitness facility. JER’s purchase of the hotel marks the third time the property has changed hands in the last five years; Blackstone had purchased the hotel in 2003 before selling it to…

Class A properties continue to attract plenty of buyers in all four major commercial property sectors.  “A plethora of buyers interested in Class A properties are still in the market,” Kevin Nunnink, chairman of New York City-based Integra Realty Resources, Inc., told CPN today. “Of course, there aren’t as many buyers as there were before. The declining demand may be flattening prices and giving these investors opportunities to corner institutional grade property at a good price. This is very real.” Nunnink’s observation is one of the major conclusions of an IRR report on the commercial real estate markets released yesterday….