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Office Tower Planned on Houston Galleria Parcel

Houston-based developer Lasco Ventures L.L.C. has purchased 9.4 acres of undeveloped property with plans for an office tower in the Galleria area of Houston.Financials of the transaction were not disclosed. The property was sold by Rich Oak Properties L.L.C. of New York. Located at the northwest corner of Richmond Avenue and Post Oak Boulevard in Houston’s Galleria area, the site is currently a vacant parking lot, CB Richard Ellis Inc. first vice president Simmi Jaggi, who represented the seller, told CPN today.“It is an undeveloped tract that has been sitting there,” she said. “The whole south side of Post Oak…

Behringer Harvard, Brookfield, Fairfield Team Up on Maryland High-Rise

Construction on Cameron House, a 15-story, 325-unit, luxury apartment building in Silver Spring, Md., is expected to begin within a month and take nearly two years to complete, a Behringer Harvard executive told CPN. Behringer Harvard, a Dallas-based real estate company, is investing in its third luxury apartment community in the suburban Washington, D.C., market and it’s first in Maryland. All three projects are being developed by Fairfield Residential, based in Grand Prairie, Texas, and San Diego. Two of the three, including Cameron House, are also being funded through a joint venture with the Brookfield Real Estate Opportunity Fund. “We…

Westcor to Begin Planning for 40-Year Development in Tucson

Phoenix-based mall builder and operator Westcor is poised to receive a permit allowing it to make plans for the future development of 12,000 acres of state-owned land in southeastern Tucson. Arizona Star reporter Rob O’Dell wrote in the newspaper’s Jan. 2 edition that officials of the Arizona State Land Department and Westcor, a wholly owned subsidiary of Macerich Co. in Santa Monica, Calif., are about a week away from signing off on a deal that would allow Westcor to create a master plan for the area. City officials told O’Dell that Westcor could spend up to $12 million in the…

Premier North Carolina Golf Resort Purchased; Readies for $500M Re-Development

The Little River Golf & Resort in Carthage, N.C., has been snapped up by a new owner that will submit the 630-acre property to a $500 million redevelopment project. Portugal-based Oceanico Group, making its entrée into the U.S. market, acquired the resort from a group of nine owners and will move forward with the group’s previous plans to expand the resort into an upscale mixed-use destination. Located about an hour from Raleigh in the prestigious Pinehurst golf enclave, the 12-year-old Little River is home to a celebrated Dan Maples-designed 18-hole golf course, as well as a 20,000-square-foot clubhouse (pictured), 64…

$230M in Financing Placed for Acquisition of 2 Westin Hotels

A two-part permanent financing package valued at an aggregate $230 million has been put in place for NCH-Transwest Corp.’s $310 million purchase of Tucson’s Westin La Paloma Resort & Spa, along with the Westin Hilton Head Island Resort in Hilton Head, S.C..Commercial mortgage banking firm Newmark Realty Capital Inc. orchestrated the financing, securing a $209 million first mortgage loan through JP Morgan Real Estate and a $21.5 million mezzanine loan from Ashford Hospitality Inc. News emerged in early December of last year that Tucson-based NCH-Transwest would acquire the upscale properties from an affiliate of lodging property managing firm Starwood Hotels…

Do Centro Woes Point to Wider Debt Problems?

Centro, the beleaguered Australian retail property landlord with large holdings in the United States, has remained in the news at the beginning of 2008, first with word that the company is exploring other options to resolve its debt problems, as reported in CPN yesterday. Such options might include selling assets, or stock, or even the company as a whole. Earlier today, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services cut Centro NP L.L.C’s issuer credit rating to from BB+ to CCC+. Centro NP is associated with the senior unsecured debt, almost $1 billion, that formed part of the $6.3 billion purchase of New…

Dutch Pension Fund Kicks its Second $100M into Behringer Harvard’s Multi-Family Portfolio

Following its initial $100 million commitment last May, Dutch pension fund PGGM has made a commitment to invest an additional $100 million in Behringer Harvard’s growing portfolio of Class A apartment communities. PGGM has an option to expand its commitment to a total of $300 million.PGGM is a pension fund for Dutch healthcare workers, Mark Alfieri, BH senior vp/real estate, told CPN today, and with more than $100 billion in assets, it’s the second-largest pension fund in The Netherlands, the 8th-largest in Europe and the 17th-largest in the world. In a prepared statement, Robert Behringer, founder & CEO of Dallas-based…

Tuscon Ritz-Carlton Resort Gets $160M Equity Financing

With construction started on Ritz-Carlton’s second resort in Arizona, Phoenix-based Warnick & Company arranged for $160 million in equity financing for the new 250-room golf and spa resort Ritz-Carlton now under construction at Dove Mountain in northwest Tucson. The resort is scheduled to open in late 2009 in the nation’s 32nd largest city. The project was announced Oct. 18. The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C. joins Tuscon-based Cottonwood Properties and Greenbrier Southwest Corporation to open The Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain, which will also include 300 single-family residences in the town of Marana.Encompassing 850 acres within the Dove Mountain master-planned community, The Ritz-Carlton…

Q&A: D.C. Multi-Family Market Suffers Glut of Fractured Condos, Declining Values

Like much of the country, Washington, D.C.’s over-supplied condominium market is under a great deal of strain. Particularly, the number of investors saddled with fractured condo deals has ramped up. CPN associate editor Amanda Marsh spoke with Matthew Texler (pictured), vice president of Bethesda, Md.-based Meridian Capital Group, on why this has been happening and who has been hardest hit.CPN: The D.C. market has seen an increase in fractured condos, with owners struggling to find financing. When did this begin to happen, and what is fueling the trend? Texler: The current D.C. condo market is stagnant. It has followed the…

$595M Sale of Premier Manhattan Office Building Wraps Up

The 729,000-square-foot office tower at 31 West 52nd Street in New York City has officially come under new ownership with the closing of a $595 million transaction between Paramount Group Inc. and a partnership spearheaded by Deutsche Bank. Paramount Group Inc. came into possession of the Class A property, home to Deutsche Bank AG’s U.S. headquarters until 2003, through the acquisition of the partnership. The tower at 31 West 52nd has soared 30 stories above Manhattan since it opened its in 1987. Real estate firm Hines and CBS originally developed the building, which was designed by the architectural firm of…