News

ProLogis has started the first phase of construction on a major new distribution park near Tokyo, Japan, it has announced. The park will be Japan’s largest Prologis facility. ProLogis Parc Zama I, a five-story facility totaling more than 1.2 million square feet is being developed in the city of Zama, a logistics hub in Japan’s Kanagawa Prefecture. At full build-out, ProLogis Parc Zama will contain two facilities totaling 2.2 million square feet.The site is 25 miles from downtown Tokyo–and provides access to greater Tokyo and greater Nagoya. ProLogis Parc Zama is near Route 246, a major north-south highway, and the…

The Las Vegas Planning Commission has just given its approval–with conditions–for a development group to move forward with a hotel project that would bring an additional 2,500 guestrooms to the downtown area.According to papers filed with the commission, Grand Central L.L.C. is the team behind the proposed project, which would occupy 12.5-acres at Grand Central Parkway and Charleston Blvd. In addition to requesting a site development plan review, the partnership submitted requests for special use permits for constructing the 700-foot tower in a district with a 200-foot height limitation, and for including a lounge and bar in the hotel. Grand…

Yesterday’s $93.3 million sale of the Sycamore Plaza/Sycamore Crossing shopping center in northeast suburban Cincinnati seems to be a sign that even in a troubled economy, in the right location a retail center can be highly recession-resistant. As reported in today’s Cincinnati Enquirer, the sale from RP Properties, Beverly Hills, Calif., to Regency Centers, Jacksonville, Fla., was presumably a very profitable one, since RP had bought the centers in 2004 for a figure reportedly in the area of $61.5 million. Sycamore Plaza was built in 1966 as an enclosed mall and converted in 1994 into a 355,000-square-foot, three-story shopping center….

Cavico Corp. has announced that its wholly own subsidiary has received approval from Ha Tay People’s Committee to participate as the principal investor and constructor for Ngo Sai urban city, eleven miles southwest of Hanoi. Ngo Sai city lies on 6-lane Lang-Hoa Lac highway, which is currently under construction. The urban city is expected to take until 2013 for full buildout, at a total investment cost of $94 million. The deal is anticipated to net approximately $25 million. Ha Tay province will become part of Hanoi capital with the entire project ultimately within Hanoi capital’s boundary. Cavico is now part…

Rayonier and Cousins Properties Inc. have joined forces to create a master plan and secure entitlement for a site spanning 6,300 acres in Flagler County, Fla., about 30 miles north of Daytona Beach.The sprawling chunk of what is currently timberland is located within close proximity to Palm Coast, and is owned by Rayonier subsidiary TerraPointe L.L.C. “We chose to ally with Cousins to help us master plan and come up with the best project for the community,” a Rayonier spokesperson told CPN today. While the planning is in the very earliest of stages, the fact that Flagler County is experiencing…

The U.S. warehouse market weakened considerably during the first three months of 2008, posting only a modest rise in occupied space and a further increase in vacancy vs. a 2007 forth quarter, according to Colliers International’s latest report. Weak demand and rising completions pushed the first quarter vacancy rate up 23 basis points to 8.13 percent. New construction saw 46.1 million square feet completed during the period–down from the 55.5 million square feet from the previous quarter. Year-ago first quarter completions came in at 36.8 million square feet. Industrial developments int he pipeline also fell hard–thanks to a combinations of…

Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. has announced it will exclusively market RREEF’s eight-building, fully leased Centreport/Valwood industrial portfolio in the Greater Dallas/Fort Worth area. The portfolio is made up of 1.34 million square feet located in two state-of-the-art industrial parks.The Jones Lang LaSalle team is helmed by Cary Krier along with Jack Crews, Evan Stone and Seth Bame. The sale is due to RREEF’s interest in “rebalancing” its portfolio, according to Krier.Five buildings totaling 887,703 square feet are strategically located within the Centreport industrial development, adjacent to south entrance of the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. The remaining three buildings are within…

CBL & Associates Properties Inc. has announced the completion of $383.3 million of financing in four separate transactions. CBL completed $343.7 million of new financing and extended the maturity of one $39.6 million existing loan.CBL has entered into a new, unsecured term facility for up to $228 million. The three-year term on the loan has two one-year extensions and has interest in the range of 150 to 180 basis points over LIBOR. Wells Fargo Bank was lead arranger; Aareal Capital Corp., Regions Bank, US Bank, Fifth Third Bank and Raymond James Bank also took part.CBL also announced that the 50-50…

Schafer Development has sold the development rights to its New Berlin Commerce Park in Jacksonville, Fla., to Oakmont Real Estate. Oakmont, based in Georgia, plans to construct a 386,000-square-foot LEED approved facility, scheduled for completion in 2008, on the 75-acre parcel. The New Berlin Commerce Park parcel was assembled by Schafer Development and will provide an additional 1 million square feet of industrial office space to meet increasing demand in the region. Schafer acquired four separate tracts of land and spearheaded rezoning for each parcel from residential to industrial. New Berlin marks Schafer’s second large-scale industrial development in Florida, having already completed…

The São Paulo office of Hines has announced the start of a Brazilian investment program to acquire or develop strategically located logistics parks on major highway intersections in various cities to serve the needs of logistics and transportation clients. Currently, the firm has five logistics parks underway or completed in Louveira, Araucaria, Rio, Embu and Manaus. Hines plans to develop an additional 14 parks over the course of the next three years. Hines has just has broken ground on two: Louveira Swans Industrial Park and Cajamar Distribution Park, two speculative modular warehousing projects in Louveira, a suburb of São Paulo.The…