News

Oekos Management Corp. has acquired Rivers Corporate Center, a portfolio of nine single-story office buildings in Columbia, Md., from Rivers Center L.L.C. for $44 million. Manekin L.L.C. brokered the transaction. The company’s vice president George Santos and sales and leasing representative Ted Swingle will continue to serve as leasing agents for the project.Located in the Rivers Corporate Park, the portfolio totals 280,000 rentable square feet of space. The property is 93 percent leased to United Healthcare, Data Direct Networks, Applied Data Systems, Staples, Celsion Corporation, Segami and St. Agnes Healthcare.“This deal confirms the resilience of the market in uncertain economic…

Real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield Inc. has acquired P&D Real Estate Consultants, a Turkish company that was already a Cushman Alliance Partner. Based in Istanbul, P&D became Cushman’s partner on 1991. Under the acquisition, P&D  managing director Rahsan Cebe will become a partner of Cushman & Wakefield and managing director of Cushman’s Turkish office.  The decision to acquire P&D was part of Cushman’s continuing effort to expand throughout Europe. “Turkey is on of Europe’s most dynamic markets,” said Cushman CEO EMEA Paul Bacon in a release today. “The country is attracting interest from a wide cross-section of clients;…

The Park Highlands master-planned community in North Las Vegas could become the home of a 1,200-room casino resort, now that Boyd Gaming Corp. and Olympia Gaming have submitted an application for city officials’ approval of the mixed-use project.In their application to the City of North Las Vegas, Boyd and Olympia are seeking the rezoning of a parcel within the 2,700-acre Park Highlands development which, in addition to a vast amount of residential offerings, will feature six school sites, police and fire stations, a post office, a library, and 430 acres of parks and trails. Sited on 66 acres off I-215,…

Swedish construction company Skanska has been tapped to build a nearly 560,000-square-foot office and retail property in London on behalf of real estate firm Minerva. Skanska’s contract is valued at approximately $300 million.The project, St. Botolphs, will take the shape of a 14-story tower featuring upscale commercial offerings. With prep work underway at the 1.25-acre site, Skanska expects to wrap up development in 2010. Kansas City, Mo.-based global insurance broker Lockton International signed a lease for 84,000 square feet at the building for its European headquarters. The anchor tenant will lease the space for $88 per square foot, which is…

Maybe. The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee has just reduced the Bank Rate to 5 percent, marking a .25 decrease from the previous lowered ate of 5.25 percent, which was set in February. However, even in an environment where the credit market is tightening, the commercial real estate industry in the United Kingdom is expected to go relatively unscathed.A 2.5 percent increase in inflation and its anticipated continued increase spurred the change in the rate paid on commercial bank reserves; inflation has been on the rise in the U.K. due to such factors as mounting energy and food prices….

AMB Property Corp. has fully pre-leased a 309,000-square-foot distribution facility in the Greater Toronto area in Canada to 3M Canada, a wholly-owned subsidiary of 3M, the company said today.The construction on the AMB Milton 401 Business Park-Building C is scheduled to begin in the second quarter of 2008, with delivery in advance of 3M Canada’s lease commencement in the second quarter of 2010. The property provides access to the nearby Trans Canada Highway and Toronto Pearson International Airport.“3M Canada will consolidate operations into AMB Milton 401 Business Park-Building C because it is strategically located, highly efficient in its design and…

Arbor Commercial Funding L.L.C.has announced the $130 million funding through Fannie Mae to acquire 21 properties. The buy totals 3,128 units known as the Midland-Odessa Portfolio in Midland, Odessa, and Longview, Texas. The entity is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Arbor Commercial Mortgage L.L.C. This is the latest in a number of deals for Argus, which just closed three other deals, as reported yesterday by CPN. This latest funding is a 10-year loan amortizing over a 30-year schedule. It carries a note rate of 5.67 percent. Director Jay Porterfield, in Arbor’s full-service Plano, Texas lending office originated the loan. According to…

GE Real Estate has provided a combination of $44.6 million in loans for the refinancing and acquisition of manufactured home communities by two real estate owners. The first deal was an $18.1 million loan to KDM Development, which the firm used to refinance loans of a trio of existing communities and raise capital for future investments.The communities—Lake Haven in Berlin, Md., Royal Palms in Wilmington, N.C., and Northland Park in Watertown, N.Y.– include a total of 535 homesites.  The second transaction was a $26.5 million facility to Global Texas to increase existing GE Real Estate loans on two communities and…

Las Vegas-headquartered Fontainebleau Resorts L.L.C. has sold a 50 percent interest in the Fontainebleau Miami Beach resort to Nakheel Hotels, a subsidiary of Dubai-based real estate developer Nakheel. Fontainebleau pocketed $375 million on the deal and with its new partner in tow, will continue the $500 million renovation of the luxury property.A celebrated destination, Fontainebleau Miami Beach occupies 17 acres along the ocean. When it emerges from its redevelopment, the resort will feature 1,500 guestrooms, 200,000 square feet of meeting and event space, a 40,000-square-foot spa, as well as restaurants and a nightclub.Fontainebleau anticipates that its partnership with Nakheel on…

Though possibly strange bedfellows, apartment landlord groups and advocates for affordable apartment housing have been sounding some similar alarms lately about the squeeze on renters.Both are calling for more help from the federal government in dealing with the problem, which is regarded as worsening in the face of the current U.S. economic slowdown.The National Multi Housing Council, the apartment industry’s landlord trade group, joined with the National Apartment Association and the National Leased Housing Association in testifying before the Senate Banking Committee recently that tens of thousands of affordable housing residents are at risk of losing their housing if Congress…