News

Los Angeles International Airport is undergoing a massive multi-phase makeover and the city’s Board of Airport Commissioners has just authorized approximately $1.8 billion to cover projects encompassed in the initial stage of the airport’s capital improvement program, which is being conducted under Los Angeles World Airports’ Project Labor Agreement. . The labor agreement was negotiated with a list of organizations including the Los Angeles/Orange County Building and Construction Trades Council, the AFL-CIO’s Building and Construction Trades Department, the Building and Construction Trades Council of California, as well as various unions. The accord essentially guarantees fair wages and acceptable working conditions…

A 200-unit condo project in Washington, D.C., has landed a $60 million construction loan. The new-development project, known as Velocity, will be at 1025 First St. SE, in the Near Southeast neighborhood of the District. The loan comes at a time of widespread doldrums in the condo market, both in terms of development and sales–but with certain exceptions, such as parts of Metro D.C., which has maintained the population and job growth necessary to support new development. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, some 3,400 new jobs were created in the D.C. area, mostly in the District and…

Waterford Commons, a 303-unit multi-family community in Manchester, Conn., has sold in a transaction valued at nearly $42.8 million. The Class A property last changed hands in 2003 for $35.6 million. Occupying a 34-acre parcel, Waterford Commons sits about 10 miles from Downtown Harford and encompasses 13, two- and three-story structures. Development of the 316,400-square-foot luxury apartment and townhome complex reached completion in 1999 at the hands of Waterford Development Corp., which spent $28.7 million to realize the project. Today the property is held up as one of the best examples of Class A-quality apartment properties in Connecticut, according to…

One of the strongest office markets in the country for the last few years, Metropolitan Washington, D.C., is holding its own, but there are some signs of trouble, according to a second quarter report by real estate services firm CB Richard Ellis Inc. While demand indicators are positive in the District of Columbia and Northern Virginia, vacancies are on the upswing in Suburban Maryland. The numbers in the District of Columbia continue to reaffirm the strength of the city’s office market. The average vacancy rate in the second quarter decreased from a first quarter figure of 6.79 percent to 6.6…

Grubb & Ellis Apartment REIT Inc. has acquired two Class A apartment communities totaling nearly 500 units in the metro Atlanta area. Grubb purchased the 216-unit AMLI at Kedron Village multi-family community in Peachtree City from AMLI Residential and Prudential Real Estate Investors, and the 280-unit Creekside Crossing in Lithonia from Harbor Group International, Norfolk, Va. In the Kedron Village transaction, the seller was represented by Engler Financial Group L.L.C., and financing through Freddie Mac was arranged by Capmark Finance. According to the 8-K filed with the SEC, The pricetag for Creekside was $25.4 million. It was financed with a…

In a $40.5 million transaction, Corporate Office Properties Trust (COPT) has acquired three office buildings, one in Colorado Springs, Colo., and two in San Antonio, Texas. COPT has been an active buyer for much of its history. The company acquired $165 million worth of properties in 2003, $264 million in 2004, $364 million in 2005, $180 million in 2006 and $378.6 million last year. These acquisitions–the company’s first of 2008–may mark a return to growth through acquisitions that characterized the firm from 2003 through 2007. The 3-story, class A building in Colorado Springs cost $23.2 million. Northrop Grumman Corp. occupies…

CB Richard Ellis Inc. has won the role of sole leasing agent for the Galeria Victoria shopping center in Walbrzych, Poland, its developer, Keen Property Partners, has reported. The center will be the first modern retail, entertainment, residential and hotel complex in Walbrzych and the surrounding region. The planned hotel and residential elements of the project will cost approximately 20 million euros. It will bring the first multiplex cinema, restaurants and cafés and both Polish and international retail brands to the city.The Walbrzych project is designed by award-winning architects Chapman Taylor, who designed Baneasa Business and Technology Park in Bucharest,…

Senior citizens naturally tend to slow down, but two new deals are further evidence that the senior housing sector is as active as ever. In one transaction, Care Investment Trust Inc. has made a $100.8 million purchase of a portfolio of 12 Midwestern seniors facilities. In the other, Five Star Quality Care Inc. has purchased three assisted-living facilities in Pennsylvania and New Jersey for $21.4 million and will take over operation of seven others.In the first deal, Care, which is externally managed and advised by CIT Healthcare L.L.C., a subsidiary of CIT Group Inc., has acquired the 12 senior housing…

Acting on behalf of its Strategic Partners U.S. 5 fund, CB Richard Ellis Investors has just acquired The Colonnade, a 1 million-square-foot office property in Addison, Texas. The three-building Class A complex sits about 10 miles outside of Dallas. The seller of the property was Colonnade Realty Holdings, and real estate services firm Holliday Fenoglio Fowler L.P. participated in the transaction. A Class A complex, The Colonnade encompasses Colonnade I, II and III, and is located on N. Dallas Parkway in the city’s Far North submarket. “That submarket has always been one of the healthiest in Dallas/Fort Worth for the…

A report released this afternoon by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said that the World Trade Center rebuilding project in Lower Manhattan would take substantially longer and cost substantially more to build than estimates have indicated. In a letter to Governor David Paterson of New York, who requested the report, Chris Ward, executive director of the Port Authority, wrote that the schedule and cost estimates of the rebuilding effort that have been communicated to the public are not realistic. While the report itself did not revise the schedule or the budget, a story in this morning’s…