News

Residential rents are strengthening in much of the country, according to a new report by Investment Instruments Corp. that tracked changes in median apartment rents in 12 major metro areas between the first quarter of 2007 and the first quarter of 2008. But the changes have been quite uneven, and substantial losses have been seen in the Sun Belt, where (except for Los Angeles) rents have stagnated or softened over the past 12 months. Investment Instruments CEO & co-founder Allison Atisknoudas told CPN that the report is based on asking rents, not actual rents, and that one of its strengths…

Noble Investment Group has just acquired AmeriSuites in Schaumburg, Ill., a 126-room hotel just outside of Chicago. Noble made the purchase through its current discretionary private equity real estate fund, Noble Hospitality Fund L.L.C.The 11-year-old property came under the ownership of Global Hyatt Corp. in 2005 when Hyatt Corp. acquired the entire 143-hotel AmeriSuites chain from the Blackstone Group for $600 million. Located at the intersection of Highway 290 and Highway 90, AmeriSuites Schaumburg sits 13 miles from O’Hare International Airport and 25 miles outside of Downtown Chicago. In addition to its guest suites, the property also features a fitness…

Automotive retail and service chain Pep Boys has wrapped up its disposition of 23 properties in a deal valued at $74.3 million. The company’s retail operations will stay put, courtesy of lease agreements with the new owner.As per terms of the lease deals, Pep Boys will continue to occupy the stores for 15 years, with the option of renewing the agreement four times for a period of five years, each. The company will use proceeds from the sale, which is part of a larger disposition program, to pay down debt.The deal marks the third occasion that Pep Boys has closed…

W.P. Carey & Co.’s CPA: 16 – Global non-traded REIT affiliate has provided sale-leaseback financing to Mantsinen Group, a Finnish machinery production firm.  CPA: 16 acquired and leased back Mantsinen’s office headquarters and industrial site, located in Ylamylly, Finland under the $18 million deal. Mantsinen produces material handling machinery and mobile harbor cranes, as well as offering logistics services to clients in the forestry, steel and port industries. “The sale-leaseback transaction with W.P. Carey is enabling us to recapitalize our balance sheet and pursue a number of growth initiatives further down the road, including expansion into Russia,” noted Mantsinen president…

South Asian Real Estate Ltd., or SARE, the Indian residential real estate developer partnered by Topland and Duet Group, has committed almost 70 percent of the $317 million of its funds to buy seven land parcels in India, it has reported. The land totals 800 acresPlans call for the property to contain 31 million square feet of developed real estate, ultimately worth approximately $1.4 billion. SARE has begun the process of permitting for one residential township at this point. Construction on all projects is slated to begin before the end of 2008. According to Rob Clayton, director of structured finance…

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….