News

Even experts continue to disagree about the depth of the American economy’s troubles and its impact on commercial real estate. That was clear during the lively opening panel discussion this morning at CPN’s annual Philadelphia Property Opportunities conference. “I think we’re facing the abyss, and it’s principally driven by the home building sector,” Chris Terlizzi, executive vice president for Citizens Bank, told about 300 real estate professionals at the Sheraton Philadelphia City Center. “We have a lot of uncertainty right now, and it’s anybody’s guess as to how it’s going to play out.” The current situation is worse than the…

Recession? Market correction? What’s that? Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide’s just-released summary of their current expansion plans shows anything but pessimism. The chain, owner of such high-profile brands as Sheraton, Westin, St. Regis and Le Meridien, currently has in the pipeline 500 hotels totaling 120,000 rooms. Its 900th hotel will open this year, and the company expects to increase its portfolio by 50 percent over the next five years. Part of that growth will come from the opening this year of Starwood’s first hotels in its Aloft and Element brands. Built in a high-ceilinged loft style, the Aloft properties are…

Denver-based ProLogis has leased additional space at ProLogis Park 70-Etna–in development near Columbus, Ohio–to current customers at the site. The tenants are California-based Menlo Worldwide Logistics and Texas-based SpeedFC. SpeedFC will add another 158,000 square feet to arrive at a total rental of 318,000 square feet. Menlo Worldwide will expand its current rental of 311,000 square feet with the addition of another 150,000 square feet.Prologis already has three buildings in development at the park is a 220-acre facility. These have a combined area of 1.6 million square feet. Plans now call for the park to include five facilities with a…

Anthony Thompson has resigned his position as chairman of the board of Grubb & Ellis Co., effective Feb. 8. He assumed the chairmanship in early December 2007 upon the finalization of the merger of Grubb & Ellis and NNN Realty Advisors Inc. Thompson will also resign as a director of the company.Thompson was previously chairman of NNN Realty Advisors, founding its predecessor organization Triple Net Properties L.L.C. in 1998. Since that time, NNN Realty Advisors and its predecessors placed nearly $3 billion in investor funds in a variety of real estate investments.According to Chicago-based Grubb & Ellis, independent director Glenn…

Fore Property Co. has gotten its hands on a financing package valued at nearly $91 million for its Mirabella, a 715-unit multi-family project it’s developing in the suburban Phoenix city of Avondale, Ariz.  The funding, orchestrated by Holliday Fenoglio Fowler L.P., comes in the form of a $74.2 million four-year fixed-rate loan provided by a life insurance concern for construction of Mirabella. Additionally, an institutional equity partner is on board the project, and chipped in an additional sum of approximately $16.7 million in joint venture equity was attained from an institutional equity partner.  Sited on a nearly 34-acre parcel of…

The St. Louis market “will sustain its healthy gains and weather the short-term problems currently causing concern.” That was the theme of a Colliers Turley Martin Tucker presentation on Jan. 24 at the Missouri Botanical Gardens. And while, as always, not every market sector deserves as much optimism as the locals would like to generate, the St. Louis metro area does have some reasons to sleep well at night. St. Louis is “a good market for people who have weak hearts, or weak stomachs,” Keith Zeff, director of research for CTMT, joked to CPN. Investors who want to balance the…

Inland American Real Estate Trust, which already owns 9.8 percent of the outstanding stock in Cedar Shopping Centers Inc., is seeking a waiver of a provision in Cedar’s charter barring any person or group from owning more than 9.8 percent of the company’s outstanding stock, according to an SEC 13D filed yesterday. The filing further states that Inland American is “considering seeking control of the Company through various courses of action,” including acquiring additional Cedar shares, “proposing a merger or sale or similar transaction,” or seeking representation on Cedar’s board of directors. At presstime, an Inland spokesperson had declined to…

Toronto-based Canadian Apartment Properties Real Estate Investment Trust has closed the disposition of a group of 10 apartment communities in metropolitan Toronto and Montreal, and Niagara. TransGlobe Property Management acquired the assets, which account for an aggregate 1,478 units, for just over $121 million. CAP REIT had identified the properties as non-core assets, having maximized their value. The proceeds from the sale will be applied toward the reduction of the company’s Acquisition and Operating Facilities–through which it will continue to purchase properties in Western Canada and other thriving markets across the country–and will also be used to fund its Normal…

Not long after outlining a plan for refinancing some of its debt over the next two years, as reported by CPN earlier this week, General Growth Properties has arranged three new mortgage loans on regional malls owned by the company in joint ventures. The Chicago-based REIT has also inked deals to sell two wholly owned office buildings. A five-year, $150 million interest-only loan with a fixed rate of 5.05 percent will replace an existing mortgage loan of about $108 million, and thus generate about $42 million of excess refinancing proceeds for the JV. Two other ten-year, fixed-rate loans totaling $181…

Deutsche Bank has issued a notice of loan default to 3700 Associates, developer of the Cosmopolitan Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, according to a press release from Perini Corp., the project’s general contractor. 3700 Associates is reportedly wholly owned by Ian Bruce Eichner. In a prepared statement, Eichner said, “This action by our lender comes as no surprise to the senior management of The Cosmopolitan. With the current challenges within the real estate and debt capital markets ? we both anticipated and planned for this.”A Deutsche Bank spokesperson was unable to provide further information, saying the bank does not…