Regions

The nationwide downturn in employment is chipping away at demand in the apartment market, but there are still those communities here and there where the call for more rental accommodations remains relatively strong. To that end, Orinda Corp. and Octagon Capital Partners, having found just such a community, have acquired a 350,000-square-foot office building in a college-laden district of Atlanta for a $35 million apartment conversion project.Occupying 2.1 acres downtown at 222 Mitchell St., the property, for which Atlanta-headquartered Orinda and Charlottesville, Va.-based Octagon shelled out all cash, was previously home to the NationsBank/Bank of America Operations Center. At the…

With industry players speculating that Central London’s office market will soon hit bottom, the timing appears to be just right to snap up assets in the revered locale, and London-based Henderson Global Investors is positioning itself to do just that, while taking others from around the globe along for the ride. The independent asset manager has just launched the Henderson Central London Office Fund II, with plans of raising an initial $330 million to invest in assets as the numbers on price tags decrease.”It certainly feels as if we are at or close to the bottom in terms of value,”…

Monday was an historic day in Detroit, and arguably for the entire U.S. manufacturing sector, even though GM’s formal announcement of bankruptcy, along with President Obama’s promise for more than $30 billionfor a company in which the U.S. Government will soon own a controlling interest, weren’t surprises . A little more surprising (only a little) was the quick approval by Chrysler’s bankruptcy judge of the sale of most of its assets to a group led by Fiat SpA, meaning that the Detroit automaker will continue to exist in one form or another, albeit with Italian bosses. But the fact that…

After a rough 2008, Manhattan’s property investment market has continued to take it on the chin thus far in 2009. Real estate sales in Manhattan reached a 25-year low in 2009’s first quarter, according to a new report by Massey Knakal Realty Services.“The No. 1 finding–that turnover in the first half is the lowest it has been in 25 years–is a major indicator of the market,” Massey Knakal managing director Kyle Mast told CPN. “Over the last 25 years, annual volume of sales was about 2.5 percent of total properties. That figure was at a high in 1998 with 3….

Industrial property sales in San Joaquin County in California’s Central Valley have been practically nonexistent this year, but USAA Real Estate Co. just broke the monotony with the acquisition of a 658,000-square-foot distribution facility in the city of Tracy, about an hour east of San Francisco. Acting through its affiliate US Industrial REIT III, USAA took the brand new building, which is fully occupied by Home Depot Inc., off the hands of AMB Property Corp. Originally known as AMB Pescadero Distribution Center, the Class A property (pictured) carries the address of 1400 E. Pescadero Ave., and sits within close proximity…

With the growing evaporation of jobs, Orange County, Calif.’s multi-family housing sector is starting to feel the burn. Yet, deteriorating fundamentals aren’t scaring off investors like Sequoia Equities Inc., which recently acquired the 484-unit Alize Apartments in the upscale Aliso Viejo master planned community from Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. for $75 million. Walnut Creek, Calif.-based Sequoia relied on financing from Fannie Mae and a $17.3 million equity partnership for the purchase of Alize. Presently 90 percent occupied, the approximately 442,700-square-foot, decade-old apartment complex features 11 three-story residential structures, as well as three single-story buildings encompassing a management office, fitness…

The big-ticket office deals are few and far between these days, even in the leading markets, but properties with more palatable price tags, like a 200,000-square-foot office complex in the Los Angeles area, are finding buyers. Real estate and entertainment law firm Greenberg Glusker has snapped up just such a property in El Segundo, Calif., on behalf of a client for $26.6 million, relying on $22 million in financing from Bank of America N.A. to facilitate the acquisition. Greenberg Glusker released limited details about the transaction, but the firm did note that the financing was restructured six days in advance…

Call it the “Great Green Way.” Following on the heels of Manhattan’s iconic Empire State Building going green, Broadway is getting its first green theater. Built to green standards, Henry Miller’s Theatre has received a temporary certificate of occupancy. The 1,055-seat house is located in the new 55-story Bank of America Tower, at One Bryant Park, and will be New York’s first LEED-rated theater. The theater and the Bank of America Tower are an Empire State Development Corp. project, and a joint venture of The Durst Organization and Bank of America. “Do I think the fact that this is a…

It’s certainly no secret that the global investment market has been severely hampered by the economic downturn. In markets across the world, both sales velocity and pricing are way down from the halcyon days of just a couple of years ago. All of this makes the $263 million sale of a Vancouver office tower all the more noteworthy. The transaction had a truly international flavor. German investment firm Deka Immobilien Investment GmbH made an unsolicited offer to SITQ, a real estate subsidiary of global institutional fund manager Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec, to acquire Bentall V, a 33-story,…