Regions

With hospitality development being hampered across the nation by the credit crunch and staggering economy, Pennsylvania is looking to buck the trend, with a pair of casino projects on the horizon.Pennsylvania’s Gaming Control Board has approved the first of two resort casino licenses, awarding one to the Valley Forge Convention Center, located west of Philadelphia. The 500-slot, $42 million casino will be located within one of the two hotels in the complex, and could be open in nine months. The Bushkill Group, which applied for a resort casino license for a property in the Poconos, was granted 90 additional days…

Condominium developments across the country have fallen prey to severe drops in demand and financing challenges, but there are exceptions, like the $350 million Escala in Downtown Seattle. Developer LEXAS Cos. has just topped off the 30-story luxury condominium, and is progressing right on schedule with its completion. Rising 330 feet above Fourth Ave. and Virginia St. in the city’s Midtown district, Escala will ultimately feature 270 residences and a 25,000-square-foot private club. Ground broke on the building in summer 2007 when the national condo craze was still in full swing. The marketplace has since turned 180 degrees, yet those…

Although the real estate market is in a severe slump, the green trend remains a hot topic, and Jones Lang LaSalle is keeping the movement at the forefront with a new energy sustainability program that kicks off with the greening of New York City’s iconic 2.6 million-square-foot Empire State Building. The iconic tower is the latest high-profile property to go green, following on the heels of Chicago’s Merchandise Mart and the former Sears Tower–now known as Willis Tower–both of which enacted green programs earlier this year.The “Empire State Building, Leadership in American Progress in Stability” initiative was conceived in a…

“New Urbanism” development–creating mixed-use projects where people can live, work and play–is less about money-making ventures and more about preventing urban sprawl and congested freeways, according to many proponents of the concept. New Urbanism was the subject of a recent presentation by  Andrés Duany, founding principal at Duany Plater Zyberk & Co., at an event hosted by the Congress for the New Urbanism at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.“Dallas is a place that gets things done and looks forward to the future. That is one of the sad things about American culture now is that they are terrified of the…

What recession? Even in bustling Los Angeles, demand for office, condo and hotel space has plunged, but Thomas Properties Group, which was just selected by Korean Air to develop the airline company’s $1 billion mixed-use project in the city, is undaunted by today’s economic conditions and hopeful about the future. Korean Air purchased the site of its future mega-development (pictured), spanning a full city block Downtown at the intersection of Wilshire Blvd. and Figueroa St., in 1989. The 2.7-acre property is located a few blocks from the L.A. Live mixed-use entertainment development and the Staples Center sports and entertainment arena,…

Declining rents and rising vacancy are the bane of many landlords in the United States these days, but by another measure–total occupancy costs–prospects for 2009 look fairly positive compared to the overall global outlook. In 61 percent of markets in the United States and Canada, Class A occupancy costs are expected to remain stable, according to a study released last week by DTZ. By contrast, 78 percent of the 114 global markets surveyed by DTZ are likely to sustain a significant drop in occupancy expenses this year. Specifically, Class A office occupancy costs will decline in every major central business…

As the country struggles in the midst of an economic downturn, Washington, D.C., with its large governmental employment sector, has thus far managed somewhat better than most cities. But according to a new report by Cassidy & Pinkard Colliers, the area market is starting to feel some pains. The D.C. metropolitan area office sector met an overall negative net absorption of 817,000 square feet in the first quarter of 2009, up from negative 793,200 square feet in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to the first quarter 2009 Cassidy & Pinkard report. Vacancy rates, meanwhile, have grown in the D.C….

In an attempt to capitalize on India’s growing prominence as a vacation destination, Intercontinental Hotels Group–which already has 11 hotels in the nation–plans to develop an additional 31 hotels in major metro areas and secondary cities across India over the next several years, adding a total of 7,800 rooms.Three brands are represented in the pipeline: InterContinental Hotels and Resorts; Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts; and Holiday Inn Hotels and Resorts. The hotels will be located in India’s tier I and tier II cities, such as New Delhi in the north, Bangalore and Chennai in the south; and Mumbai and Pune…

While office projects fall off drawing boards across the country, scrapped as a result of the frozen credit market and dwindling demand, Indianapolis-based Duke Realty Corp. is not experiencing any hitches with plans for the development of the U.S. Department of Defense’s 1.7 million-square-foot office complex in the suburban Washington, D.C., town of Alexandria, Va. Duke has just broken ground on the $1 billion project and is on target to complete construction in September 2011, as originally scheduled. The Defense Department’s new administrative office campus (pictured), to be managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, will sit off I-395…

While Internet firm AOL and defense contractor Raytheon Co. would seem a strange pairing, the two firms have negotiated a real estate deal under which Raytheon will occupy 600,000 square feet at AOL’s Dulles, Va., office campus. The magnitude of the lease is especially notable given the downturn in leasing activity seen by the area–like many markets across the nation–since the recession has taken hold.Under terms of the deal, the defense contractor will occupy space in four separate buildings at Pacific Corporate Office Park, where AOL maintains a presence despite moving its headquarters to New York City last year. Waltham,…