Regions

News of the Manhattan office market’s poor performance continues to roll in as FirstService Williams releases its first quarter 2009 report. The dismal numbers, the real estate services firm concludes, come as no surprise given New York City’s–and the country’s–economic downslide. What a difference a couple of years make. During the first quarter of 2007, the average vacancy rate in Manhattan was just 7.7 percent; now it’s well into the double-digits at 12 percent, having jumped substantially from 10.9 percent just three months ago at the close of 2008. Net absorption figures, a negative 3.9 million square feet, serve as…

The returns are beginning to come in on the early 2009 performance of the nation’s largest office market, and the picture emerging is neither rosy nor especially surprising. A chief culprit is the steady stream of job losses. In February alone, New York City employers shed 17,500 positions, according to data provided by New York State and seasonally adjusted by Eastern Consolidated. That brought the number of jobs cut in the city since last August to 97,000. The securities sector is the hardest hit category, having lost 3,100 positions in February and 14,800 jobs overall. However, a wide range of…

Though it continues to lead East Asia’s commercial real estate investment market, Japan will take a hit from sluggish capital flows and the global recession for another two years, according to projections by RREEF Research. Nationwide transaction volume in Japan declined 46 percent to $19 billion last year, and another decline is in store for 2009, according to RREEF Research, which is part of Deutsche Bank Group. Returns, too, are destined to continue dropping steeply from the 13.8 percent peak attained in 2006. Last year the market mustered a return of just 3.4 percent. Nevertheless, Japan still accounts for 42…

There has not been a great amount of positive news at the World Trade Center site, but things brightened a bit today. Vantone Industrial Co. has signed a lease at One World Trade Center, also known as the Freedom Tower, which will create the China Center, a 190,800-square-foot business and cultural facility, to be located on portions of the 64th floor and the entire 65th through 69th floors of One World Trade Center. Immediately following the lease signing, China Center provided the Port Authority, the owner of the building, with a $10 million letter of credit. The lease represents a…

As the commercial development market continues to struggle, yet another project may be in jeopardy. The $1 billion Victory Park near Downtown Dallas may be at risk of defaulting on a $185 million debt owed to German investors.Developed by Fort Worth-based Hillwood, a Perot company, the Victory Park project includes the W Dallas Victory Hotel & Residences, The House by Starck & yoo, the American Airlines Center, the Victory Plaza Building and the Victory Park Super Screens. The Dallas Morning News cited a report in the Financial Times of Germany stating that German investors who hold the debt on some…

As one Las Vegas mega-project hits a snag, the site for a possible new development is set to go up for auction. Just a day after the announcement of a lawsuit brought by a co-developer of the massive CityCenter project against its partner comes word that a 22-acre parcel for a proposed Asia-themed casino resort will be sold at a bankruptcy auction in May.The Dragon City Hotel and Resort site is located in Las Vegas’ Chinatown, three blocks off the city’s famed Strip. The land is being sold at auction by Spring Mountain Wynn Investments L.L.C., with Chartwell Group L.L.C….

The credit crunch has caused more than a few hiccups for hotel and casino projects across the country, and Las Vegas has been especially hard-hit. The latest snag in Vegas is the lawsuit against MGM Mirage, developer of the behemoth $8.8 billion CityCenter mixed-use project, which was sued by its joint venture partner, Dubai-headquartered Infinity World, due to financial worries over both the development and MGM Mirage itself. As per a press release from Infinity, the initiation of the lawsuit in Delaware Chancery Court constitutes the company’s effort to protect its rights and the best interests of the CityCenter project…

Beleaguered insurance giant American International Group Inc., which announced this week that it would put its Downtown Manhattan headquarters up for sale, will likely receive significantly less in sales proceeds than if it made this move two years earlier. The 66-story, 775,000-square-foot building at 70 Pine Street is an “architectural icon,” said Richard Baxter, executive vice president of Cushman & Wakefield Inc. AIG is also selling its 16-story, 279,000-square-foot building at 72 Wall Street. Icon or not, however, the 775,000-square-foot building is unlikely to command the price it would have fetched in 2006 or 2007. Whereas the building will likely…

A week after Chicago’s most famous office property got a new tenant and a new name, the city’s office market continues to make headlines this week, as Tishman Speyer inks a pair of tenants to large leases totaling more than 240,000 square feet. Despite the spate of leases, though, uncertainty pervades in the market. In the first Tishman lease, Hinshaw & Culbertson L.L.P. extended its lease for 153,000 square feet at 222 North LaSalle St. through May 2018. The firm has been headquartered at the property since 1987. Meanwhile, FTI Consulting Inc. signed a lease for approximately 91,200 square feet…

It’s a mark of the times that a corporate real estate property management story is headline news, namely the report that Citigroup Inc. plans to spent about $10 million for executive office renovations. In ordinary times, that would be as newsworthy as the paving of a side street in lower Manhattan, but the backlash over corporate excess has put such expenditures by bailout beneficiaries under a high-powered microscope.Citigroup was quick to issue a statement about the renovations: “Senior executives in our corporate headquarters are moving from two floors to smaller, simpler offices on a single floor,” it said. “Based on…