Regions

Last week’s $180 million sale of a Washington, D.C., office building made national headlines because Eliot Spitzer worked on the deal. But the trade was more noteworthy for what it says about things to come in commercial real estate investment. Forced to resign as New York’s governor a year ago because of a scandal, Spitzer worked to structure the transaction with his father Bernard, a long-time developer and investor. A company controlled by Bernard Spitzer bought 1615 L Street, a 418,000-square-foot office building located four blocks from the White House. The seller, Broadway Partners, has encountered much-publicized difficulties tied to…

As unemployment numbers continue to rise, some of those left jobless are returning to colleges and universities for training for a new trade or simply to make themselves more competitive in their job search. Universities are also repositioning themselves in places such as Texas, where colleges have a number of expansion projects on tap. The next 24 months at the University of Texas Dallas campus in the Dallas suburb of Richardson will bring more than $130 million in new projects including new classrooms, a student residence and dining hall as well as a campus landscape project that will change the…

The commercial real estate market is taking a beating pretty much across the board, and New Jersey is no exception. As the industry braces for what is widely expected to be another tough year all over, the Garden State looks ahead to how it will reemerge once the dust settles. As is the case in most other markets, in New Jersey, the numbers tell the story. In the central part of the state, the average overall office vacancy rate jumped from 18.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007 to 19.5 percent at the close of 2008, according to a…

The U.S. hotel market is in a slump, but the situation–like the weather–is a bit sunnier in locales like the Dominican Republic, where upscale accommodations are still in demand. Capitalizing on the market’s viability, Philadelphia-based AMResorts has announced that plans to develop two new luxury resorts at Cap Cana at a cost of $200 million have just been approved by Cap Cana’s board of directors.Located on the eastern tip of the Dominican Republic, Cap Cana is a new 30,000-acre Caribbean resort development endeavor. The master planned destination, dotted with premier golf courses, upscale retail options and other amenities, is on…

Chicago-based real estate investment management firm Heitman L.L.C. has just wrapped up the first closing of Heitman European Property Partners IV, the company’s fourth European value-added property investment vehicle, with approximately $486 million in hand. The sizeable amount of money raised will facilitate leveraged buying power totaling nearly $950 million for acquisitions of commercial real estate and debt in Europe, where some hard-hit markets could present long-term opportunities to investors. The Heitman fund’s investment activity will encompass various sectors of the real estate market, including retail, multi-family, offices and logistics properties, but not hotels. As is the case in the…

While the Chinese economy has not escaped the effects of the global economic turmoil of late, at least one firm is confident enough in the nation’s industrial real estate market to commit to a significant investment outlay there in the coming years. After selling off its China operations to GIC Real Estate earlier this year, Global Logistic Properties plans to invest $300 million to $500 million annually in China in the next few years, its president said on Tuesday. Global Logistic was formerly the Asia operation  arms of industrial REIT Prologis. It was sold last December to GIC Real Estate–the…

Despite suffering the ravages of Hurricane Ike last September, the ports along the Gulf Coast of Texas continue to rank among some of the top ports in the United States and the world. The Port of Beaumont has a $58 million capital improvement program and the Port of Houston approved almost $300 million in new projects at the end of 2008. Despite substantial damage inflicted by Hurricane Ike on the Port of Galveston, a revenue report released by the seaport showed that revenues are rebounding quicker than anticipated. According to the report, the Port of Galveston exceeded its projected revenues…

Despite major job loss and the struggling economy, the office market in Charlotte, N.C.’s Central Business District remains one of the tightest in the country with a 2.4 percent vacancy rate–according to a fourth quarter report by real estate services firm Colliers Pinkard–and loyal resident Duke Energy is doing its part to keep it that way. The company’s board has just given the green light for a long-term lease deal allowing the relocation of its corporate headquarters to 500,000 square feet in what will be a 1.5 million-square-foot high-rise that had been planned as a new headquarters for Wachovia Corp….

While the Baltimore market has–like most areas of the country–seen a slowdown in development activity as the economy has soured, there are still a few noteworthy projects progressing as planned. Most recently, the city of Baltimore approved selling city-owned land to developers Mark Sapperstein, Benjamin Greenwald and Joseph Haskins for a new $80 million 450,000-square-foot, mixed-use development, Hyatt at City Center.The sale was approved by the city’s Board of Estimates. The Land Disposition Agreement is for city-owned properties at 26-36 South Calvert, 110 East Lombard Street and 117 Water Street. The Hyatt at City Center will consist of two Hyatt-branded…

The meltdown of the capital markets has stemmed the flow of transactions in the multi-family sector. But, occasionally, a deal does get the green light. Equity Residential announced Thursday that it has sold a portfolio of apartment assets in Connecticut, for $42.7 million. The Kamson Corp. acquired the portfolio, which includes 436 apartments in four separate communities in Glastonbury, Manchester, Plainville and West Hartford.Overall, sales declined for multi-family properties in 2008, but compared to other product types, things could have been worse. Apartments declined the second least in dollar volume–62 percent–after industrial properties, and pulled in the second highest total…