Regions

The joint venture owners of Downtown Austin’s Bank of America Building have successfully lined up a $44 million refinancing for the property. Owners Walton Street Capital and T. Stacey Associates went though the Dallas office of Holliday Fenoglio Fowler L.P. to arrange the financing, which was provided by CapitalSource Finance L.L.C. Proceeds from the refinancing will be used for capital improvements and additional lease-up for the property, which is currently 90 percent occupied to a tenant roll including Bank of America, BDO Siedman L.L.P. and Manpower. The owners acquired the property in 2004. In addition to the 26-story Bank of…

After a steep decline in office rents and leasing activity at the end of 2008, many owners are attempting to lure tenants with aggressive deals, according to Cushman & Wakefield Inc.’s year-end report on the Manhattan office market. Office leasing volume in Manhattan dropped to 19.1 million square feet last year, a 19 percent drop from 2008 and the second-lowest total since 1997. In the 241 million-square-foot Midtown district–largest of Manhattan’s three submarkets–asking rents dipped more than $4 per square foot in the fourth quarter, to $79.81. “We don’t recall a drop like this in recent history,” said Joseph Harbert,…

Despite the poor fourth quarter results and bleak economic news, Atlanta’s office market ended 2008 with positive absorption of 391,300 square feet–but that’s down more than 2.4 million square feet from the 2.9 million absorbed in 2007, according to figures from Atlanta-based Richard Bowers & Co. The forth quarter saw a negative absorption 411,900 square feet–the first quarter of negative absorption in the market since the first quarter of 2006, according to a Richard Bowers & Co. fourth-quarter 2008 and year-end Atlanta office market report. “The first quarter of negative absorption indicates we have a market in flux,” David Morgan,…

Phoenix’s $1.4 billion, 20-mile light rail system carried its first passengers on Dec. 27th, and real estate professionals believe that development opportunities around the line’s 20 stations are significant; Valley Metro, which operates the system, projects the system will initially carry 26,000 passengers a day. Phoenix is one of the last large American cities to open a mass transit rail system, but Mindy Korth, executive vice president in the Phoenix office of CB Richard Ellis Inc. believes this tardiness carries some benefits. “It’s going to allow the system to institute best practices from other cities,” Korth said, noting that developers…

Reusing and revitalizing Brooklyn’s deteriorated East River waterfront began with a groundbreaking in February on the piers area and now a $48 million contract was awarded to Skanska for Phase I of the Brooklyn Bridge Park project in New York City. The Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corp. is overseeing the approximately 85-acre project, which consists of piers, upland and water area, stretching along 1.3 miles of Brooklyn waterfront.The purpose of this project is to allow reuse of the East River waterfront for public benefit, and to once again make the waterfront an asset for the city and the region. The…

Pantheon Properties has signed on two long-term tenants for more than 42,000 square feet at their Newark and Secaucus, N.J., industrial properties.The first transaction was with Transgroup Worldwide Logistics, who secured a lease for approximately 26,000 square feet at 280 Wilson Avenue in Newark. The Seattle-based, third-party logistics company will use this location a warehouse and office operations. The second lease was with JAS Forwarding Worldwide for 16,200 square feet at one of Pantheon’s flex-buildings at 401 Penhorn Avenue in Secaucus. JAS selected this location for its tri-state freight and office headquarters. “Both Transgroup and JAS were seeking locations within…

SL Green Realty Corp. has slashed a planned dividend payment in efforts to pay down debt and conserve funds for future investments. The company set the new dividend payment at $0.375 per common share for the fourth quarter of 2008. The third quarter dividend was $0.7875 per share. The move follows a third quarter decline in net income of 66 percent, from $1.66 per share in the third quarter of 2007 to $0.58 per share for the third quarter this year. In a prepared statement, Marc Holliday, SL Green’s CEO, explained the dividend reset as a way of generating $95…

Various international tempests and other factors, such as uncertainty over the price of oil, seemed to drive the markets down Monday, but only slightly. The Dow Jones index ended 31.62 points down, or 0.37 percent, while the S&P 500 was off 0.39 percent and the Nasdaq was down more–1.3 percent. According to the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank, manufacturing in the Midwest is at its most sluggish pace in more than a decade (the Midwest in this case being Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan and Wisconsin, which form the seventh Federal Reserve district). In November, the Chicago Fed’s Midwest factory index stood…

With more than $283 million in construction planned, the Port Commission of the Port of Houston Authority is working to assure Houston’s emergence as the nation’s busiest port is met with cutting edge facilities. The Port of Houston has grown in the past few years with the expansion of the Bayport Container Terminal, which will ultimately increase capacity to 2.3 million TEUs, a jump of more than 200 percent, and allow Houston to market itself as a better alternative for shipping to other ports across the country. PHA achieved its eighth consecutive year of record-breaking revenue in 2007. Figures for…

Century Casinos Inc. is selling Century Casinos Africa Ltd. to Tsogo Sun Gaming Ltd., a casino and hotel resort owner and operator in Southern Africa. The Fourways, South Africa-based Tsogo Sun Gaming has agreed to a purchase price of $48 million. The properties include The Caledon Hotel Spa & Casino near Cape Town (pictured) and 60 percent of Century Casino Newcastle in Newcastle. Century Casinos is an international casino entertainment company. It owns and operates casinos in Cripple Creek, Colo., Central City, Colo., and Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.The company also operates casinos aboard a number of cruise ships. The company’s Austrian…