Regions

Two months after Hurricane Ike wreaked havoc along Texas’s Gulf Coast, the Newport Master Planned Community in Port Aransas, Texas, plans to put three tracts of land up for auction Nov. 11. The three tracts are part of the 2,118-acre Newport Master Planned Community. The parcels to be sold are situated on the north and south side of Highway 361 on Mustang Island. The sites are 90-acres, 165-acres and 326-acres. All three tracts will be sold separately via an on-site, live auction conducted by Dallas-based Hudson & Marshall at the clubhouse of the Newport Dunes Golf Club. CB Richard Ellis…

The Internal Revenue Service has issued a ruling that gives Forest City Ratner Cos., developer of the $4 billion Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, the go-ahead to leverage tax-free bonds for the development, the cornerstone of which would be a new arena for the National Basketball Association’s New Jersey Nets. The regulation also arms New York City’s two major league baseball teams, the Mets and the Yankees, with the ability to use more tax-exempt bonds to fund construction of their new stadiums. The eagerly anticipated ruling comes two years after the IRS proposed toughening regulations on the use of tax-free…

Indian real estate company Emaar MGF has been chosen by the Indian government to develop the Commonwealth Games Village 2010 in Delhi, the firm has announced. The village is an integrated residential project spread over 27 acres adjacent to the Akshardham Temple. The project will hold 1168 apartments spread across 34 towers, with almost four million square feet of constructed area. These apartments range from 2- to 5-bedroom units that range from 1400 square feet to 3,500 square feet. They will first be used by the athletes and then sold after the games. Strategically located, the Commonwealth Games Village is…

Holliday Fenoglio Fowler L.P. has secured a $47 million construction loan for Brick Row, a mixed-use development under construction in Dallas.  Upon completion in mid-year 2010, Brick Row will consist of 500 multi-family units and 16,000 square feet of ground-level retail space configured around two central parking structures.  Designed by Dallas-based BGO Architects, the property is situated in a park like setting.   The project is part of a large-scale master planned development consisting of townhomes, residential condominiums, ancillary retail and a public park.  HFF managing director Andy Scott worked exclusively on behalf of the borrower, a joint venture partnership between…

Global accounting firm Grant Thornton signed a 36,100-square-foot renewal with Piedmont Office Realty Trust at 60 Broad St. (pictured) in Manhattan. The firm will continue to occupy the entire 24th and 25th floors for another five years.The 39-story, 1 million-square-foot office tower, renovated in 2003, is located in the Financial District submarket. The property is fully occupied. Mitchell Barnett, David Malawer and Andrew Peretz of Cushman & Wakefield Inc. represented Grant Thornton. Piedmont Office Realty Trust was represented by Anthony Stapleton, Eric Sarner and Sheila Nayson of Cogswell Realty Group L.L.C. and George Wells of Piedmont. 

The D.C. leasing market, traditionally fairly stable, is reacting to the market turmoil. Scott Johnston, Principal at Newmark Knight Frank, the global real estate investment firm told CPN, “The volatility exists in the economy in general, so what you’re seeing in D.C. in particular is people taking a wait and see approach to things. Across the board from an economic standpoint, everyone is nervous. Nobody knows what is going to happen. “With the economic crisis global in nature, it has a significantly large impact on the business community as a whole, and that’s why people are in such a state…

Five Tower Bridge (pictured), a 223,700-square-foot trophy office property in West Conshohocken, Penn., has been snapped up by KBS Real Estate Investment Trust I. In a deal valued at $73 million, the REIT took the suburban Philadelphia property off the hands of Five Tower Bridge Associates, a partnership involving Cornerstone Real Estate Advisors, Brandywine Realty Trust and Oliver Tyrone Pulver Corp. The team developed the office building in 2001.Located at 300 Barr Harbor Dr. on an approximately 10-acre parcel adjacent to the Schuylkill River and about 15 minutes from downtown Philadelphia, Five Tower Bridge sits within the 45-acre, 1.2 million-square-foot…

The Dallas and San Diego offices of Holliday Fenoglio Fowler L.P. has announced that they secured a $20 million bridge loan for the recapitalization of 1,000 acres in the Dallas Logistics Hub. The hub is a 6,000-acre, master-planned development.Working on behalf of the Allen Group, HFF associate director John Ahmed and senior managing director Tim Wright placed the 36-month, adjustable-rate loan with American Bank of Texas. The land assemblage is located within the DLH, adjacent to Union Pacific’s Southern Dallas Intermodal Terminal, a proposed BNSF intermodal facility. DLH, which spans the communities of Dallas, Lancaster, Wilmer and Hutchins, is master-planned…

The New York office of Holliday Fenoglio Fowler L.P. has secured a $25 million mortgage on behalf of an affiliate of Grosvenor Investment Management for Rockaway 80, a 260,000-square-foot, Class A office building in Rockaway, N.J.HFF director Steven Klein and senior managing director Michael Tepedino represented the borrower in arranging the floating-rate loan through MassMutual. GIM is the North American fund management subsidiary of the London-based Grosvenor Group Ltd. Rockaway 80 has seven stories of office space plus a two-level, 883-space parking structure. Originally completed in 1991 and renovated in 2006, the property features a reflective glass facade with granite…

KBS Real Estate Investment Trust II has scooped up the remaining four office buildings at Park Avenue at Morris County–a Class A, six-building complex located at the Columbia Turnpike exit of Route 24 in New Jersey’s Essex/Eastern Morris County submarket. This transaction, which closed last week, comes more than a month after KBS REIT II’s September completion of the first phase of the deal–a pickup of first two buildings, 100 (pictured) and 200 Campus Drive. With its October acquisition of the last four buildings, the REIT has taken full ownership of the complex. In both chapters of the deal, KBS…