Regions

With a cost of doing business below the national average in the Dallas area combined with the recent acquisition of a Dallas firm, global outsourcing firm Vertex Outsourcing plans to move its new U.S. corporate headquarters to the Dallas suburb of Richardson in October. The firm leased 37,300 square feet of office space in Richardson Commons (pictured) and plans to move about 220 employees into this location. The move follows Vertex’s July 29 acquisition of Alliance Data Systems Corp., acquiring that company’s utility services component. which provides billing systems, professional services and process outsourcing to utilities in the United States…

It’s a meeting of big green and sustainable green. Stanford University has broken ground on a new eight-building, 360,000-square-foot graduate business school campus, to be named the Knight Management Center in honor of Stanford alum and business school mega-donor Phil Knight, co-founder of Nike Inc. The campus is scheduled to open in 2010 and be fully completed by spring 2011. Knight gave $105 million, possibly the largest gift ever to a business school, toward the project, which is expected to cost at least $350 million by the time the campus is completed in 2011. Present at the groundbreaking, Knight pressed…

Ripples in the commercial real estate world will be felt for a long time after Hurricane Ike struck the Texas gulf coast and then worked its way north and east wreaking havoc in its path from Little Rock to Chicago. From ripping off sections of the retractable roof from the $352 million Reliant Park in Houston to shattering windows in downtown high-rises and sending papers and furniture into the streets there, Ike’s effects may be felt for years to come, experts indicated. Companies like Dallas-based Silverleaf Resorts Inc. evacuated resort guests and personnel from Silverleaf’s Seaside Resort in Galveston and…

Chicago based private equity investor Evergreen Real Estate Partners has committed $750 million to developer Kitson & Partners to pursue retail and residential development deals in Florida. WIth the funding, Kitson will be looking to acquire raw land, entitled land and semi-improved land on which to develop. The firm is anticipating that having the funds on hand will help them survive a tough credit market. “If our company makes an offer, we can close the deal with the seller. We have the financial strength to finish what we start,” Kitson’s CEO Syd Kitson said in a prepared statement. Kitson &…

Officials of Long Island’s Suffolk County have selected Rechler Equity Partners to build and manage the Hampton Business and Technology Park, which will occupy 58 acres at the Francis G. Gabreski Airport. Designed as a high-tech compound, the park will feature a 485,000-square-foot center containing commercial space and a 145-room hotel with conference facilities. Owned by Suffolk County, the entire airport property, originally developed as a World War II air base, encompasses a total of nearly 1,500 acres. The Hampton Business Park parcel sits on the west side of the airport, and has been designated a Planned Development District, as…

New York City’s Broadway Partners has sold 200 State Street to GLL Real Estate Partners GmbH, which acquired the premier property on behalf of European Institutional investors for $167 million. Broadway Partners’ had owned the 302,100-square-foot building since purchasing it through its Broadway Partners Real Estate Fund III last year as part of a 24-property office portfolio acquisition from Beacon Capital Partners L.L.C. for $5 billion. Developed in 1985, 200 State Street occupies a coveted spot adjacent to Faneuil Hall Marketplace in Boston’s Financial District. The 16-story tower has a history of strong occupancy levels, which jumped from 94 percent…

Ownership of the Class B office building at 666 Eleventh Street NW in Washington, D.C.’s East End submarket has changed hands. Relying on the assistance of real estate services firm West, Lane & Schlager, Leonard Doggett of Doggett Enterprises Inc., the parent company of Doggett Parking Co., sold the 101,000-square-foot property, which was developed by Doggett over 40 years ago. The buyer has not been publicly identified, but snapping up 666 Eleventh was a momentous move, as the building was one of the limited group of individually owned office properties in the still highly coveted Downtown Washington, D.C., market. Occupying…

As the third day of the inaugural Cityscape USA exhibition and conference crystallized at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City, an afternoon session explored the state of Asian REITs and their impact on the bottom line. Asian REITs are picking up steam due to several reasons, including their ability to provide a pathway to property ownership coupled with their tax efficiency, low-risk possibility because they are highly regulated and attractive annual returns, according to the session’s presenter, Stewart LaBrooy (pictured), executive director & COO of Axis REIT Managers Bhd. Asia currently holds about 11 percent of…

Emerging Asian and Middle Eastern markets were a hot topic this morning at Cityscape USA’s three-day conference, held at The Javits Center in Manhattan.”Capital flows are changing rapidly,” said Robert White Jr., founder & president of Real Capital Analytics Inc., in the first panel discussing U.S. investors abroad. “The U.S. has been the biggest buyer at $70 billion, while foreign funds into the U.S. totaled $30 billion. Although 85 percent of that was in developing markets, emerging markets are important. And development is far beyond those numbers.”Entrepreneurial capital—particularly private investors and funds—lead the pack in foreign investors. And pension fund…

The Seasons of Cherry Creek, a 439-unit luxury apartment property in Denver’s tony Cherry Creek neighborhood, is about to experience a growth spurt. RedPeak Properties, which acquired the multi-family asset for $75 million in 2005, just broke ground on a $65 million expansion project that will add 148 residences to the complex.Located at 3329 E. Bayaud Ave. about two blocks from the Cherry Creek Mall, Seasons’ existing 15-story tower and nine-story structure will be augmented by a new 13-story high-rise that will be part of Built Green Colorado’s multi-family pilot program. As part of the program, the new structure will…