Regions

Pacific Office Properties Trust Inc. has acquired four San Diego-area office buildings totaling 129,000 square feet. Pacific Office acquired the portfolio in partnership with an institutional co-investor and will own a 32 percent managing ownership interest in the properties. The four new properties include twin office buildings in the Scripps Ranch Business Park in San Diego, and the Palomar Heights Corporate Center and an adjacent office building in Carlsbad, Calif. The transaction completes Pacific Office’s acquisition of a seven-building San Diego portfolio, three buildings of which were acquired last month. Pacific Office is a new REIT, formed by Honolulu financier…

About a month after appointing a new CEO, debt-troubled Maguire Properties Inc. is moving forward with a number of initiatives intended to deal with its problems, including the sale of office properties in Orange County, Calif. Other steps the company is taking include changes to senior management, seeking additional financing, and returning company headquarters to Downtown Los Angeles. Last month, as reported by CPN, Maguire Properties’ board selected Nelson Rising to head the company’s turnaround efforts. Rising worked for Maguire before leaving to become chairman & CEO of Catellus Development Corp. in 1994. During Rising’s 11-year stint with Catellus, he…

The world is getting smaller, perhaps warmer, certainly more crowded and probably wealthier, but most of all, it’s getting older. For example, by 2030 one in eight of the world’s people will be over 65. That’s one of the key conclusions in “Global Demographics 2008: Shaping Real Estate’s Future,” a brand-new report from the Urban Land Institute, with partial sponsorship by Deloitte L.L.C. “Global aging is the most significant global demographic trend,” co-author M. Leanne Lachman said in a press briefing this morning. Lachman is president of Lachman Associates L.L.C. In introducing Lachman, ULI executive vice president Rachelle Levitt commented…

Houston’s tenants and landlords have focused more on green building lately, and it all owes to competition.Energy companies can use a green office as a recruiting tool to attract engineers in a hotly competitive job environment, said Crescent Real Estate vice president Frank Staats. “They are looking all over the world for talent, so if you want to have someone relocate from Denver to Houston, you want to be able to offer them a healthy working environment,” he said.The number of new buildings that are LEED certified is also spurring landlords of existing buildings to join the environmentally friendly fray,…

Like the office sectors elsewhere, San Francisco’s market has seen damage to commercial real estate investment from the credit crunch. While owners of top office properties may have sold their assets last year to take advantage of low cap rates, lower prices are deterring them from taking the same action now, according to Chris Economou, investment associate for Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services Inc. “If you have a quality asset that is 100 percent leased, you’re not necessarily dipping your toe in the water today,” he said.Indeed, for those properties that do trade, buyers are receiving discounts of…

The board of governors of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey voted late last week to give Silverstein Properties Inc. additional time to complete World Trade Center Towers 3 and 4. The extension will allow SPI to continue to pursue Merrill Lynch as the sole tenant of Tower 3; Merrill Lynch’s specific needs (such as large trading floors) would require some redesign of Tower 3, including its foundation and that of Tower 4. CPN reported last week that Merrill Lynch, which is currently headquartered in the World Financial Center, across West Street from the WTC site, had…

When a corporation moving into a new market contributes to that locale’s “image,” it can create value that boomerangs back to the company. The Tampa region, which has been working hard to attract life sciences and biotechnology firms, scored a coup with pharmaceutical company Merck & Co., which teamed with the city’s H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute to develop cancer research project M2Gen last year. “We look for organizations that will grow jobs and the industry,” said Stuart Rogel, president & CEO of the Tampa Bay Partnership. M2Gen committed to establishing 165 jobs at an average yearly…

Will Beijing experience the “Barcelona Effect,” like the Spanish city that had costs overruns after 1992 Olympic Games, but recovered quickly through increased tourism and investment? Or will it experience the “Montreal Effect,” like the Canadian city that had cost overruns after the 1976 Olympic Games and took 30 years to pay off the debt? “We see neither effect in Beijing,” said Michael Thompson, CEO of Cushman & Wakefield Asia Pacific, noting that although the $36 billion price tag of the Beijing Games are more expensive compared to previous games, much of the money is going to infrastructure needed for Beijing’s…

Even in an uncertain economic climate and a housing crisis, the Phoenix residential market is making new retail construction possible, noted Don Sheckell, managing principal for De Rito Partners Inc. Analysts predict 25,000 to 30,000 new housing starts in the market during 2008, about half the amount in 2004. But that is still a “huge amount of growth,” said David Glimcher, president & CEO of Glimcher Ventures Southwest L.L.C., noting that Phoenix is still seeing greeting 100,000 new residents a year.    In fact, Maricopa County, which encompasses the Phoenix area, is the fastest growing county in the United States, Sheckell…

Several Greater Phoenix mixed-use projects targeting upscale-retail shoppers have come online recently or are under construction. Some of the higher-profile developments:ProjectSizeDeveloperLocationDeliverySanTan Village1.2 MSFWestcorGilbertOctober 2007Promenade Casa Grande1 MSFWestcor, WDP Partners & The Pederson GroupPinal CountyPhase 1, November 2007; Buildout: spring 2008CityScape2.5 MSFWachovia Corp. & Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group L.L.C.DowntownPhase 1: late 2009; Phase 3: 2011Downtown Ocotillo/100,000 SFLawrence & Geyser Development Corp., Statesman Group of Cos. & Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc.ChandlerPhase 1: summer 2008Scottsdale Quarter1.2 MSFThe Wolff Co. & Vanguard City HomeScottsdalePhase 1: fall 2008For more on the Phoenix retail market, see the March 16 print edition of CPN.