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With $132 billion having been set aside in the stimulus package for road, highway and various other transit related projects across the United States, the issue of the country’s outdated infrastructure is at the forefront. The Urban Land Institute and Ernst & Young note in a new report that while the funding will certainly boost the job market, what is of even more vital importance is a long-term infrastructure plan for digging the nation out of an economic slump and shoring up the country to be competitive on an international level in the future. “This is about assessing where we…

Despite real estate market turmoil, sizeable multi-family financing deals continue to roll in, and Camden Property Trust has just joined the ranks of apartment property companies that are benefiting from government-controlled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s ongoing willingness to dole out money. Houston-based Camden just closed a $420 million secured credit facility with Fannie Mae DUS lender Red Mortgage Capital Inc. The financing came in the form of a 10-year facility carrying an annual 5.12 percent fixed interest rate, with interest only payments. Camden put up 11 of its apartment properties as collateral for the loan, which matures…

The United States office market continued its descent in the first three months of 2009, making it the worst quarter since the third quarter of 2001, according to a recently released Q1 office report from Colliers International. National office vacancies continued to grow, rising by 95 basis points, from 13.80 percent at year-end 2008 to 14.75 percent at the close of the first quarter of 2009.The report indicates that there has been an additional growth in space available for sublease. Nationally, total ready for use sublease space rose by 7.5 million square feet during the first quarter, registering 81.6 million…

While hardly immune from the ills that have plagued other property types, the medical office sector is holding its own better than most other commercial real estate categories, according to an analysis by Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services Inc. Medical office buildings are benefiting from the aging of the population and rising health care costs. Even though regional markets for medical office buildings tend to track the regional economy and mirror commercial real estate markets generally, any downward impact tends to be softer. Like developers in other specialties, medical office builders are adjusting to changing economic conditions. A…

Even though an uncertain economic outlook will force many retailers to delay their global expansion strategies for the moment, retail itself is becoming more global every year, an annual survey by CB Richard Ellis Inc. has found. The 280 leading retailers surveyed were present in an average of 16.5 countries by the end of last year. That represents a 12 percent uptick from 2007, when the retailers had stores in an average of 14.7 countries. more countries by the end of 2008 than they were the previous year. A principal engine for growth was European luxury retailers, especially from Italy,…

The drying up of CMBS financing played a significant role in General Growth Properties’ decision to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, according to one retail analyst. Steven Marks, a managing director & senior REIT analyst for Fitch Ratings, pointed out that General Growth, the second largest owner of retail malls in the U.S., shouldered a huge debt burden that stemmed largely from its $12 billion acquisition of The Rouse Cos. in 2004. More than four years later, two elements of that transaction came back to bite General Growth: the Rouse corporate debt assumed by General Growth as part of the…

U.S. office vacancy rates for central business districts reached their highest level in three years during the first quarter, according to services firm Cushman & Wakefield Inc. Overall CBD vacancy jumped from 11.2 percent at the end of the 2008, to 12.5 percent in the first quarter of 2009.That reading is the highest since the first quarter of 2006, when it was 12.6 percent, but is still below its decade high of 15.5 percent in the second and third quarters of 2003, the report stated. The vacancy rise in the first quarter coincided with a 39.3 percent decline in overall…

The drying up of CMBS financing played a significant role in General Growth Properties’ decision to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, according to one retail analyst. Steven Marks, a managing director & senior REIT analyst for Fitch Ratings, pointed out that General Growth, the second largest owner of retail malls in the U.S., shouldered a huge debt burden that stemmed largely from its $12 billion acquisition of The Rouse Cos. in 2004. More than four years later, two elements of that transaction came back to bite General Growth: the Rouse corporate debt assumed by General Growth as part of the…

Since the fourth quarter of 2007, commercial real estate values have dropped about 20 percent altogether, a price decline worse than those in the early 1990s, said CB Richard Ellis analysts as part of a live web presentation Wednesday. Between the fourth quarter of 2007 and the end of 2008, commercial real estate prices dropped 11.5 percent with preliminary indications for the first quarter of this year looking like another 10 to 12 percent decline adding up to a cumulative impact of around 20 percent, said Raymond Torto, global chief economist with CBRE Research and Consulting. “By contrast to what…

It seems apartment complex developer AvalonBay Communities Inc. is having little trouble getting its hands on capital of late. Just a week after closing a $400 million investment fund, the firm secured $741.1 million under a series of mortgage loans. AvalonBay on Wednesday entered into the mortgage loan commitment with Deutsche Bank Berkshire Mortgage Inc., on behalf of Freddie Mac. The $741.1 million in financing represents the total from 14 separate mortgage loans, each secured by one of AvalonBay’s apartment communities. The loans are scheduled to close no later than April 17, with interest fixed at 5.86 percent for 10…