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In what is surely a sign of our troubled economic times, Western National Property Management has announced a new benefit for renters: its Layoff Protection Program. Under the plan, which began on March 11, renters of Western National units can cancel their rental contracts without penalty if they lose their jobs.Thomas Shelton, president of the firm, likened the plan to Hyundai Motor America’s program, announced in January, which permits new-car buyers to return vehicles within a year of the purchase date if the buyers lose their jobs.Western National, which manages more than 22,000 units across more than 140 communities in…

General Growth Properties Inc. faces another decisive moment today in its long struggle to avoid bankruptcy. The nation’s second-largest retail REIT is awaiting a response to the request it extended to creditors last week for forbearance on $2.25 billion in debt that matures this year for its Rouse Company L.P. affiliate. Of that total, a combined $595 million is due today and on April 30. “We believe that the deadline posed by these particular maturities suggests that some clarity to the GGP situation will be forthcoming,” said RBC Capital Markets lead REIT analyst Rich Moore in a research note published…

Retail is taking whatever it can these days in terms of good news. On Thursday the U.S. Department of Commerce reported that sales by American retailers decreased only 0.1 percent in February compared with January; analysts were expecting worse. If car sales are excluded, Americans actually bought 0.7 percent more than they did the previous month.But it isn’t time to break out the party hats, since consumers may well be stocking up on peanut butter and macaroni & cheese in the event of a job loss. The U.S. Department of Labor reported that new jobless claims rose 654,000 in the…

The deep recession that the United States is mired in has cut travel significantly, both on the leisure and business side, thus harming hotel performance. Many hotel company stocks have thus plummeted in value. Interstate Hotels & Resorts, a hotel investment and management firm, announced that it received notice from the New York Stock Exchange that its common stock would be suspended from trading prior to opening of trading on Thursday.The New York Stock Exchange is taking the action because Interstate did not meet the continued listing standard, requiring maintenance of a minimum $15 million market capitalization over a consecutive…

While most sectors of the commercial real estate industry suffer under the pressure of the distressed economy, the student housing market continues to keep its head above water and stay, to a certain extent, in the good graces of the lending community. Among the companies beefing up their portfolios in this relatively stable niche market is Prime Property Investors Ltd., which just closed the acquisition of a 20-building student housing complex just a stone’s throw from the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind.  According to Prime, the transaction marked the largest close-to-campus student housing property purchase ever completed…

Since the economic downturn has considerably restricted real estate investment activity across all sectors, investors are looking for ways to expand on underperforming assets.  Cypress Equities and SRS Real Estate Partners, formerly Staubach Retail, with plans to produce new resolutions for each stage of the development process, have joined together to create a new service portfolio called Managed Services, which is designed to enhance underperforming assets and to assist developers, lenders, property owners and investors to strategically position their real estate portfolios through planning, analysis and execution.“By bringing together Cypress Equities and SRS Real Estate Partners, Managed Services will be…

Q:  How can technology in my building save me money?A: Technology can save money in quite a few ways. First, if you’re using traditional phone service (Private Branch Exchange, T1s, Primary Rate Interface), then switching to Voice over Internet Protocol, or VOIP, with good providers can significantly lower costs. In addition, VOIP makes it easy to move people: Unplug phone, move to new desk/office/location, plug phone in.  Voila–instant change of location!In addition, if you haven’t already switched to electronic billing or e-statements, now is the time. Most billing and accounting systems support e-billing or e-statements. E-billing is fast, cuts costs…

If gathered efficiently and used effectively, business intelligence translates into faster decision-making and organizational success.  Underscoring this fact, a 2008 Aberdeen Group survey found that best-in-class companies—the top 20 percent of aggregate performance scorers—using business intelligence applications decreased the time between delivery of information and resulting action by an 8 percent mean average over 12 months.  These companies, which represent several business sectors, also gained a 12 percent mean average improvement in employee productivity over the same period.  A 2007 Aberdeen survey found that 25 percent of best-in-class retail companies using business intelligence increased their gross margin by 10 percent…

In the current environment of credit inaccessibility and economic turbulence, the multi-family market has been faring better than other commercial real estate sectors, but it has not gone unscathed. Thus, multi-family property owners and managers are focused more than ever on maximizing net operating income and minimizing risk by weeding out applicants with undesirable tenancy profiles. That has given rise to online resident screening services provider RentGrow’s decision to amplify vetting options by joining forces with multi-family credit bureau RentBureau.   “The focus of the apartment industry today is running properties tightly to squeeze as much as possible out of…

For the first time in history, four generations are working side by side in the workplace — Traditional Workers, Baby Boomers, Generation Xers and Millennials — each with distinct needs, habits and work styles that can impact key business practices and strategies. While often perceived as a challenge, generational differences offer corporate real estate executives one of their greatest opportunities to add value to the enterprise.Effective workplace strategy starts with four universal elements: empowering employees through workplace, work habits and technology; understanding the attitudes and habits of different generations; establishing a concrete implementation process; and developing a vision for the…