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With investors in search of healthy possibilities amid the market’s many risks, the premium on access to fast, accurate information has only increased. REIT sponsor Behringer Harvard’s affiliation with financial information processing and software firm DST Systems Inc. is helping it provide just that for potential investors.In February 2008, Behringer Harvard became the first direct participation sponsor to have its funds listed on TA2000, an online data transfer and record-keeping system, as well as DST Vision, the firm’s account management platform. Behringer Harvard’s goal at the time was to offer the financial advisors and clients invested in Behringer Harvard-sponsored REITs…

The recession continues to advance, but some hotel developers are still seeing opportunities for growth outside the United States. Just a day after announcing that InterContinental Hotels Group partnered with Crocus Group to build the world’s biggest Holiday Inn in Moscow, the firm announced that it has inked a deal with Tiger Developments to build a 17-story 192-room InterContinental Hotel in Edinburgh, Scotland, due to open in 2013. The hotel will bring InterContinental to Scotland for the first time and will form part of Tiger Developments’ proposal to regenerate the Haymarket area, creating offices, restaurants and shops.  The Moscow project garners…

There is a multi-billion-dollar list of casino projects, mired by a veritably frozen credit market and the embattled economy, that have been halted or scrapped altogether, but the current state of the gaming market is not deterring the Ohio Jobs and Growth Committee. The group just submitted to the Ohio Attorney General a casino gaming ballot proposal that, should it make it to the November ballot and pass, will amend Ohio’s constitution to allow the development of four new casinos–the state’s first–with a total minimum private investment of $1 billion. If voters give the green light this fall, the door will…

The U.S. Department of Labor released state-by-state unemployment numbers on Wednesday, and fully 49 of the 50 states experienced higher unemployment in January compared with December. The sole exception was Louisiana, which fell from 5.5 percent to 5.1 percent. Continuing revitalization of the state, which began in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, gets the credit for those positive numbers.Michigan, hub of the auto industry, still has the highest unemployment rate: 11.6 percent. South Carolina, Rhode Island and California are next, all with rates above 10 percent (the national average is currently 8.1 percent). Wyoming, whose economy is driven by mineral…

In today’s market, it is critical to protect yourself from the legal risks involved in conducting real estate transactions. And when it comes to due diligence, technology can help. Poor or insufficient due diligence can lead to litigation, and the seller can be considered to blame. Among the questions that can come up: Was the asset fully exposed? Did the seller provide the entire document repository necessary to close on the deal? In the case of an incorrect estimation of value, who is to blame for the miscommunication? If a deal falls apart, who is responsible? Technology can address such…

Sustainability and the environment is something every individual and many businesses have decided should be a priority for the 21st century. With much of the print media’s circulation substantially reduced, due in part to the availability of information via the Internet, through e-books or in other electronic format, we have thankfully started reducing our dependence on paper. But nothing in life comes without a price. With so much of our information now transmitted electronically, we are relying heavily on data centers and their associated infrastructure. According to statistics from the U.S. Department of Energy, data centers are a huge growth…

In spite of stumbling economies around the world, IHG is continuing its expansion across Russia and has signed a deal with Crocus Group to build the world’s biggest Holiday Inn in Moscow, with an investment of more than $100 million from Crocus. There are already seven IHG branded hotels open in Russia and a further 13 in the pipeline, making IHG the largest international hotel operator in the country.Located in Crocus City in the Krasnogorsk area of Moscow, the eighth Holiday Inn will offer meeting facilities occupying 26,900 square feet, three restaurants and a 12,900-square-foot health club. Construction is scheduled…

In a real estate investment market that has been quieted by the credit crunch and staggering economy, a spate of major deals over the past week may be an early sign that activity could be picking up in the near future. But an uptick in sales does not necessarily mean the industry is returning to health; many of the sales are being made by owners desperate for cash to repay debt and shore up balance sheets, as well as creditors that have seized property back from borrowers that have defaulted.The latest such deal took place in the United Kingdom, where…

Recession, depression, panic–or “fallen off a cliff”? Warren Buffet, speaking with CNBC’s Squawk Box on Monday, likened the U.S. economy to Wile E. Coyote, or at least to his propensity for falling from steep precipices. “Not only has the economy slowed down a lot, but people have really changed their habits like I haven’t seen,” he said. Things will get worse before they get better, the highly visible billionaire added, but eventually they will get better (it could take as long as five years, though). “Everything will be all right,” he said. “We do have the greatest economic machine that…

Sunday was the last day of business for former electronics giant Circuit City, which could well become a lesson for business school students of the future in how to fail as a big, even category-dominating, retailer. The recession, of course, was a large nail in its coffin, but other nails were supplied by the company itself: bad real estate decisions, bad merchandising decisions, and the infamous decision only two years ago to toss its best salespeople and replace them with cheaper hires of questionable quality. The closing day represented an accelerated liquidation pace for Circuit City, so much so that…