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Instead of a lackluster lull after the New Year’s holiday, investors decided to buy equities on Friday, driving the Dow Jones index up 258 points, or nearly 3 percent. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq were up even more, in terms of percentage: 3.16 percent and 3.5 percent respectively. GM, which recently won a short financial reprieve, led the way by gaining more than 14 percent, though that represented only 45 cents a share. Investors seemed to be largely undeterred by the woeful numbers from the Institute for Supply Management. Or it could be that investors are now inured to bad…

Blue Rock Village (pictured), a 560-unit multi-family complex in Vallejo, Calif., has been sold for $54.4 million to a San Francisco-based private ownership group.Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services represented the seller, a publicly traded REIT, as well as the buyer on the deal. Situated at 1900-2000 Ascot Parkway, the 448,256-square-foot property sits near the Blue Rock Springs Golf Course and National Park, and features a mix of one- and two-bedroom units. Community amenities include swimming pools and spa, a fitness center, picnic areas and gated community living.

As a deep recession looms around the world, there is a country where a conservative investment community has resisted speculative office construction, enabling vacancy rates to fall to historically low levels and rents to continue rising through the third quarter of 2008. Where is this magical land? Canada. According to an analysis of the office markets in six major Canadian cities by Toronto-based Colliers International in Canada, the Canadian office market will finish 2008 well positioned to withstand the recession. The Colliers study looked at Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver. “Generally, Canada’s credit markets have tightened and are…

At first glance, it may appear that the country’s largest cities will reap the biggest benefits under President-elect Barack Obama’s planned infrastructure initiatives, partially due to his connection to metropolitan areas like Chicago. But according to urban planner Douglas McCoach (pictured), vice president of planning and urban design for global design firm RTKL Associates Inc., perimeter suburban and exurban areas surrounding large U.S. cities–locations he describes as “edge cities”–may gain the most from new infrastructure funding.McCoach contends that suburban residents, with an eye on reducing lengthy commutes and enhancing sustainability and a sense of community, have expressed interest in transforming…

A new type of emergency housing, introduced this month in Galveston, Texas, can be expanded to other uses, such as hotel and office, said maker Smart Holdings L.L.C.The unit, called Amerihome, is 200 square feet, but can be expanded. Amerihomes can be stacked and connected to one another (pictured), to a height of three stories, according to Smart Holdings. The Amerihome was first developed by Dutch engineers, who wanted to build structures that would be able to withstand below-sea-level flood risk. The first Amerihome units in the U.S. will be installed on Texas’ Galveston Island in the Spring of 2009,…

ProLogis has leased 90,000 square feet of distribution space with two customers in Greenville, S.C.  “We are very pleased to sign lease agreements with two new customers in Greenville,” Reid Dunbar, vice president and market officer for ProLogis said in a release. “Positioned on Interstate 85 between Charlotte and Atlanta, the Greenville market offers our customers good highway access and a strong labor pool. It is also home to a large manufacturing base, contributing to the need for local distribution space.” Total Warehousing Services Inc., a third-party logistics provider, has leased 60,000 square feet with ProLogis at Augusta Distribution Center….

With economic and housing sector reports slated for release today, investors aren’t expecting good news. Several housing market reports as well as the government’s report on the third-quarter gross domestic product figures will be released today along with a consumer confidence report, according to CNNMoney.com. One report focuses on existing home sales in November with the National Association of Realtors expected to report that sales declined to 4.93 million in November from 4.98 million in October, CNNMoney.com reported. The Census Bureau is expected to report that new home sales fell to a seasonally adjusted 420,000 last month, down from from…

As the housing crisis, the credit crunch and high commodity prices leave fewer discretionary dollars for travel, how can hospitality companies continue to survive and even thrive? Smart sales and marketing strategies can be an important part of the answer.Companies willing to consider fundamental changes from the practices of the past are most likely to succeed, according to a Deloitte report, “Weathering the Economic Storm: How Hospitality Companies Can Thrive in Challenging Times.”During a period of cost cutting, an increased focus on sales and marketing can seem counterintuitive. However, Deloitte suggests that effective sales and marketing offers perhaps the best…

Big hotel transactions have been few and far between in 2008, but leave it to Las Vegas to think big. On Dec. 15, MGM MIRAGE, through wholly owned subsidiary The Mirage Casino-Hotel, agreed to sell Treasure Island Hotel & Casino to Ruffin Acquisition L.L.C. for $775 million.The hotel, perhaps best known for its live pirate show in front of the property, was acquired for about seven times Treasure Island’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, said Carlton Geer, executive vice president for CB Richard Ellis Inc.’s global gaming group. The deal has benefits for both sides. The Treasure Island…

With the recession expected to wind down in the second half of 2009, attention will turn to the strength of the recovery, which will play a key role in how quickly demand for office space will reignite. A jobless recovery is the period following a recession when the nation’s gross domestic product is expanding but the labor market is stagnant or shrinking. The term was first used to describe the period following the 1990-1991 recession. In earlier cycles, the labor market began to grow again simultaneously with or shortly after the end of the recession. But in recent cycles, employers…