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The combination of the recessionary economy and the constrained credit markets is continuing to suppress office transaction flow, but a big office deal did manage to make it across the finish line in the closing days of this year. On Dec. 12, UrbanAmerica acquired a 3.1 million-square-foot portfolio of 13 office buildings and one distribution center for $485 million from Rubicon Capital America L.L.C. of Australia.UrbanAmerica’s plan is to invest in assets occupied by high-credit tenants in key urban markets, and this purchase seems to fit squarely within those boundaries. The portfolio is 98.2 percent leased overall and is 93…

The national industrial market is still feeling the effects of continued sluggishness in import growth, the U.S. recession and worldwide economic slowdown. While gross domestic product is contracting, sluggish consumer activity continues to exert downward pressure on the demand for distribution space. The tightening of the credit markets is making financing of construction projects much more difficult; as a result, we expect new supply levels to be considerably lower in the coming quarters. Lower levels of supply will prevent excessive increases in availability rates, with the exception of certain markets, such as Riverside. In addition, while we continue to expect…

Odds are better than ever that some time in 2009, a tenant will take the last 200,000 square feet available at Midlink Industrial Park in Comstock Township, Mich. If and when that happens, the lease signing will cap a remarkable comeback for the former site of a General Motors Corp. stamping plant. Since closing in 1999, the 340-acre site has undergone a transformation into a 1.6 million-square-foot industrial park. “If nothing had been done, it would still be vacant, the building covered in rust, and it would be one of the great eyesores of the state of Michigan,” said Ron…

San Francisco claimed the top spot of Marcus & Millichap Research Services’ National Apartment Index for the second consecutive year. While the metropolitan area’s large concentration of professional and financial firms is expected to result in job cuts, it ranked close to the top in almost all of the other measurements used in the index.The index, a snapshot analysis that ranks 43 apartment markets based on their cumulative weighted-average scores for a series of 12-month forward-looking supply-and-demand indicators, including forecast employment change, vacancy, construction, housing affordability and rents. Taking into account both the predicted level and degree of change over…

Bruce Robinson, president & CEO of Balfour Beatty Communities L.L.C.—a developer and operator of military privatization housing projects for the Army, Navy and Air Force—talked recently about military-housing trends and the sector’s 2009 outlook.CPN: Have any amenities become must-haves in military housing?Robinson: Community centers are a big plus, a place where Cub Scout meetings and other community events are held. These centers are very well received. Also, in family housing, a lot of storage space is necessary because military families move around a lot, and they tend to accumulate a lot of stuff.CPN: Will there be a great deal of…

Looking for ways to quickly cut debt and strengthen its balance sheet, industrial REIT giant ProLogis said it was selling its China operations and a 20 percent interest in its Japan property funds to GIC Real Estate for $1.3 billion. The Denver-based provider and developer of distribution facilities said the net proceeds will be used to reduce debt. The company expects to record a net loss on the transaction of approximately 4 to 6 percent book value of the assets sold. The development pipeline will be cut by $1 billion, including $255 million in costs to complete development of the…

KBS REIT II has acquired a 142,000-square-foot office building in San Jose, Calif., for  $35.7 million. The property, located at 350 East Plumeria Dr., is fully-leased to Netgear Inc., a designer and developer of networking software, which houses its headquarters in the building. KBS Realty Adivsors vice president Peter Mette represented KBS REIT in the deal. Eastdil Secured, the real estate investment firm and subsidiary of Wells Fargo, represented the seller, Equity Office Properties. “With the 10-year lease to a good company, we’re in a position to enjoy above average returns for the balance of our hold–historically well above average,”…

The federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. has revealed the investment firms that will act as its strategic partners in managing $2.5 billion in assets and supporting PBGC’s in-house investment staff. The firms are BlackRock, The Goldman Sachs Group and J.P. Morgan Chase, all headquartered in New York City. The PBGC guarantees payment of basic pension benefits to 44 million workers and retirees in more than 29,000 defined-benefit private-sector pension plans. “Our first criterion for prospective partners was an excellent track record in allocating to private equity and real estate,” PBGC director Charles Millard said in a prepared statement. “These firms are…

Despite a crummy economy, Wynn Resorts Ltd. opens its $2.3 billion, 2,000-room Encore tower of bronze glass adjacent to sister property 3-year-old Wynn Las Vegas luxury casino hotel, Reuters reported. Meanwhile, shares of Wynn Resorts have fallen about 66 percent since February as the casino industry has grappled with tight credit markets and a downturn in gambling demand, according to the report.U.S. stocks were poised for a lower open on Monday as investors shrugged off the government’s announcement on Friday of an auto bailout and prepared for the latest housing data, according to CNNMoney.com. Despite the President’s announcement to give…

“Right now, we believe there is insufficient systemic capacity to refinance expiring, performing commercial real-estate loans,” reads a letter from a dozen commercial real estate trade groups to Treasury Sec. Henry Paulson, according to the Wall Street Journal this morning. In other words, the commercial side of the business, long perceived as relatively healthy compared with the residential side, is warning of dire straits ahead unless refinancing money is available in the near future. Money from where? The new $200 billion bailout recently cooked up by Paulson (pictured) and his people to infuse liquidity in the student, car and credit-card…