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Although the steady stream of retail bankruptcies spells trouble for the economy and retail real estate, some national chains are making moves that may help soften the blows.  A striking example emerged late last week. On Friday, Kohl’s Corp. and Forever 21 Inc. disclosed that their joint-venture $6.25 million bid had won an auction for 46 Mervyns leases in California and the Southwest. Macerich, the shopping center REIT, said in a related announcement on Friday that it owns 22 of the leases acquired by the Kohl’s and Forever 21 joint venture. The two retailers intend to use those sites as…

A two-day meeting of the Federal Reserve begins today with expectations that it will cut the fed funds rate by a half-percentage point to 0.5 percent, according to CNNMoney.com. The U.S. automakers bailout still tops the news as top government officials said over the weekend that they might use taxpayer dollars set aside to bail out banks and Wall Street firms to keep troubled U.S. automakers out of bankruptcy, according to the CNNMoney report. GMAC, which is 49 percent owned by General Motors and 51 percent owned by Cerberus Capital Management, extended an offer to holders of $38 billion of…

MGM Mirage has agreed, through its wholly owned subsidiary The Mirage Casino-Hotel, to sell the Treasure Island Hotel & Casino on the Las Vegas strip to Wichita-based Ruffin Acquisition L.L.C. for $775 million. The reclusive billionaire Phil Ruffin owns Ruffin Acquisition. According to Alan Feldman, a spokesperson for MGM Mirage, a casino owner typically evaluates four criteria when considering an offer. First, is it a fair value offer? While declining to disclose a dollar figure, Feldman told CPN that the company expects to report a substantial gain on the sale. A second criterion is the purchaser’s ability to get licensed….

According to the Federal Reserve, U.S. industrial production decreased 0.6 percent in November compared with October, with a number of sectors’ output declining, but especially cars. Manufacturing of motor vehicles and parts fell 2.8 percent in November compared with October, when it was down 3.6 percent from. Year-to-date, auto production is down 21.4 percent. The markets apparently didn’t care much for those numbers, with the Dow dropping 0.67 percent, and the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq down 1.23 percent and 2.07 percent, respectively. Fannie Mae has decided to sign new leases with renters occupying houses that the company now owns…

Place/BV Student Housing Fund L.L.C., a joint venture of Place Properties and Blue Vista Capital Management, has put a total $64 million investment in two more student housing developments, one in Arkansas and one in Nevada. Both communities will open next summer. Hill Place, just across Sixth Street from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville campus, is in a desirable location, closer to campus than the parking lots for football and basketball games. The garden-style development will house 840 students in 288 one-, two- and four-bedroom furnished apartments, each of which includes a full kitchen and washer and dryer. In…

In its largest-ever single transaction, UrbanAmerica L.P. has acquired a 3.1 million-square-foot portfolio of 13 office buildings and one strategic distribution center for $485 million. Although the seller was not officially disclosed, press reports from last July, when the deal was initially announced, indicate that the seller was Rubicon Capital America L.L.C., of Syndey. The portfolio is 98.2 percent leased overall and is 93 percent leased to the federal General Services Administration. The properties’ locations are primarily in larger urban markets: Washington, D.C.; Philadelphia; Boston; Sacramento; San Diego; Houston; Denver; Kansas City, Kan.; Providence, R.I.; Burlington, N.J.; Norfolk, Va.; Suffolk,…

The Senate’s refusal to bail out General Motors and Chrysler led to consequences felt worldwide as stocks tumbled around the world and the dollar slumped threatening to deepen the global recession, Bloomberg reported. Treasuries rallied and yields fell to record lows. The MSCI World Index lost 1.3 percent to 880.41 as of 9:43 a.m. in London after senators voted down the bill to provide $14 billion of emergency funds for General Motors Corp. and Chrysler L.L.C., according to Bloomberg. GM plunged 28 percent in Germany, while Honda Motor Co. and Daimler AG sank more than 6 percent. The dollar fell…

Struggling mall operator General Growth Properties Inc. had refinanced nearly $900 million in mortgage loans, but was still unsure if it could get an extension from lenders for another $900 million in debt on two Las Vegas properties due the same day.General Growth completed approximately $896 million of mortgage loans with maturity rates ranging from five to seven years. The company said proceeds were used to retire a $58 million bond issued by The Rouse Co. L.P., maturing Thursday, Dec. 11. Proceeds were also used to refinance about $814 million of mortgage debt scheduled to mature in 2009. General Growth…

Settling a dispute over construction conditions at Manhattan’s World Trade Center, an arbitration panel has ruled that the public agency that owns the site has not finished preparatory work necessary for construction of two office towers. The decision will require the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to pay developer Silverstein Properties Inc. millions of dollars in additional penalties because progress on the towers is being hampered. But both the agency and the developer also won high marks from the panel for their willingness to work together. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey declared on…

A four-building, 790,000-square-foot warehouse/distribution portfolio in Visalia, Calif., has been acquired by A&B Properties, the real estate subsidiary of Alexander & Baldwin Inc.The properties are all in Midstate 99 Distribution Center, a 480-acre masterplanned logistics park southeast of Fresno in the California Hwy. 99 corridor. The park was developed by The Allen Group, and the four buildings were all built between 2001 and 2008. The properties are 94 percent leased to a mix of retail and wholesale tenants. The buildings are of concrete tilt-up construction, with ESFR (Early Suppression Fast Response) fire sprinklers, 30-foot clear heights and deep truck courts….