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Commercial mortgage delinquencies are up, but still historically low, according to the latest numbers from the Mortgage Bankers Association. The 30-plus day delinquency rate on loans held in commercial mortgage-backed securities rose 10 basis points, to 0.63 percent, in 3Q08, compared with the previous quarter, notes the organization’s third-quarter Commercial/Multifamily National Delinquency Report. Over the past 10 years, year-end CMBS delinquency rates have averaged 0.97 percent. The 60-plus day delinquency rate on loans held in life insurance company portfolios increased to 0.06 percent, or three basis points, and the 60-plus day delinquency rate on multi-family loans held or insured by…

ProLogis has leased 300,000 square feet of distribution space in Memphis, Tenn., to Daimler Trucks North America, the company announced.  Daimler Trucks will use the space at Delp Distribution Center for distribution of its auto parts and components. “ProLogis is proud to extend its business relationship with DTNA,” Alex Vulic, vice president & market officer at ProLogis, said in a release. “The company now occupies approximately 809,000 square feet with ProLogis in various locations across North America and Europe.”Delp Distribution Center is located near the intersection of Lamar Avenue and Shelby Drive, less than a mile from the Memphis International…

Investors see light at the end of the tunnel as infrastructure-related shares surged Monday, leading a broad market advance that lifted key indexes to their best levels in a month after President-elect Barack Obama’s pledge to spend heavily on the nation’s infrastructure, the Los Angeles Times reported. The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 298.76 points and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 33.63 points. The Associated Press reported that world markets were also slightly higher today.  In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was 44.78 points, while Germany’s DAX was up 22.03 points and The CAC-40…

Although the holiday shopping season started strong—2008 Black Friday sales increased 3 percent from 2007 figures, according to preliminary results released by ShopperTrak RCT Corp.—such sales activity is not expected to continue throughout December. The mania on the Friday following Thanksgiving is created by the promotion of extreme sales on a few select items that inspire the shopping pilgrimage, but this year’s jump-start to the holiday season will not be enough, and retailers face one of the worst seasons on record. A November same-store-sales drop of 2.7 percent, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers, is playing this out…

As in many commercial property sectors, the green movement enjoyed a watershed year among retailers in 2007, noted Marc Heisterkamp, director of commercial real estate for the U.S. Green Building Council. But last year is now ancient history.As many retailers and owners fight to survive, will retail sustainability just stall, or will it take a step backward?It is a question Heisterkamp must ponder these days as the U.S. Green Building Council puts the finishing touches on its new rating system for retail properties. Scheduled to formally take effect next month, the ratings offer specific guidelines for categories within the diverse…

New York City remains the world’s priciest retail destination as rental rates hit $2,200 per square foot per year, according to CB Richard Ellis Inc.’s latest “Global Retail Rents Survey.” Hong Kong bumped its ranking from third in the first quarter to second, but its $1,236 rental rate still falls significantly behind New York’s. Moscow fell from second to third with $1,047. London, up from sixth to fourth with $824, and Tokyo, down from fourth to fifth with $829, round out the top five.Other expensive North American cities are Los Angeles (No. 10), Chicago (No. 12), San Francisco (No. 19),…

Deteriorating economic fundamentals and liquidity restrictions have caused investor sentiment to plummet. There does not seem to be a single hotel market that is sheltered from today’s dour economic realities. Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels recently conducted its biannual Hotel Investor Sentiment Survey, which highlights decreased trading performance expectations and cautious investment intentions across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Asia-Pacific area.The survey reaffirms that the alignment of operating and transaction cycles witnessed over the past few years, as well as the globalization of capital flows, has magnified the impact of the current crisis. The importance of geographic…

Some hotel investors might see deteriorating hotel occupancy and rates as a reason to pull back, but one recently launched hotel investment group, Fairwood Capital L.L.C., is capitalized with $150 million in equity to buy hotels.The principals are hospitality and real estate veterans: Robert Solmson is the former chairman & CEO of RFS Hotel Investors Inc., a publicly traded hotel REIT. Ed Ansbro was senior vice president of Equity Inns Inc., another publicly traded REIT that was sold to Whitehall Street Global Real Estate L.P. in 2007. And Richard Reiss is chairman of Georgica Advisors L.L.C. and other private investment…

The price structure of non-traded hotel REITs is putting investors that are in it for the long haul at a disadvantage, according to a report from the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration’s Center for Hospitality Research titled “Non-traded REITs: Considerations for Hotel Investors.” The report argues that while REITs can be appealing buy-and-hold investments, thanks largely to their hefty dividend payouts, those payments are lower for long-term investors.“In effect, the early investors subsidize the commissions paid to the dealers who sell to late-term investors,” states the report, written by John Corgel, Robert C. Baker professor of Real Estate for…

A stark realization was thrust upon me this week. As Citi Property Investors Research looked at third-quarter property market fundamentals the world over, one fact could not be ignored. While we had been focusing on distress in developed markets in Western Europe and North America, worrying endlessly about faltering mortgage performance and financial layoffs, I had not been appreciating the entire picture. What I had been taking too lightly was the possibility of a dramatic worsening of office fundamentals in the emerging markets.Now, I won’t go so far as to say that I had been ignorant of slowing absorption and the…