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Following a brief Thanksgiving respite, a number of reports ranging from November’s jobless claims, retailer reports on November same-store sales and the Fed’s monthly beige book will all be released this week providing data for investors on the continuing crisis state of the economy. A more complete sales picture of how the Thanksgiving weekend fared won’t be known until Thursday, when the nation’s retailers report November same-store sales, considered a key indicator of retailer’s health, the Associated Press reported. The Labor Department will release its report on non-farm payrolls on Friday, the government will report weekly jobless claims on Thursday…

Hearing from our 2008 Executive of the Year Award winners has given me new reason to think about what it takes to surmount difficult markets. The executives’ reflections on achieving in markets good and bad reveal no traits that are unusual in and of themselves. Nor are their efforts foolproof, as the resignation of our top award winner days before the award ceremony indicates. But the executives’ application of a series of simple, even old-fashioned traits has for the most part to date won survival, success and certainly the admiration of their peers.Those traits include a focus on both internal…

Who decides when it’s a recession? The Business Cycle Dating Committee of the nonprofit research organization known as the National Bureau of Economic Research, that’s who, at least as far most economists and parts of the U.S. government are concerned. Today the organization issued the following statement: “The committee determined that a peak in economic activity occurred in the U.S. economy in December 2007. The peak marks the end of the expansion that began in November 2001 and the beginning of a recession. The expansion lasted 73 months; the previous expansion of the 1990s lasted 120 months.” So the economy’s…

General Growth Properties Inc. has reached an agreement with a six-lender consortium to extend the maturity date for $900 million in mortgage loans on the company’s Fashion Show and Palazzo malls on the Las Vegas strip. In an attempt to raise cash, the retail REIT has put both malls on the block, along with a third Las Vegas property, Grand Canal Shoppes. Six lenders holding pieces of the mortgage loans agreed to the two-week extension after General Growth failed to make a scheduled payment last Friday, Nov. 28. Negotiations for the extension lasted all weekend when Citigroup Inc. refused at…

Denver-based multi-family REIT UDR Inc. has closed a $225 million secured loan that includes an option to borrow an additional $175 million. The 10-year credit facility was originated by PNC ARCS L.L.C., for repurchase by Fannie Mae. The $225 million consists of $70 million that carries a fixed rate of 5.85 percent and $155 million that carries a variable rate, currently set under two- and three-year LIBOR swaps at 4.35 percent. UDR has the option to fix all or a portion of the variable note at any time during the next five years. The current all-in blended rate of the…

On the heels of the Fed’s announcement of its multi-billion dollar plans to help the economy, investors can expect a wave of economic reports today including readings on durable orders, personal income and spending, as well as a weekly report on jobless claims. The Chicago purchasing managers’ report, a survey of regional manufacturing, will also be released after the market opens, as is a revised reading on consumer sentiment and a report on October new home sales. The administration and the Federal Reserve rolled out two new programs Tuesday that would provide up to $800 billion in an effort to…

Consumer spending numbers, as expected, are going nowhere but down. The U.S. Department of Commerce is reporting that personal consumer spending among Americans dropped 1 percent in October compared with the month before, which is the largest decline since September 2001. On the other hand, saving is up. Personal saving as a percentage of income rose to 2.4 percent during the same month, up from 1 percent in September. Orders for durable goods dropped even more than consumer spending, by an unexpectedly large 6.2 percent, which is the third monthly decrease in a row. Not counting cars, airplanes and other…

Representing proposed casinos in various parts of the Chicago region, executives from the three companies bidding for Illinois’ last available casino license presented their plans to the Illinois Gaming Board yesterday. The license has been in limbo since a 2004 casino proposal for Rosement, near O’Hare International Airport, became fatally tangled in legal and administrative disputes. All bids are for the license itself and do not reflect the costs of actually building and opening a casino. * Rosemont: Trilliant Gaming Illinois L.L.C. has offered a $435 million upfront license fee, in conjunction with an arrangement under which the Village of…

Intercontinental Real Estate Corp. purchased a technology & industrial portfolio in Tucson, Ariz., the company announced. The acquisition was made on behalf of Intercontinental’s U.S. Real Estate Investment Fund L.L.C.The six-building, multi-tenant industrial portfolio (pictured) totaling 606,000 rentable square feet also includes surface parking spaces and is comprised of two adjacent industrialparks: Medina Business Park I & II and Tucson Commerce Center I – IV. Additionally, the 40-acre site also includes four acres of land for future development opportunities.The 14-acre Medina Business Park offers two industrial/flex buildings totaling 199,7090 rentable square feet.  The 406,300-square-foot Tucson Commerce Center consists of four…

While figures released by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development indicated that the U.S. is plumb in the middle of a recession now, the good news appears that the country may see some improvement by the third quarter of next year, according to a Reuters report. U.S. household wealth has taken an estimated $7 trillion hit from the tumbling housing and stock markets, and consumers are already curbing spending to try to recoup some of those losses, which hurts growth because consumer spending accounts for two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, the report stated.Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reported…