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How the global financial system got to its current state–and prospects for commercial real estate capital markets–took center stage Monday at a capital markets conference in Manhattan sponsored by the law firms Goodwin Procter L.L.P. and SJ Berwin L.L.P. In the keynote addresses that bookended a morning of panel discussions, two leading economists offered an historic perspective, warned against impatience and offered suggested plans of attack. “Bailouts are only part of the story, folks,” said Carmen Reinhart, a professor of economics at the University of Maryland, during her opening keynote address. “The longer it takes to solve problems, the higher…

The fiscal turmoil that continues to beleaguer the U.S. financial markets presents a lackluster near-term outlook: The economy is expected to shrink for the remainder of the year and during the first half of 2009 before experiencing just modest growth in late 2009 and in 2010, said Reis Inc. chief economist Sam Chandan, Ph.D., during the firm’s third quarter 2008 quarterly briefing. The number of job losses has grown markedly worse. The Labor Department last week announced that U.S. jobless claims rose by 32,000 to 516,000 for the week ended Nov. 8, its highest mark since September 2001. The weak…

Commercial real estate woes aren’t limited to the United States. German lender Hypo Real Estate reported Monday a net loss of $4 billion in the third quarter as the financial crises worsened, with a unit in Ireland hit especially hard by write-downs on the values of its assets, the Associated Press reported. The Munich-based bank, which got a $63 billion bailout from the government last month, said it wrote down $3.1 billion in the third quarter and that it foresees “further negative impacts on earnings in the fourth quarter of 2008 and in 2009.” The Munich-based company had already said…

The Dow Jones index started down, bumped up a little, then went down again, and then… the usual undulations, in other words. By the end of the day, however, the Dow was down 233.73 points, or 2.63 percent. The S&P 500 dropped 2.58 percent and the Nasdaq was down 2.29 percent. Citigroup Inc. has unveiled plans to eliminate 50,000 jobs, or about 14 percent of its workforce, in the wake of four quarterly losses in a row totaling some $20 billion. The market was unimpressed: Citi stock fell in the morning, but rose toward noon back near where it started,…

After yesterday’s upward bump, the Dow Jones index slipped into another downward course today losing some 338 points, or 3.82 percent. The S&P 500 slipped more, 4.17 percent, and the Nasdaq even more than that, an even 5.0 percent.It’s official–and the office is the U.S. Department of Commerce, which released the numbers this morning–retail sales dropped in October by a record 2.8 percent. On the other hand, records only began in 1992: surely consumer spending also dropped precipitously in, say, 1991, 1974 and 1930. Excluding cars, sales still dropped 2.2 percent. Auto sales as a single category contracted by 5.5…

Weingarten Realty Investors and Hines Real Estate Investment Trust Inc. have formed a joint venture, in which a subsidiary of Hines REIT will acquire a 70 percent interest in a Weingarten portfolio of 12 supermarket-anchored shopping centers. The aggregate transaction price is approximately $271 million and the transaction will close on multiple dates. The initial closing occurred on Nov. 13 and included eight of the properties for approximately $205 million. The purchase of the remaining four properties will be closed upon finalization of their loan assumptions.The 12 properties consist of 1.5 million square feet and are located across five states….

In a presentation to investors Thursday, new ProLogis CEO Walter Rakowich, the company’s former president & COO, fleshed out some specifics about how the world’s largest developer/owner of distribution facilities will move forward past its current crisis. In addition, a new report on equity REITs documents just how much those entities have been shaken up lately. ProLogis’ stock price had plummeted 78 percent in the past month, and matters came to a head on Wednesday, when it was announced that Jeffrey Schwartz, CEO & chairman for the past four years, would resign. The news was accompanied by announcements that the…

Americans are increasingly shifting their focus away from wealth accumulation, and looking to find fulfillment in other pursuits, said John Zogby, president & CEO of Zogby International. The widely-quoted pollster was the keynote speaker and master of ceremonies of CPN’s Executive Awards luncheon, held Friday in New York. Zogby (pictured), author of a new book, The Way We’ll Be, said the American Dream still lives, but it is not all about accumulating wealth. “It is about finding fulfillment as a person,” he said. Many Americans have had to readjust their income expectations after losing a job and having to settle…

Vacancy should increase in all property types, but investment sales could increase in the second half of 2009, even though many of those properties may be distressed assets. Those were some of the predictions offered at Grubb & Ellis’ 2009 Commercial Real Estate Forecast, held in Manhattan on Wednesday. All property types are seeing rising vacancy rates, and they should continue to increase, said Robert Bach (pictured), senior vice president and senior economist for Grubb & Ellis Inc. Nationwide, office vacancy has increased from 13 percent in the third quarter of 2007 to 14.3 percent in this year’s third quarter….

While the poor economy is a necessary consideration for every strategy today, corporate real estate’s recent big initiatives continue to progress. Thus, not only the economy but sustainability issues and workplace advances permeated CoreNet Global’s Fall Meeting in Orlando this week.The United States is in for a severe downturn, according to Jim Costello, principal & director of investment strategy at Torto Wheaton Research, during the economic outlook mega session moderated by CoreNet Global CEO Prentice Knight. Jobs are now being cut at a faster pace than during the early ‘90s recession, Costello noted, and while commercial property actually remains fairly…