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Bad news keeps coming almost as sure as Bill Murray was going to relive Feb. 2 in the movie Groundhog Day. Today, the nation’s largest public pension fund, California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) said the market value of the fund’s real estate is $6.1 billion as of June, down 35 percent from its original cost of $9.3 billion, according to CalPERS. Fund administrators restructured certain outstanding debt arrangements, and reduced leverage where appropriate while planning to keep the majority of its assets and “be patient.” However, that is not a philosophy that too many others are sharing right now….

Shaking off more bad news on the employment front, markets surged today with a late rally. Perhaps driven by bargain seekers, the Dow Jones index spiked up 552 points, or 6.67 percent today. The S&P 500 gained 6.92 percent, while the Nasdaq was up 6.5 percent.The economic implosion from has driven new U.S. unemployment insurance claims to their highest level since September 2001, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. In the week ended Nov. 8, jobless claims were up 32,000 to 516,000. The total number of workers currently accepting unemployment benefits is now the most since 1983. More than…

Ladder Finance Capital L.L.C. has announced that it is up and ready to do business. Based in New York City, the new firm will specialize in commercial real estate finance–certainly a market in the midst of some upheaval. The company has approximately $1 billion in equity and debt capital to put to use. The leading investors in Ladder Finance are a pair of private equity firms, TowerBrook Capital Partners L.P. and GI Partners. TowerBrook Capital is based in New York and London. GI Partners is based in Menlo Park, Calif. and London. Principals of the New York City-based Meridian Capital…

The Dallas office of Holliday Fenoglio Fowler L.P. closed the sale of Southpark 3 & 4, two industrial properties totaling 176,000 square feet in Austin, Texas.HFF director Jud Clements and associate director Robby Rieke marketed the properties on behalf of the seller, an affiliate of the General Electric Pension Trust, advised by GE Asset Management. AEW Capital Management L.P. purchased Southpark 3 & 4 for an undisclosed amount.  AEW acquired the property on behalf of AEW Value Investors II, L.P., a value-added real estate fund.Southpark 3 & 4 are located at 4209 and 4129 South Industrial Drive near the intersection…

Denver-based ProLogis has closed the deal for an $80 million financial arrangement on behalf of the firm’s ProLogis North America Industrial Fund. Phil Joseph, senior vice president, assistant treasurer for ProLogis, told CPN, “Today’s transaction is an example of ProLogis’ ability to secure financing in this tight credit environment.” The financing, arranged through a North American life insurance company, is a five-year loan and will be used to pay down debt owed on a warehouse line of credit. The loan comes with a coupon of 5.84 percent, representing a loan-to-value of about 53 percent. Eight separate properties owned by the…

Fairmont Hotels & Resorts will manage Fairmont Grand Hotel in Kyiv, Ukraine, the company’s first in Eastern Europe, it reported on Tuesday. Scheduled to open in late 2010, Fairmont Grand Hotel Kyiv will feature 257 rooms, including 35 suites. Amenities will include a private reception desk, guest lounge, a cigar bar featuring entertainment. The hotel also offers meeting and function space, a Willow Stream Spa and a full beauty salon.The hotel will be located on the Dnipro River within the historic Podil district of Kyiv.Andrey Manzheley, managing director of Yaroslaviv Val, the property owner said in a release, “The Fairmont…

A little more than two weeks after CPN reported the ongoing woes of General Growth Properties Inc., the Washington Post reported this morning that the second-largest U.S. shopping mall owner had its worst trading day ever Tuesday after saying it may seek creditor protection if plans to refinance $958 million in debt do not succeed. General Growth dropped 64 percent to close at 49 cents–the firm’s biggest decline since its April 1993 IPO. The Post reported that the company may not be able to refinance or reschedule loans due Dec. 1, because of the crisis in the credit markets, according…

There is a silver lining for corporate real estate departments in the current economic crisis, according to participants in the second CoreNet Global-CPN Corporate Real Estate Roundtable, which took place yesterday during the CoreNet Global Fall Summit. “I think real estate’s coming into its own,” observed Ed Noha, managing director for Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. He noted that corporate C-suites are looking to their real estate departments for change.Some of those changes are new, while others are not. Workplace alternatives remain an important way to attract talent, especially among the younger generations of workers, widespread layoffs notwithstanding, noted Bruce Ficke,…

Jeffrey Schwartz, CEO & chairman of Denver-based global industrial real estate giant Prologis, will resign from his position after nearly four years at the helm. Schwartz (pictured) will be replaced as CEO by current Prologis president & COO Walter Rakowich, while board trustee Stephen Feinberg will assume the role of chairman. In addition to the shakeup in the C-suite, Prologis will reduce a planned dividend payment and halt new development for the foreseeable future, as well as cut its workforce. The world’s largest industrial warehouse developer, Prologis has been stung badly by the credit crunch, and shares of the REIT…

The Dow Jones index went down early today and stayed there, ending with a 411-point loss, or down about 4.73 percent. The S&P 500 was down 5.19 percent and the Nasdaq was down 5.17 percent. Part of the decline involved retailer Best Buy Co. (listed on the S&P 500), whose stock lost 8 percent today. “Since mid-September, rapid, seismic changes in consumer behavior have created the most difficult climate we’ve ever seen,” Best Buy CEO Brad Anderson said in a statement today.Standard & Poor’s has removed the troubled General Growth Properties from its index. As reported by CPN, the Chicago based…