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Armed with a $230 million private equity fund that could allow up to $900 million in investments, Federal Capital Partners said it would continue to seek deals on value-added assets, but would also move into lending. “While FCP’s investment strategy in the past has been focused on acquiring under-managed and under-capitalized assets in need of repositioning and reinvestment, this fund format gives us tremendous flexibility to also work with existing owners and lenders who may need debt or joint venture capital in this challenging climate,” Esko Korhonen, FCP co-founder & managing partner, said in a news release. FCP said the…

The Dallas office of Holliday Fenoglio Fowler L.P. has secured $97.5 million in refinancing for a seven-property industrial portfolio comprising 2.2 million square feet in Florida, New Jersey, Oregon and Texas. The cluster of properties includes: Madison industrial Park Building A in Tampa, Fla.; 34 Englehard in Monroe, N.J.; 888 Doremus in Newark, N.J.; Columbia Corporate Park Buildings 1 & 2 in Portland, Ore.; 2755 Regent Blvd. in Dallas; Stafford Distribution Buildings 1-3 in Stafford, Texas; and Port 225 A, B and C in Pasadena, Texas. The portfolio is 93 percent occupied overall. HFF managing director John Rose worked exclusively…

Cole Real Estate Investments has acquired approximately $300 million in assets during September, it has reported. That represented 54 assets.The assets totalled nearly 1.6 million square feet. they included a Lowe’s in Chester, N.Y., a BJ’s Wholesale Club in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., a Home Depot in San Francisco, and Winter Garden Village in Winter Garden, Fla., just outside of Orlando.  “Despite the current market challenges, we continue to see tremendous opportunities to acquire financeable, high-quality real estate at attractive prices as we build out our portfolio,” Michael Stubben, vice president of portfolio management for Cole, said in a statement.  Cole…

The modest second-quarter growth rates experienced in Washington, D.C., and Northern Virginia evaporated in the third quarter, according to a CB Richard Ellis Inc. report. The entire region saw an essentially flat market with slowing leasing activity.In D.C. the flattening market is stalling new development in emerging areas such as NOMA and Capitol Riverfront, which have seen a slowdown in new construction starts as owners focus on leasing current projects. Northern Virginia is coping with flat demand, as currently there is no economic driver such as the defense contractors in 2003-2006 boom years for leasing. And in suburban Maryland, financial…

Sourcing tier one talent is an issue for all businesses. I was recently asked if recruiters are effective, or if they’re worth the investment.Since my firm has a talent management practice which includes a practice group that provides both contingent and retained search services, to be fair, I must disclose my bias before addressing today’s topic. While I clearly have a strong bias favoring an outsourced recruiting model, the question merits a bit of exploration in order to provide a fair answer.In the text that follows I’ll do my best to manage my bias and provide a transparent and authentic…

Overnight, markets around the world slip-slided away. The British FTSE 100 Index lost 1.2 percent to 4313.80; France’s CAC-40 Index declined 1.6 percent to 3442.7; and Germany’s DAX Index dropped 2.5 percent to 4887. The Dow Jones Stoxx 600, which represents western European stocks (including Iceland, oops) was down 2 percent to 221.77. In Japan, the Nikkei posted an 9.6 percent loss on Friday, the largest drop since 1987. The Euro-meltdown continues apace in any case. It was reported by a Dutch newspaper that Deutsche Bank may buy Fortis Bank Nederland, instead of buying ABN AMRO’s Dutch operations. The nationalization…

After days of unquestionably heated talks, Citigroup Inc. has decided to relinquish its bid to buy Wachovia Corp.’s banking operations. This paves the way for Wells Fargo & Co. to follow through with its proposed $15.1 billion acquisition of the troubled financial institution. Citi announced yesterday that it had ceased negotiations with Wachovia, citing a vast disparity in the planned transaction structures and assessments of potential risks. However, the battle between Citi and Wachovia is not quite over, as Citi also revealed it would continue to seek legal action against Wells Fargo.What a difference a week makes. On September 29,…

Two real estate investment firms, Los Angeles-based LandCap Partners and Kennedy Wilson of Beverly Hills, have contributed $100 million in equity to a joint venture that plans to purchase newly completed or partially completed homes and condominiums in inventories held by builders and financial institutions. Aiming to hold properties no longer than a year, the venture will re-sell the properties, generally at auction through an affiliate of Kennedy Wilson. “A transaction might consist of 20, 30 or some number of units at one project or 10 units at 10 different projects owned by the same seller,” Stuart Cramer, senior managing…

Putting up 20 commercial R&D properties totaling approximately 1.6 million square feet as collateral, Mission West Properties Inc. has secured $115 million in financing from entities associated with Hartford Insurance Co. The Northern California-based REIT locked in a fixed rate of 6.21 percent on the 10-year term loan, which will be amortized over 20 years. Mission West utilized proceeds from the refinancing to repay short-term debt and a loan from Prudential Insurance Co. of America that was scheduled to mature on Oct. 15, 2008. As for repayment of its previous loan obligation, Mission West had originated the 10-year $130 million…

Just don’t call it “nationalization.” The Bush administration is reported to be considering taking equity stakes in some high-profile U.S. banks as its next measure to contain the global credit crisis. The decision, which is still up in the air, would not require new legislation, but would instead derive from powers already granted by the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008. Nationalization in fact is rearing its head overseas. Earlier today, facing what its prime minister called the prospect of “national bankruptcy,” Iceland suspended trading on its stock exchange for two days, and the island nation’s Financial Services Authority took…