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Red Mountain Retail and Allied Retail Partners have selected real estate investment management firm Buchanan Street Partners to structure all necessary capital for the $218.4 million development of El Portal Entertainment Center in South Gate, about 15 miles south of Downtown Los Angeles.The nearly 500,000-square-foot regional multimedia-themed regional shopping center is being designed to target the area’s Hispanic retail market, which features over 1 million residents within a five-mile radius of the project.”This is one of the most densely populated and, in terms of retail, underserved areas in Southern California,” Allied Retail co-founder David Goldman told CPN. “El Portal will…

First Industrial Realty Trust has agreed to acquire an $82 million real estate portfolio of eight car auction sites from ADESA Inc., a company that operates 60 car auctions across North America. ADESA will lease back the sites under 20-year leases with 20-year renewal options. ADESA will reinvest the funds freed up in the transaction into its core auction business. In addition to the portfolio acquisition, Chicago-based First Industrial will provide ADESA with about $12.5 million for construction of physical improvements at the Otay Mesa site in California. The portfolio consists of four sites in California and single sites in…

The move by the U.S. government to put Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into conservatorship will stabilize the two giant government-sponsored entities, said Kenneth Bacon (pictured), executive vice president of housing and community development for Fannie Mae. The result of the government’s move means that the two agencies “are very much in business,” said Bacon, this morning’s keynote speaker at the Cityscape USA conference in New York. The market’s reaction to the government’s actions have been positive, Bacon said. He said that Fannie Mae’s sale of $ 7billion in debt since the actions was oversubscribed. Fannie Mae’s apartment portfolio has…

ProLogis has announced that it has signed new lease agreements totaling 386,000 square feet at two distribution parks in the United States with Kuehne + Nagel, a leading global logistics provider and one of ProLogis’ multi-continent customers. The first lease, totaling 208,000 square feet is for space at the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center, a master-planned distribution park located along Interstate 80 approximately nine miles east of Sparks, Nevada. Kuehne + Nagel plans to operate the space on behalf of several clients. The second lease, totaling 178,000 square feet is for space at ProLogis Park Tracy I, a 1.3-million-square-foot distribution park located…

A 150-acre site just outside of downtown Houston in the burgeoning Pearland district has been designated for a new mixed-use development, the WaterLights District. Historic Real Estate Inc. is behind the project, and plans to spend $700 million to bring in to fruition. Located along Clear Creek off Highway 288, WaterLights will be in a prime spot to capitalize on a robust area that has long been sustained by the city’s energy industry and the presence of the Texas Medical Center. It is largest enclave of hospitals and medical schools in the world. And, it is in the midst of…

“I never expected such a day to come,” said Henry Cisneros, executive chairman of CityView and former Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development under President Bill Clinton. He was speaking of Sunday, Sept. 7, when President George W. Bush announced the federal government’s takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Two days later, on Tuesday, Cisneros (pictured) delivered the Opening Keynote Presentation, Home Ownership and the Uncertain Mortgage Market, at the first ever Cityscape USA, Bridging U.S. and Emerging Real Estate Markets conference at New York City’s Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. Cisneros proclaimed his long-term advocacy…

Younan Properties has agreed to the $124 million purchase of 180 North LaSalle, a  770,000-square-foot, Class A Chicago office building located in the city’s Downtown Loop area.The 38-story building was built in 1971, designed by architect Harry Weese Associates, and is located next to another property owned by Younan at 200 North LaSalle. With 1.4 million square feet on the street, Younan Properties is now the largest landlord on LaSalle. 180 North LaSalle received a $21 million renovation in 1999 that upgraded the building’s façade, lobby and common areas, and its operating systems. Currently, the building is 87 percent leased,…

September is the time when hotels negotiate rates with its corporate customers for the upcoming year, but hotel owners may feel a chill in the air that has nothing to do with a change in the weather.Business travelers typically pay higher room rates, spend more money at the hotel, and are a more dependable revenue base than leisure travelers. But, because of the economic downturn, corporations will likely spend less on business travel this year, and hotel owners will not be in a favorable bargaining position, because of lower occupancy and falling revenues.Phil Gordon, a partner in the hotel and…

Park Capital Group L.L.C., a Miami-based private equity firm, has announced that it intends to place at least $1 billion in investment funding in the next 12 months, primarily in commercial real estate and primarily in the United States. CEO Matthew Kleinsmith, who founded the company about two years ago, has owned businesses in several industries, including payment processing and factoring. It was through the latter that he developed a relationship with a large hedge fund. A long-time entrepreneur, Kleinsmith told CPN that his background has a lot to do with Park’s current push. Too many developers are “all singing…

Recently mall giant General Growth Properties took another few steps in dealing with its problematic debt, which totals about $18.4 billion coming due over the next three and a half years. One step was the paydown of $391 million in short-term debt. The other was another closing in a new loan facility, to the tune of $1.75 billion that Chicago-based General Growth is putting together, with Deustche Bank as the lead lender. Currently, that credit facility totals $1.41 billion. Most observers feel that General Growth will be able to overcome its debt problems in the long run, but also say…