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Carlton Advisory Services Inc. has taken on the role of exclusive sealed bid advisor for the disposition of 74 former bank branch and retail properties on behalf of Gramercy Capital Corp., which operates its commercial real estate business under the name Gramercy Realty. Sited in key locales spanning 19 states, the group of assets includes land parcels and has an aggregate appraised value of approximately $58.8 million. All bids are due by Oct. 13. The majority of the portfolio is located in Florida, where 11 properties and three land parcels are up for grabs. Other areas of concentration include Alabama…

Trammell Crow Co. has just taken a 310-acre parcel of land in Summerville, S.C., off the hands of Eastway Properties, thereby paving the way for the company’s development of Omni Commerce Park, a 3 million-square-foot industrial complex. Located about 15 miles from Charleston, the property will be built in segments, with the initial phase kicking off in September with construction of a 772,000-square-foot structure. Omni will have a vital position near the Port of Charleston and the Charleston International Airport, as well as leading thoroughfares I-26, I-95 and I-526. In addition to Building I, which will be built to satisfy…

Alexander & Baldwin Inc. has announced today that its Matson Global Distribution Services subsidiary has completed the acquisition of Pacific American Services, L.L.C., a leading regional, asset-light warehousing, packaging and distribution company. PACAM’s nearly one million square feet of warehousing and distribution space provides service coverage for the entire Bay Area and Northern California, and complements the firm’s recently acquired Savannah facilities to give Matson Global a truly national footprint, according to A&B Chairman & CEO Allen Doane. PACAM serves hundreds of local, national and international customers and has extensive industry expertise in handling high value goods in the food…

Health Care REIT Inc. has agreed to acquire a 90 percent interest in a portfolio of 29 seniors housing properties from an affiliate of Arcapita Inc., an investment bank based in Atlanta, for $643.5 million. Sunrise Senior Living Inc. will continue to operate the properties, while retaining a 10 percent ownership interest in the portfolio.In a conference call this morning, George Chapman, chairman & CEO of HCN said that the transaction has been structured to take advantage of the recently enacted REIT investment Diversification and Empowerment Act of 2007 (RIDEA). According to an analysis issued today by the Memphis-based investment…

About 18 months after Equity Office Properties Inc. was acquired by The Blackstone Group, the company is still in existence with more than 300 properties totaling more than 50 million square feet. “As Blackstone purchased CarrAmerica (Properties), Trizec (Properties) and Equity Office Properties in 2006 and 2007, each of those portfolios was sold off. What is left is around 55 million square feet and that portfolio is primarily concentrated in New York, Boston, Northern California and Southern California with some in the Midwest, Texas and Denver,” Frank Campbell (pictured), market managing director for Equity Office in Southern California, told CPN….

The days of relying solely on the golf course for exercise in post-retirement years are quickly disappearing, according to a survey conducted by Orlando-based Crossman & Co., Central Florida’s largest third-party leasing and management company. Crossman & Co. manages retail leasing for The Villages–a 26,000-acre active retirement enclave 50 miles north of Orlando in Sumter County, Fla., that carries the title of the largest single-site mixed-use development in the U.S.–and polled 11,000 residents on the subject of exercise. The findings were notable. Over 60 percent of the responding baby boomers and active adults affirmed that exercise and playing sports are…

The real estate landscape has changed drastically since the middle of 2007, and economic conditions are unlikely to permit improvement in the near future. The minimally active finance market, corporate cutbacks and other fallout make doing business difficult at best and have affected some companies gravely. Of course, many a real estate executive has found opportunity in such markets, but timing is everything, and the national economy is volatile enough to throw off even the most seasoned economist’s predictions.Fortunately, there is more than a little truth to the old axiom that history repeats itself, suggesting it is possible to draw…

The shift into September signals the commencement of the next business season—a good time for new beginnings. CPN celebrates this with our new format.The new CPN is designed to meet your needs, providing information and perspective you’ve told us you require most to grow your business in today’s tough market and succeed in any economic climate. You’ll find more specific and relevant data, more analysis, more research and more involvement from the industry’s most respected economists and analysts.CPN will continue to be forward looking, actively seeking and identifying emerging trends and delivering the type of information you need to make…

Less than a week after Simon Property Group acquired a 3.14 percent stake in U.K. retail property firm Liberty International, Australia-based Westfield Group has stepped up to take a 2.96 percent interest in Liberty. Liberty International is a market leader in the United Kingdom in regard to regional shopping centers and is the owner the Covent Garden Estate in Central London (pictured). Recently, a Liberty subsidiary, Capital & Counties, announced that it had completed a 50/50 joint venture with Land Securities of its holding in Empress State, Earls Court, London, a 470,000-square-foot building leased to the London Metropolitan Police. Indianapolis-based…

Top CEOs understand the power, influence, and leverage created by great messaging. Do you ever find yourself sitting back and marveling at those chief executives who always seem to have the right thing to say? Contrast this with the feelings you have when you hear an awful sound-bite that makes a CEO look either uninformed or unintelligent. The difference between the two aforementioned examples is that top CEOs have mastered the art of finding the right message regardless of the medium, market, or constituency being addressed. In today’s column I’ll share some of the messaging secrets used by the world’s…