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American Assets Inc. has revealed plans for The Commons at Mount Burdell, a green mixed-use project on a 65-acre site in Novato, Calif., about 30 miles north of San Francisco. According to the San-Diego-based real estate company’s calculations, the 1.5 million-square-foot development and redevelopment endeavor will be able to achieve carbon-neutrality within a 10-year period. The Commons will evolve on the site of a Class A office complex on San Marin Drive. Home to the headquarters of the Fireman’s Fund Insurance Co., American Assets acquired the property last year and will incorporate the existing buildings into the project. Ultimately, The…

Long Beach-headquartered HCP Inc. has just concluded its offering of 14.95 million shares of common stock, which, at a price of $33.50 per share, yielded the healthcare REIT an aggregate $500 million. The company originally priced the offering of just 13 million shares on August 6 with hopes of taking in $435 million. HCP plans to use the proceeds from the offering to repay part of its outstanding debut under a bridge loan facility. In other recent financial transactions, in late May, the company placed $259 million of secured debt on 21 of its nearly 300 senior housing properties. The…

Income-producing real estate is feeling the strain of persistent turmoil in the world’s financial markets and the downbeat outlook for the U.S. economy, according to the latest survey of real estate executives by the Real Estate Roundtable, which was released today. Still, a majority of those surveyed expected some improvement in the not-too-distant future. The survey, conducted for the Washington, D.C.-based Roundtable by FPL Advisory Group, polled over 100 upper-level managers in the real estate industry, including CEOs, presidents, board members and other executives to get a C-suite eye-view of the market. The participating executives hailed from across the spectrum…

In one of the year’s notable retail acquisition announcements, Longs Drug Stores Corp. has agreed to be acquired by Woonsocket, R.I.-based CVS Caremark for $2.9 billion or $71.50 per share. The purchase price includes the assumption of Longs’ outstanding debt. CVS will fund the all cash deal with $1.5 billion in debt and existing cash and liquidity. Under the terms of the deal, CVS will acquire the Walnut Creek, Calif.-based Longs’ 521 retail drugstores in California, Hawaii, Nevada and Arizona as well as its Rx America subsidiary, which offers prescription benefits management (PBM) services to more than 8 million members…

Boston Properties and its partners have closed on the acquisition of 540 Madison Ave. and Two Grand Central Tower in New York City for about $705 million, a major part of the $3.95 billion, four-property portfolio deal that it struck with beleaguered seller Macklowe Properties earlier this year. The larger deal, as reported by CPN in late May, also involved the sale of the iconic GM Building in New York, which closed in June. Its purchase price, $2.8 billion, included the assumption of $1.9 billion in debt maturing in 2017. 540 Madison Ave. is a 39-story, 292,000-square-foot building at Madison…

Colliers International’s U.S. operations have sure been on their toes the past few days. The brokerage network has announced a major consolidation of four of its Eastern-region firms and a streamlining of its Greater Los Angeles operations, both aimed at creating operating efficiencies and better client service. Although these strategies are unrelated, Doug Frye (pictured), chairman of Colliers International-Global, told CPN that they are indicative of the overall commercial real estate industry. “There has been consolidation for a while,” he said, “and a downturn in the market just accelerates that process.” In the Eastern region, St. Louis-based Colliers Turley Martin…

In a stunning finding, a Real Capital Analytics Inc. study has discovered that global property sales fell by 50 percent during the first half of 2008. Sales in Germany, where the collapse was the most severe, fell by 65 percent, while sales in the United States plunged 63 percent. During the first half of the year, investors fled industrialized economies and sought deals in the developing world. India, for example saw its commercial property sales rise by more than 100 percent during the first half of 2008. So did Romania and the United Arab Emirates. Brazil rose 40 percent, with…

The life sciences industry’s real estate needs in the nine key U.S. markets continue as soaring construction costs hinder the upgrading of existing office space, international players compete for the limited pool of high-end accommodations and businesses increase reliance on outside real estate services providers, according to a new report by CB Richard Ellis Inc. “This is an industry that is so intense on focusing on core business, which is R&D, new products, and healthcare–which is only going to increase as the population ages,” a CBRE spokesperson told CPN today. Additionally, growing expectations in quality of life, as well as…

Assisted living developer the LaSalle Group and management firm Constant Care Management Co. have made changes to their corporate structure in an initiative to spearhead growth.Mitchell Warren (pictured) has taken over as president of LaSalle and is now overseeing continued expansion plans for the company and complete asset management. Warren was formerly vice president of development for LaSalle, and led the company’s expansion plans through the Dallas Fort Worth area and Chicago, with responsibilities ranging from new business to new residence planning and development. Chad Anderson, formerly vice president of operations for LaSalle and CCMC, has assumed the role of…

After the last few years which saw hotel assets trading hands at a breakneck pace, hospitality investors are exhibiting more willingness to hold on to their assets. The “hold” sentiment is the dominant investor strategy—at 38.1 percent– for the first time in five years, according to Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels’ recently released Hotel Investor Sentiment Survey. Net buyers represented 37.1 percent of the respondents. A number of factors are responsible for the shifting sentiment, according to Kristina Paider, senior vice president of Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels. Many hotel owners believe the market will support their pricing expectations, so there is…