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Perseus Realty Partners L.L.C. has launched a new participating loan program that will provide one-stop shopping for a total of up to $1 billion in financing for office, retail, industrial and multi-family projects nationwide. PRP president Paul Dougherty (pictured) told CPN that his company is looking for deals in three general categories: new development; acquisition for renovation or rebranding; and total recapitalization, for projects facing maturity defaults. Regarding that last category, Dougherty commented, “I think we’ll see a lot of those over the next 24 months.” The company specializes in preferred, joint-venture and mezzanine equity, Dougherty said, and the participating…

Ownership of two premier office buildings accounting for an aggregate 440,000 square feet in Los Angeles’ Culver City submarket has changed hands. With the assistance of real state services firm Madison Partners, Arden Realty sold the structures to Transwestern Investment Co. According to an article in the Los AngelesBusiness Journal, the properties traded for a total of $125 million. Carrying the addresses of 400 and 600 Corporate Pointe, the structures are eight and 12 stories high, respectively. Developed in 1987, 400 Corporate features approximately 165,000 square feet, while the 19-year-old 600 Corporate encompasses 277,000 square feet. Together, the buildings boast…

Many in the industry long for the frothy markets of 2005 when sellers experienced record low cap rates, buyers were aided by loose credit and a strong flow of funds from the capital markets, and transactions just seemed to almost close themselves. While those days might seem like ancient history, the market will eventually recover, and when it does, likely even soar to new heights in the future. The question is: “Can you survive the interim period of time, or will you be weeded-out by the exceptionally tough and competitive current market conditions?” In today’s column I’ll profile some of…

A sluggish economy coupled with housing market woes nationwide trickled down to the robust Las Vegas housing market, contributing to the filing to reorganize under Chapter 11 bankruptcy for Lake at Las Vegas Joint Venture L.L.C., the master developer of the Lake Las Vegas Resort. In conjunction with the Chapter 11 filing, the company has received commitments for up to $127 million in debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing from a group of lenders led by Credit Suisse as agent for post-petition financing commitments to fund ongoing operations and assessments related to certain pre-petition infrastructure obligations, according to company information. The company said…

As some investors stay on the sidelines, others continue to see opportunity in softening asset values. UrbanAmerica, a New York City-based investment firm, has agreed to pay Rubicon America Trust $515 million for a 3.1 million-square-foot portfolio of government office buildings. Scheduled to close in September, the 14-building deal would expand 10-year-old UrbanAmerica’s footprint in the government office niche. Retail properties make up about one half of Urban America’s holdings, and a partnership with Fisher Brothers could lead to as much as $1 billion worth of office, retail and mixed-use properties. The biggest chunk of the most recent deal is…

A partnership including Kent Swig of Swig Equities L.L.C. has sold a pair of pre-war apartment buildings on Manhattan’s Upper West Side to a locally–based operator of residential and mixed-use properties for $61 million, or about $450 a square foot. Eastern Consolidated both represented the seller and procured the buyer, and also negotiated the financing with iStar Financial on the buyer’s behalf. The two buildings, at 201 West 92nd (pictured) and 200 West 93rd streets, comprise an entire block front on Amsterdam Ave. and include 134 rental apartments and 11 retail stores totaling more than 10,000 square feet. The apartments…

With more than $700 million in capital in its coffers to spend, privately-held retail real estate company DLC Management Corp. has just made its first purchase of the year, acquiring Skytop Pavilion, a grocery-anchored shopping center in Cincinnati. DLC president & CEO Adam Ifshin told CPN today he could not release the price or the name of the institutional seller because of a confidentiality agreement. DLC, based in Tarrytown, N.Y., acquired the shopping center after three other buyers couldn’t complete the deal. Ifshin said DLC initially passed on the deal because the seller wouldn’t meet its price. “They finally came…

Plans for a new destination casino in New Brunswick, Canada move closer toward realization as developer Sonco Gaming New Brunswick L.P. divulges details of the mixed-use property. The $90 million project will carry the distinction of being the first casino in New Brunswick. The group behind Casino New Brunswick is a joint venture involving Canadian companies Sonco Gaming Inc., Clairvest Group Inc. and Riseley Gaming Inc., and Las Vegas-based Navegante Group Inc. Financing for the project will consist of $54 million of senior bank debt and $36 million in equity. Clairvest and its Clairvest Equity Partners III L.P. fund will…

Marking the third quarter in a row of increased vacancies, the slowdown in the demand for office space is not a surprise, Colliers International has announced based on its mid-year national office research report. Total negative absorption for the year now stands at about 5.1 million. In the second quarter, Class A vacancy rates have grown half a percentage point to 12.69 percent, and both B and C class rates have risen to 13.71 percent. “If you just look at Manhattan – year-to-date the negative absorption is about 6 million,” Ross Moore (pictured), executive vice president and director of market…

Mexico’s maquiladoras, foreign-owned factories, have rebounded in recent years as engines of economic growth in the face of overseas competition, especially from China, according to a report by industrial real estate landlord ProLogis. Maquiladoras are typically located in border areas with the United States, and have had a history of impacting the U.S. distribution markets in states adjacent to Mexican manufacturing markets. The reported noted that part of the reason for the recovery of maquiladoras, which were in the doldrums in the early 2000s, has been their shift toward high-valued-added industries, such as aerospace, custom-order electronics and pharmaceuticals. Such industries…