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Deloitte L.L.P. plans to build a $300 million learning and leadership development center at Hillwood Development’s Circle T Ranch in the Dallas suburb of Westlake. Construction on the new facility will begin in 2009 and the center is expected to open in 2011. The facility will serve as a central destination for everyone from new hires to Deloitte senior leadership, to convene for learning and leadership development. The 750,000-square-foot campus will have 800 guest rooms. The facility is expected to result in Deloitte adding an estimated 100 new full-time jobs, with 300 to 400 new non-Deloitte jobs also being added….

Brandywine Realty Trust has agreed to sell a five-property, 1.7 million-square-foot portfolio in Oakland, Calif., to an affiliate of the CIM Group for a total of $412.5 million. The price includes assumption of what will be at closing about $95.6 million in debt represented by three existing mortgage loans. Closing is scheduled for August 31. The five properties are One Kaiser Plaza (The Ordway), 1901 Harrison Street, 1333 Broadway, 2101 Webster Street and 2100 Franklin Street. The first four were 88.7 percent occupied as of May 31, according to a prepared statement, while 2100 Franklin is an unleased, recently completed…

The national industrial property market is in a relatively healthy state in spite of the recent economic uncertainty, according to a soon-to-be-released report on the sector by Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services.“For the most part the industrial market is in a stable equilibrium for supply and demand,” Alan Pontius (pictured), national director of office and industrial properties for Marcus & Millichap, told CPN this morning. “The shorter term pains of increased supply on a speculative basis and a small increase in vacancy exist, but the market’s fundamentals continue to remain reasonably strong.” While certain markets, like California’s Inland…

Keep It Simple Stupid. One of the most effective ways to order your world is to simplify everything you encounter. The problem is that keeping it simple often becomes very difficult when our basic human nature is to overcomplicate everything we touch. In thinking about the people I respect the most, to the one they possess the uncanny ability to take the most complicated of issues and simplify them. You will find that the best leaders, communicators, teachers, and innovators have a true knack for taking extremely dense or intricate content and making it engaging and easy to understand. In…

After a nearly 10-month delay that followed a fatal fire last summer, cleanup of the contaminated Deutsche Bank building at the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan is proceeding full speed ahead, a top Downtown official said yesterday. At a meeting of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., board chairman Avi Shick said that contractors should finish cleanup of the contaminated dust in the former Deutsche Bank by the end of the year. Work resumed last month on the deconstruction of the tower at the southern end of the World Trade Center, which was damaged beyond repair in the 2001 terrorist…

After the events of the past month, the leadership of Grubb & Ellis Co. may welcome some peace and quiet this summer. In what could be the capper in a series of personnel shufflings, former board chairman Anthony Thompson, who helped engineer a blockbuster merger with NNN Realty Advisors and is still the company’s second-largest stockholder, wants to rejoin the firm’s board of directors.Thompson’s filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission expressed dismay over the company’s leadership and direction, citing in particular falling stock prices. In a letter to Grubb & Ellis’ leadership filed with SEC and dated Thursday, Thompson…

Construction has commenced on the first phase of The Campus at Playa Vista, a new 1.2 billion, 1.6 million-square-foot office complex in West Los Angeles that is being developed by Tishman Speyer on behalf of its joint venture with Walton Street Capital L.L.C. The initial segment of the project (pictured) will bring 325,000 square feet of premium space to the tight Los Angeles market, 150,000 square feet of which has just been claimed. Situated between the Marina del Rey and Westchester communities at the intersection of Jefferson Blvd. and Centinela Ave., The Campus will occupy a 64-acre parcel that the…

The Federal Reserve opted to hold a key interest rate steady for the first time in nine months–even amidst a sluggish economy–due largely to increasing fears of inflation. By maintaining the federal funds rate at 2 percent yesterday, the Fed was attempting to curb inflation in the wake of skyrocketing commodities prices, especially oil. Though in its statement, the Fed said it expected inflationary pressures to ease later this year, the decision to hold the rate indicated that, at least for the time being, inflation is a more pressing concern than the economic slowdown which spurred the previous rate cuts….

An “X”-shaped design for the Midfield Terminal Complex will be the centerpiece of the $6.8 billion Abu Dhabi International Airport redevelopment, according to the officials at Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, the project’s master plan architect. Currently the largest airport development under construction in the Middle East, Phase I of the 5.9 million-square-foot terminal (pictured) will include 42 gates and will be completed in 2012. At that time, the airport is expected to handle an additional 20 million passengers a year. Eventually there will be more than 90 gates at the airport and it is projected to process more than 50…

The run-up in oil and gas prices has roiled the U.S. economy, but it has had a positive impact on the Houston office market, according to a panel of leading office brokers who convened on Tuesday at CPN’s Houston Property Opportunities Conference.Indeed, one major part of a lease that office tenants are looking for today is future expansion rights, said Aaron Thielhorn, principal of Trammell Crow Co. “We’re seeing energy companies bumping up against one another for the same space,” he said. The panel’s moderator, Mark Taylor (pictured, standing), managing director of CB Richard Ellis Inc., asked the panel if…