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The offer made by a group of investors consisting of trusts advised by J.C. Flowers & Co. and funds managed by associates of Grove International Partners to obtain a stake in Hypo Real Estate Holdings A.G. has been accepted by Hypo shareholders. The offer is for a 20.0 percent to 24.9 percent ownership stake in Hypo, at a price of $35 per share.“Their stake will help to stabilize our shareholder market and their experience will help our company in seeking new opportunities for future expansion and growth,” said a spokesperson from Hypo, a Munich-based public commercial real estate holding company….

Taking advantage of a Seattle apartment market with a high barrier to entry, Sobrato Development Cos. has acquired Expo62 (pictured), a 114-unit apartment complex in the Lower Queen Anne area of the city from Intracorp Real Estate L.L.C. in a $48 million deal. “The complex will be completed this month. Originally planned as a for-sale condo community, the project was switched to apartments because of the slowing condo sales in the area,” Jeffrey Williams, partner in the Pacific Northwest office of Chicago-based Moran & Co., which brokered the deal, told CPN. “With a very robust apartment market with very little…

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has signed a deal with Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust for 224,000 square feet of office space at the former Strawbridge & Clothier building in Philadelphia. PREIT is renovating the historic property where the state will occupy three floors located atop retail space. Located at 801 Market St. in Center City’s Market East section, the Strawbridge property is surrounded by premier retail options, including PREIT’s 1 million-square-foot Gallery at Market East shopping center. Strawbridge & Clothier originally made its debut at the locale in 1868, and later redeveloped the site to encompass two structures that are…

Saying the construction industry is “facing a safety and health crisis” following a series of fatal accidents in New York City and Las Vegas, a national labor union official today told a Congressional committee today that OSHA needs to establish a new construction safety office. Speaking at a hearing called by the House Education and Labor Committee to address whether the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration is failing to adequately enforce construction safety rules, Mark Ayers, president of the Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO, also called for OSHA to immediately set crane safety standards, step up its job…

Toronto-based Whiterock Real Estate Investment Trust is on the verge of adding 341,000 square feet of office, industrial and retail space to its portfolio now that it has entered into an agreement with an unidentified seller to acquire eight commercial assets in Alberta. Located in Calgary and Edmonton, approximately 54 percent of the portfolio consists of office space, while 30 percent consists of industrial space, with the remaining 16 percent encompassing retail space. On average, the properties have a remaining lease term of 5.7 years and a 99 percent occupancy rate, with in-place market rents at 20 percent below current…

Several of New York’s major labor unions have endorsed SL Green Realty Corp.’s proposal to revitalize the Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens (pictured). Unions supporting SL Green’s bid include: • The Building & Construction Trades Council of Greater New York • The New York Hotel and Motel Trades Council • Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union • Local Union No. 3 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers • The International Union of Operating Engineers, Local Union Nos. 30 and 94• The Sheet Metal Workers International Association, Local No. 28, Metropolitan New York and Long Island. SL Green’s plan…

In a market where employment continues to grow, a luxury apartment complex in Downtown Houston and another in the Westchase submarket were sold to out-of-state buyers. The Lofts at the Ballpark–a 375-unit Class A luxury property located Downtown–was sold to Archstone-Smith, a publicly traded owner and operator of more 344 communities, representing 86,014 units, that ultimately acquired the property from New York-based Sentinel Real Estate Corp. City West apartments–a 510-unit garden-style apartment community located in the Westchase submarket–was sold by Sentinel to Chicago-based TVO Realty Inc., which has plans to invest around $5,000 per unit in interior upgrades in an…

Although the buildings at the former Ground Zero have understandably gotten most of the news coverage of World Trade Center site rebuilding efforts, at least one other noteworthy story has been playing out in parallel to those. Fiterman Hall at the City University of New York’s Borough of Manhattan Community College was irreparably damaged on Sept. 11, 2001, by the collapse of 7 WTC. Now the 15-story building at 30 West Broadway is currently 16 months behind schedule on deconstruction, reportedly because of funding issues and environmental impact concerns. Originally scheduled to have been completed by February 2007, the deconstruction…

An 800 million-square-foot, $60 billion development, to be built in the Dubai desert was announced this morning by the emirate’s ruler, Sheik Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum. The new city, to be called Mohammed Bin Rashid Gardens, will be built around four houses, or centers. The House of Humanity, one of the centers, will include the Humanitarian Establishment, Sheik Mohammed’s charitable organization, along with museums. The House of Commerce will contain office space that is envisioned by the developer, Dubai Properties, to include multi-national corporations. The House of Wisdom includes translation facilities, a library and what the developers call a…

DekaBank, asset manager for the German Savings Bank Finance Group, has revealed plans to spend as much as €500 million–or approximately $776.4 million–on commercial real estate in the United States, according to Reuters. While the scope of DekaBank’s investments with regard to property type was not made clear, the company plans to focus on some of the country’s leading office markets, including Boston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C. But what a difference a year makes, In April 2007, the company sold three U.S. assets from its Deka-ImmobilienEuropa fund for about $725 million as part of…