Uncategorized

Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. is in advanced talks to buy Staubach Co. in a $735 million deal, U.K.-based Property Week has reported, further strengthening recent and growing rumors of the possible purchase. In the most detailed account of the takeover yet, the report said that the acquisition could be announced on the New York Stock Exchange as early as next week. The expected purchase price reflects 10 times Staubach’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, the report said. It cited U.S. sources that said the sale could net Staubach CEO Greg O’Brein approximately $50 million. It is unclear how…

The World Trade Center development is behind schedule and will miss its June 20 deadline for finishing Tower 2’s foundation excavation, the Port Authority has reported. As a result, it will pay from $9 million to $18 million to Larry Silverstein, the WTC developer, it has announced. The PA had already missed deadlines on two other WTC sites, and turned over $13 million to Silverstein. And New York’s new governor, David Paterson, has had enough.Late yesterday he sent a letter to Chris Ward, the new executive director of the Port Authority, calling for a complete audit of the schedule and…

After years of dominating retail real estate development, lifestyle centers have been hit hardest by the economic slowdown. Developers are putting projects on the back burner as many retailers hesitate to commit to leases. A common explanation is that the upscale, destination-style retailers are taking a hit as consumers cut back on discretionary spending and gravitate toward discounters. In other cases, the current lull in lifestyle-center development stems from strategic misfires. “A lot of better retailers went into a lot of lifestyle centers, and not all lifestyle centers are created equal,” said Steiner + Associates president Barry Rosenberg, speaking with…

ADESA, a motor vehicle auction, reconditioning, logistical and services company, has agreed to a 20-year lease for a new auto auction center at the 6,000-acre multimodal Dallas Logistics Hub. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The Allen Group, developers of the Dallas Logistics Hub in Southern Dallas County, said the build-to-suit facility will be located on 175 acres within the city of Hutchins. The property will house three buildings totaling approximately 196,000 square feet of space for an auction arena, administrative and financial offices and reconditioning facilities. The Allen Group and ADESA will design, construct and commission the facility…

Citing a need in today’s “increasingly turbulent real estate and credit markets,” Starwood Capital Group Global L.L.C., has tapped two real estate executives to head up a new subsidiary that will manage investments in U.S. public real estate infrastructure bonds. Starwood said today Ramiro Albarran and Bob Burch, former Bank of America executives, will join Starwood Infrastructure Finance L.L.C., as managing principals. Albarran and Burch will have the primary responsibility for finding and managing Starwood Infrastructure Finance’s investments. “Starwood Infrastructure Finance will fill a valuable need in today’s market by providing long-term capital projects (large and small) across the country…

Student housing REIT American Campus Communities Inc. has agreed to the purchase of GMH Communities Trust.Under terms of the deal, American Campus will take gain control of GMH’s student housing portfolio, which was all that remained of the firm’s holdings after the $350 million selloff of its military housing portfolio in early May to Balfour Beatty Group , as reported by CPN.At the same time the purchase was announced, American Campus Communities also announced the formation of a joint venture with Fidelity Real Estate Group. The joint venture will take on 15 GMH student housing properties, valued at approximately $326…

Chicago-based Capri Capital Partners L.L.C. has inked a deal with Emaar, The Economic City Inc., a joint venture of Saudi Arabian general investment authority and Emaar Properties, to oversee the development of a $2 billion mixed-use project in Saudi Arabia. The development will combine commercial and residential properties and be located in the CBD of a new city called King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC). When complete, the new master-planned city on the Red Sea–up the coast from Jeddah, the commercial hub of Saudi Arabia–will include, besides the CBD, a 150 million-square-foot sea port, a 678 million-square-foot industrial zone, a resort…

The action has been as hot as Manhattan’s recent heat-wave for New York City’s most prized towers. First, the much-discussed Macklowe Properties sale of the General Motors building closed today, according to the official announcement by the buyer, a joint venture that includes Boston-based Boston Properties, US Real Estate Opportunities I L.P., a partnership managed by Goldman Sachs and Meraas Capital L.L.C., a Dubai-based private equity firm. The final pricetag: approximately $2.8 billion, less than asked, but more, according to some industry watchers, than will be easy to manage, as the deal comes with more than $2 billion in debt….

The German state of North Rhine-Westphalia has sold its majority stake in LEG GmbH to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s Whitehall real estate funds for $1.2 billion. The transaction, which includes 93,000 apartments located in cities such as Cologne, Essen and Bonn, is valued at approximately $5.4 billion including debt, according to state finance minister Helmut Linssen, Bloomberg reported. The state owned approximately 68 percent of LEG, or Landesentwicklungsgesellschaft Nordrhein-Westfalen, and another 22 percent through a bank, making it the seller’s largest shareholder. In March, it agreed to bail out the bank by covering as much as $7.7 billion in potential…

The Mortgage Bankers Association has secured $75 million in financing to acquire its recently completed 169,400-square-foot headquarters building in Washington, D.C.’s East End submarket, near the city’s CBD, a new convention center and six Metro stations. “The building was originally a spec project,” Bill Asbill, senior managing director in the Washington, D.C., offices of Holliday Fenoglio Fowler L.P., told CPN. “Early on, MBA put it under contract. The agreement was that MBA would buy the building upon completion and that the developer would build out the MBA space.” The project (pictured) was developed by a joint venture between New York…