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The office markets in Los Angeles and San Diego are moving past the credit crisis, but those in Orange County and San Francisco are not, according to the latest Allen Matkins/UCLA Commercial Real Estate Survey. Based on polls of panelists in each market, including San Francisco for the first time, the survey attempted to gauge likely market conditions in 2011. Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis L.L.P. is a major California law firm. LOS ANGELES The panelists generally expect a stable market in LA, with new supply coming on line between now and 2011 to be just about matched…

San Francisco-based AMB Property Corp., a specialist in industrial real estate, is making a foray into California’s Central Valley with a 658,000-square-foot build-to-suit development in Tracy, Calif. When complete, the distribution facility, called AMB Pescadero Distribution Center, will serve as the regional distribution center for a major retailer, though AMB has declined to specify the identity of its client yet. Still, the REIT asserts that the project is an example of the retailer thinking ahead, beyond the current slump in consumer spending. “Retailers are taking space, even in this current economic climate, to reconfigure their supply chain and gain increasingly-important…

The economy may remain difficult, but the commercial mortgage-backed securities market has turned the corner. That was the determination of Jun Han, who performed an extensive study of the CMBS market for the Commercial Mortgage Securities Association. Han released the white paper and discussed his findings during a press conference at the organization’s annual convention yesterday. “This is the investment of a lifetime,” he declared, terming the instrument’s poor performance to a degree an unfortunate and unfounded fallout of having the word “mortgage” in its name—causing investors to automatically extend fears about the residential market’s troubles to the commercial market.“CMBS…

Assisted-living firm Emeritus Corp. has entered into an agreement to purchase 29 communities currently leased by the company for $299 million, excluding transaction costs.  The communities comprise of 2,257 units located throughout the United States. Eight of the communities are currently subject to a cash flow sharing agreement with an entity controlled by Dan Baty, the company’s Co-CEO. As part of this purchase, these properties will be held in a joint venture owned by the company and a Baty-related entity which provides for similar economic terms and conditions as the existing cash flow sharing agreement. CPN reported in February that Emeritus…

With the impending closing of the sale-leaseback of its corporate headquarters, Ft. Worth-based retailer Pier 1 Imports Inc. has set its sights on acquiring California-based Cost Plus Inc.Pier 1 executives sent a letter to the board of directors of Cost Plus on Monday with a proposal to acquire the outstanding shares of Cost Plus common stock in a stock-for-stock transaction. The deal could be completed in the third quarter of this year, according to Pier 1 information.Under the terms of the proposal, Pier 1 would issue 0.6 shares of its common stock for each share of Cost Plus common stock….

HRPT Properties Trust has closed on the acquisition of the 877,000-square-foot North Point office complex in Downtown Cleveland, Ohio. All together, the two-building property sold for $123 million, or about $140 per square foot. North Point office complex consists of the five-story, 286,500-square-foot North Point I and the 19-story, 590,500-square-foot North Point II. The buildings are connected via a nine-story atrium and share various amenities, such as an amphitheater, conference center, fitness center and restaurant with outdoor deck facing Lake Erie.Combined, the complex is 92 percent occupied by tenants that include law firm Jones Day, with North Point I serving…

Mary Lou Fiala (pictured), president and COO of shopping center developer Regency Centers, has been elected the chairman of the International Council of Shopping Centers for 2008-2009.  She succeeds Rene Tremblay, president of Ivanhoe Cambridge in Montreal.“Mary Lou’s unique knowledge of what it takes to be both a successful retailer and a successful shopping center developer will serve our members well,” Michael Kercheval, ICSC president and CEO, said in a news release.Fiala, who has been with Jacksonville, Fla.-based Regency Centers since 1998, has been a member of ICSC since 1997 and served on the Board of Trustees for the past…

SL Green Realty Corp. today announced that is has completed three separate but linked leasing deals.West LB (Westdeutsche Landesbank) surrendered the entire 7th floor at 1185 Avenue of the Americas covering 27,500 square feet, which had eight years of a remaining term at below market rent. The surrender included a buyout fee paid to the landlord. RSM McGladry, an accounting and tax services firm, expanded into the space surrendered by West LB. Additionally, RSM extended its existing lease term within 1185 Avenue of the Americas by three years and eliminated an existing right to cancel in 2011 resulting in a…

Despite a market with slowing momentum, Los Angeles-based commercial real estate developer Overton Moore Properties has sold three industrial buildings at the Pacific Gateway Business Center in Seal Beach, Calif., for $38.8 million. The buildings total 240,000 square feet. The buyers are Affliction Clothing, Jerry Turpanjian (Amonix) and Magtek. These deals bring the occupancy of the development to six of 10 buildings sold, representing 450,000 square feet of the project’s total 831,000 square feet of space committed. Brokers in the deal said the building sales are the result of a project goal of offering corporate, industrial for-sale product to healthy,…

A New York City buildings official has been accused by the city’s Department of Investigation of accepting bribes for reporting that cranes had been inspected, and that crane operators were fully certified, when they were not. The department charges that James Delayo, an assistant chief inspector with the Department of Buildings, accepted thousands of dollars in bribes from an unnamed crane company over a period of eight years. Investigators charged that Delayo took money for signing-off on mobile crane inspections he did not perform, providing in advance the questions and answers for one or more “Class C” Hoisting Machine Operator…