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RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust today announced that it has commenced a greenfield development, building on previously undeveloped land, in Vaughan, Ontario. The development is a joint venture with Trinity Development Group Inc. and Strathallen Capital Corp. Vaughan is located at the southwest corner of Highway 27 and Langstaff Road at Highway 427 Extension in the greater Toronto area. Upon completion, this ‘new format retail’ center will total approximately 504,000 square feet of leasable area. Phase one of the project features approximately 262,000 square feet. A Wal-Mart Supercentre, holding a land lease, will occupy approximately 213,000 square feet and the…

Gazit Brasil, a subsidiary of Gazit-Globe, Israel’s largest publicly traded real estate investment company, said today it had acquired its second property in Brazil, a shopping center under development in Caxias do Sul.The company paid $24 million in cash for the property and said it expected to invest another $14 million to complete the development. Gazit Brasil bought the site from a group comprised of about 300 separate owners. Located within walking distance of the city center, the shopping center will have 16,300 square meters. Leasing is under way and the company said it already has a number of signed…

Dublin-based Quinlan Private, an international private equity and real estate group, has raised $615 million (€400 million) of equity capital from US investors for its Quinlan Private European Strategic Real Estate Fund. The fund is the group’s first one open to American investors, and according to Quinlan it proved quite popular among US institutional investors, endowments, foundations, life companies and high net worth individuals. “There’s a strong degree of interest among US investors in European properties, and the fund has been able to capitalize on that, and build further awareness in the investment community of opportunities in that part of…

Boston Properties Inc. has emerged the winner of the the GM building in New York City–and seller Macklowe Properties will live to fight another day, as the two cut a deal worth $3.96 billion over the Memorial Day weekend, the buyer has reported. The portfolio includes the GM trophy plus 540 Madison Ave., 125 West 55th St. and Two Grand Central Tower. The General Motors Building (pictured) is an approximately 2,000,000 rentable square foot office building located at the corner of 5th Avenue and Central Park South in New York City. 540 Madison Avenue is a 39-story building located at…

The best leadership movies…you’re likely thinking right now, “can anything about leadership actually be learned by watching movies?” You bet. I was recently asked for my opinion about which movies I felt were the top leadership movies of all time. After thinking about my answer for a few minutes, I realized that, while not all leaders are fans of cinema, all leaders can certainly learn valuable leadership lessons by watching movies with a critical and discerning eye. You’ve probably surmised by now that this week’s column is not going to be a real brain-teaser. However, it will nonetheless offer you…

The Small Luxury Hotels of the World brand kept its first place status, winning number one for the second year in a row in the fourth Luxury Brand Status Index, LBSI, a survey released from the New York City-based Luxury Institute. The survey polls wealthy Americans.RockResorts took to second, while Peninsula and Ritz-Carlton tied for third. Last year, Club Med was first, Conrad Hotels & Resorts second, and Crillon Hotels third. In April of 2006, however, Ritz-Carlton was first, Peninsula was second, and Small Luxury Hotels and Four Seasons tied for third. “To score high in this category is like…

Glimcher Ventures Southwest has unveiled its new $100 million mixed-use entertainment complex, The Boulevard, in Surprise, Ariz. Glimcher opened the doors on the new project with the opening this week of anchor tenant UltraStar Cinemas. The Boulevard (pictured) features 250,000 square feet of entertainment venues, retail shops and restaurants. Previously dubbed the Shoppes at Surprise Pointe, The Boulevard is a new brand of mixed-use entertainment centers by Glimcher that will focus on bringing together tenants with unique and successful entertainment concepts into an open-air, pedestrian-friendly setting to create a central destination. “Look at how Warren Buffet does things. His main…

Construction has kicked off on Clarendon Center, a 471,000-square-foot mixed-use complex less than four miles from Washington, D.C., in Arlington, Va.’s Clarendon submarket. The project, a Saul Centers Inc. endeavor, carries a development price tag of $118 million. Designed by the architectural firm of Torti Gallas & Partners Inc., Clarendon Center will occupy nearly two entire city blocks just a stone’s throw from a Metro station. The south block of the project will encompass a nine-story structure with 85,000 square feet of office space, 244 apartment residences within a 12-story, 240,000-square-foot building, 34,000 square feet of ground-level retail space, as…

Ownership of the 605-room Hyatt Regency Montreal has changed hands, courtesy of a $59.2 million transaction. With the assistance of real estate services firm CBRE Hotels, Ashford Canada Trust sold the property to Pandox AB. Pandox will continue working with Hyatt as the manager of the property, and will ponder further development of the hotel down the road. For Pandox, the acquisition marks a big step forward in the company’s North American expansion plan, and increases its portfolio of guestrooms in Canada’s second largest city to 1,000. Pandox first entered North America’s hospitality market in 2007 with the purchase of…

As the 2008 edition of ReCon, the International Council of Shopping Centers’ annual convention, wound to a close yesterday in Las Vegas, attendees reported something different in the air this week. As in previous years, the world’s largest real estate convention featured close to 50,000 attendees, painstakingly crafted multi-million-dollar booths, and plenty of after-hours receptions. But the state of retail sector and the economy in general apparently made brokers, developers, retailers and other stakeholders cut to the chase even more quickly than in previous years. “It’s not just fluff. People aren’t meeting just to talk,” said Greg Maloney, president &…