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Construction management company Hill International and the Talaat Moustafa Group Holding Co. (TMG), one of Egypt’s leading residential and hotel developers, have agreed to form a joint venture “that will provide project and construction management services exclusively on TMG projects throughout Egypt and elsewhere in the world,” according to a prepared statement.  Engineering News-Record magazine recently ranked Hill as the 10th-largest construction management firm in the United States.  Each partner will own 50 percent of the Cairo-based JV, which is expected to immediately begin managing the construction of several of TMG’s largest developments. These projects include the Four Seasons Hotel…

Phil Cordell, senior vice president of Hampton brand management, Hilton Hotels Corp. spoke recently with CPNHospitality about the brands repositioning and expansion plans.CPNHospitality: Please talk about how many Hampton Inns will open this year, and what is your development pipeline?Cordell: We have 1,530 Hampton Inns and Hampton Inn & Suites open now, and we have 450 in the construction pipeline, which means either under construction or in design. We will open 150 hotels this year. We are in the midscale without food and beverage segment. We introduced the “Make it Hampton” initiative about four years ago, which introduced improved shower…

Two weeks after announcing its plan to acquire seven office buildings in Southern California and Arizona, Pacific Office Properties Trust has closed on the purchase of four properties in San Diego and Phoenix. The REIT bought the assets, which total 275,000 square feet, from The Shidler Group.The San Diego Portfolio, located in the submarkets of Carlsbad and Torrey Hills, consists of an aggregate 54,000 square feet in three structures of Class A and Class B+ status. Pacific Office has a 32 percent ownership interest in the properties, leaving its institutional co-investment partner with the remaining stake. Pacific Office also snapped…

This is the third and final piece in this series on naming. The first column dealt with how to select a naming firm, the second one addressed the components that go into creating a great corporate name, and this final piece will deal with other venues within the naming field. A lot of focus and attention is brought to bear on the topic of corporate naming as this is the most visible high impact area of naming. However naming applies to products, services, projects, reports, books and publications, newsletters, microsites, blogs, intellectual property, business practices and a long list of…

As many investors hesitate to buy assets, even in New York City, Madison Capital and Prudential Investors have their eyes on the prize. The firms are joining forces to acquire up to $1 billion in retail and mixed-use properties, the partners disclosed earlier this week. Arranged by Cushman & Wakefield Sonnenblick Goldman, the joint venture will target primarily smaller and medium-size properties in the $5 million to $100 million range. New York City is likely to be an initial focus of the joint venture, since the bulk of Madison Capital’s assets are currently located in the city. But the partners…

Houston-based Hines REIT has acquired the 1.5 million-square-foot, 64-story Williams Tower–a property Hines originally developed and sold–for $271.5 million. The acquisition includes an undivided interest in the adjacent 2.8-acre Waterwall Park and a 2.3-acre undeveloped land parcel across the street from Williams Tower.  Williams Tower, which was completed in 1982, was developed by Hines, and has been managed and leased by the firm since then. At completion, the tower was known as Transco Tower for its major tenant, Transco Energy Corp. In 1995, Transco was purchased by Williams Field Services Co., and the building was renamed in 1999. Williams Tower…

In an area sorely lacking a select service hotel with meeting space, Dallas-based Jackson-Shaw broke ground on two Marriott hotels and announced the completion of the first phase of The Cascades at The Colony, a 100-acre master-planned community located along the State Highway 121 corridor in the Dallas suburb of The Colony. The four-story Marriott Fairfield Inn & Suites will offer 104 guest rooms and a 7,540-square-foot event center, including a 3,325-square-foot ballroom. The four-story Marriott Residence Inn (pictured) will feature 102 guestrooms. Both hotels are financed by Colonial Bank. In addition to breaking ground on the hotels, the company…

A 152,500-square-foot office building in Washington, D.C., has come under new ownership, courtesy of a transaction valued at $76 million. Sumitomo Corp. of America took the fully-leased debt-free property off the hands of The Bernstein Cos.A 12-story structure with 8,500 square feet of ground level retail, 1750 K was originally developed in 1970 and sits in the city’s central business district about three blocks from the White House. Law firm Wiley Rein L.P. heads the six-business tenant roster, occupying nearly 132,400 square feet under a lease that expires at the close of June 2014. With the closing of the deal,…

American Realty Capital L.L.C. and an affiliate of Sandler O’Neill + Partners L.P. have inked an agreement to partner on sale-leaseback deals with middle-market banks, the two firms disclosed this morning.  Specifically, Sandler O’Neill, an investment bank, will collaborate with real estate finance and investment company ARC to identify banks with assets valued at $500 million and $50 billion. The two firms recently closed the $41 million sale-leaseback acquisition of 15 properties owned by Pennsylvania-based Harleysville National Bank.  During the next 12 months, the ARC-Sandler O’Neill partnership could handle transactions valued at between $250 million and $300 million, estimated Nicholas…

The Federal Reserve’s decision yesterday to cut a key interest rate by a quarter of a point may be the final rate decrease for the time being, bringing an end to a series of cuts since September.  The latest cut brought the federal funds rate to 2 percent. The Fed began lowering rates in September in an effort to aid the sputtering economy. While concerns about slowing economic growth and a possible recession remain, the Fed signaled that fears of inflation and devaluation of the dollar may necessitate a pause in the cutting.  The quarter-point rate decrease was more modest…