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GSLM Capital Partners L.L.C., an investment entity involving Goldman Sachs’ Urban Investment Group and L&M Development Partners Inc., has been created for the launching of a new $100 million investment fund that will target mixed-income housing projects in various well-populated and ethnically diverse markets across the United States.The fund’s $100 million, which will be leveraged, will likely be invested over a period of approximately three to four years. Of particular interest to GSLM will be Metropolitan New York, the Northeast, the Mid-Atlantic and California, where the fund will invest in mixed-income, affordable and workforce housing, as well as community-serving retail…

SL Green Realty Corp. has announced that News America Inc. has signed a new 12-year, 84,000-square-foot lease to occupy floors 25, 26 and 27 at Manhattan’s 1185 Ave. of the Americas. The lease boosts the building’s occupancy to 99 percent.SL Green also has announced that the Omnicom Group has signed a lease renewal covering 55,000 square feet at 220 East 42nd St. The 37-story, 1 million-square-foot tower also known as “The News Building,” was made famous in the Superman television series in the 1950’s, and the landmarked lobby featuring a rotating globe continues to be a tourist attraction today. Lee…

The chairman of the Standard & Poor’s Index Committee said the release of January results for the S&P/GRA Commercial Real Estate Indices shows that commercial real estate is holding stead for the time being despite the tanking of the residential real estate world. “Will commercial real estate follow residential down or will it hold together? At this point, overall, it seems to be hanging together for the moment,” David Blitzer, chairman of the Index Committee of Standard & Poor’s, told CPN. “If you look month to month, there are pockets of strength and pockets of weakness. Commercial real estate is…

Three high-rise apartment buildings in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood have been put on the market for an aggregate list price of $50.8 million. All together, the buildings total 528 units. Last year was a record year for investment sales of apartment buildings in the Chicago market, but this year the trade in such properties is going to contract, perhaps by as much as 30 percent, predicts a recent report by CB Richard Ellis Inc. Total apartment sales in metro Chicago in 2007 were a record $2.47 billion; this year, CBRE notes that there will be roughly $1.8 billion in apartment…

Meritage Development Group has taken over the reigns for RimRock at Rifle, a 350-acre master-planned community on tap for Rifle, Colo. The real estate company acquired the project from Littlestar Ranch L.L.P. RimRock will be the first master-planned community to sprout up in the small City of Rifle, which sits about three hours west of Denver and less than two hours from Utah’s border. Plans for RimRock call for the development to be divided into five mini-villages that together will encompass as many as 1,500 residences in the form of single-family homes and multi-family units, and 110,000 square feet of…

Governments in Europe, particularly those in growing Eastern European countries, are being pressured to build more highways, rail links and other infrastructure to keep up with population and economic growth. But governments are limited in how much they can spend on infrastructure and are increasingly looking to form public private partnerships. Bridging the Gap, Investing in European Infrastructure 2008, a study released this week by Ernst & Young, looks at the current conditions as well as future opportunities for private investment in European infrastructure. In addition to forming more public private partnerships to pay the costs and share the risks,…

Management changes at Inland Real Estate Corp. have given the REIT a new chairman and a new CEO, though both men are company veterans and no one is leaving, at least not immediately. Thomas D’Arcy has been appointed the non-executive chairman of the board of directors, replacing Daniel Goodwin, who had been chairman since 2001 and will continue as a director. D’Arcy has served as an independent director and member of the audit committee since 2005. D’Arcy is a principal in Bayside Realty Partners, a private company operating primarily in New England, and has more than 20 years in commercial…

Anji-TNT Logistics, a provider of logistics services for auto part makers, has leased the entirety of a 234,000-square-foot distribution center at ProLogis Park Jiangning in Nanjing, the capital of China’s Jiangsu Province. Anji-TNT will operate the space on behalf of Italian automaker Fiat.ProLogis Park Jiangning is located in a government-sponsored economic development zone adjacent to the Nanjing Lukou International Airport. At full build-out, the park will comprise six facilitates totaling more than 1.5 million square feet.Nanjing, the transportation hub of eastern China, has also seen rapid industrial growth in recent years, including the auto industry. Late this year, for example,…

Toronto-based Fairmont Raffles Hotels International (FRHI) has promoted Thomas Storey to president of Fairmont Hotels and Resorts and Michael Glennie to president, Real Estate & Development of FRHI. A 25-year veteran of the hotel industry, Storey has been with FRHI for seven years and served most recently as executive vice president, development, responsible for the growth of all three FRHI brands–Fairmont, Raffles and Swissotel. Under his guidance, FRHI’s development pipeline reached approximately 120 new projects, including 50 new Fairmont projects.  Storey succeeds Chris Cahill, who has moved up to the post of COO. Another key change in the company’s management…

Skanska has been chosen as the contractor for Two Kingdom Street, a 13-story, 255,000-square-foot office building in the PaddingtonCentral development in London’s West End.  Work on the project will begin immediately, according to a prepared statement, and is scheduled for completion in January 2010. The contract with Skanska is valued at about $174 million. In addition to office space, the building will include 22,000 square feet of high-end studio space.  According to a January announcement from the developer, Development Securities PLC, Two Kingdom Street will be funded by a joint venture partnership of Morley Fund Management and Quinlan Private. That…