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Four California State buildings have earned LEED Gold ratings, the state has announced. The four are in Sacramento ’s 1.6 million-square-foot Capitol Area East End Complex. They house the California Department of Health Care Services and the Department of Public Health.The green push comes as a result of the Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger-initiated Global Warming Solutions Act and the Green Building Initiative. These require state agencies to cut energy use by 20 percent at state-owned buildings before 2015. The initiative also mandates that all new and existing state buildings must fulfill at least the minimum of the LEED Silver requirements to…

ProLogis has entered the distribution market in India through a 50/50 development joint venture agreement with K Raheja Corp, one of the largest real estate developers in India. The venture plans to invest $575 million, approximately 60 percent of which will be leveraged. The move is the latest in ProLogis’ international strategy of geographic diversification–the company currently conducts business in 118 markets across North America, Europe and Asia. “By establishing a presence in the world’s top logistics markets, we have effectively mitigated the impact of any single economy on our overall results,” Abhijit Malkani, head of operations for ProLogis in…

Lowe Enterprises takes a big step forward with its planned redevelopment of San Diego’s County Operations Center and Annex in Kearny Mesa, Calif., as the San Diego County Board of Supervisors gives the project the thumbs up. Lowe will reinvent the county’s 37-acre complex with the development of a new 900,000-square-foot green office campus. The Board of Supervisors signed off on the project’s Environmental Impact Report and Lowe’s Disposition and Development Agreement. With approvals in hand, Lowe will soon be able to commence work on the Operations Center project, which will be developed in two phases. Once demolition of all but…

Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp. and The Carlyle Group have completed the acquisition of Manhattan’s 650 Madison Ave., which at $680 million is the largest single real estate deal of 2008 thus far. The 600,000 square-foot tower was purchased from Hiro Real Estate Co. The building (pictured) is located on the block spanning 59th and 60th Streets, across from the GM building in the heart of the city’s Plaza District. It includes approximately 90,000 square feet of prime retail space including flagship stores of Crate and Barrel and Tod’s. Office tenants include Polo Ralph Lauren’s corporate headquarters, Columbia Presbyterian and several investment…

Real estate investment fund manager The Letterstone Group and private investment company Starr International Co. have announced a JV to invest in Eastern European real estate, with an initial funding of $157 million and plans to acquire approximately $795 million in assets over the next 15 months.The venture, named LS Real Estate Ventures B.V., plans to invest initially in Hungary, Slovakia and Romania, and later in Ukraine. The properties will consist of a mix of multi-sector investments in existing property, properties with alternative use potential and new-build developments.Letterstone had already been investing in the countries for five years, working with…

Jones Lang LaSalle is strengthening its overseas presence through new relationships with commercial real estate players in Australia, The Philippines and Turkey. In the most major of the three new relationships, JLL is entering into a 50-50 joint venture, effective June 1, with Colonial First State Property Management (CFSPM), a subsidiary of Australia’s largest bank and second-largest company, Commonwealth Bank. The JV, called simply Sandalwood and headquartered in Singapore, will initially focus on retail mall management in Asia, specifically in Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Macau, Taiwan, Indonesia and India. CFSPM is a long-standing Jones Lang LaSalle client that has been…

Opus West Corp. is on the verge of increasing the pool of Class A office accommodations in Dallas and Houston with the delivery of an aggregate 300,000 square feet of space. The company just broke ground on a building in the suburban Dallas town of Addison, and has wrapped up the acquisition of 15 acres in Houston for a new project.In Addison, work has gotten underway on Two Addison Circle, which will ultimately feature 198,000 square feet of space at 15725 North Dallas Parkway. It was last July when Opus West acquired the 3.5-acre site, one of Addison’s few remaining…

Transcend Equity is a 6-year-old privately held Dallas-based company that greens buildings at no cost and creating no debt for the owners. Transcend Equity contracts to pay the utility bills for ten years, and the owners/managers pay a fixed rate to the company. The average reduction in energy consumption – 30 percent. Transcend Equity is under contract now to green more than 33 buildings from Washington, D.C., to Dallas. CPNTechnology recently spoke with Steve Gossett Jr., President of Transcend Equity, about his company’s approach to the green retrofitting buildings.CPNTechnology : I have read that you are the only business out…

As part of its multi-year strategy to revitalize the Sheraton Hotels & Resorts brand, its parent company said this week it is beginning an aggressive expansion with 54 hotels and 20,000 guest rooms to be added by next year. Starwood Hotels & Resorts Inc. said the company will spend $2 billion in North America alone on the growth plan.Sheraton, Starwood’s largest and most global brand, will open one hotel every 12 days in 2008, according to a company release. New hotels will be added this year in Dallas, Denver, Minneapolis, Phoenix and the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area in the United…

In a city that has grown 44 percent since 2000, Houston-based Raymond R. Betz Interest Inc. acquired a 24-acre parcel along the busy State Highway 96 in the Houston suburb of League City, Texas, with plans for retail and office development. Financials in the deal were not disclosed. The land is situated across the street from an 84,000-square-foot Kroger Signature Store and is near the site approved for a 135-acre Education Park on South Shore Boulevard that will include an elementary, intermediate and a high school within the Clear Creek Independent School District. Located at the corner of State Highway…