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Acting through its discretionary private equity fund Noble Hospitality Fund L.L.C., which allows for $1 billion in purchasing power, Noble Investment Group has acquired the 295-room Kansas City Marriott Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, Mo. According to Kansas City property records, DHG Kansas City Inc. was the previous owner of the Kansas City Marriott, which boasts a location in the city’s tony Country Club Plaza District, just outside of downtown. The 19-story tower also features 16,000 square feet of meeting space that includes a 42-seat amphitheater, a restaurant, a business center and a fitness facility. The hotel had been…

ProLogis said today it was leasing 670,000 square feet of roof space at a Fontana, Calif., facility to Southern California Edison (SCE), the state’s biggest electric utility, as part of the nation’s largest solar cell installation program.The area at ProLogis’ Kaiser Distribution Park will be used to install and maintain enough solar panels to provide electricity for up to 1,426 households for a year. SCE plans to complete an additional five to 10 installations by the end of 2008. Each installation is comprised of one to two megawatts of solar panels. After Phase I, the utility’s goal is to put…

A panel on controlling construction costs convened in New York City today by the city’s chapter of the Urban Land Institute found that there are myriad reasons why construction costs continue to climb at a rapid rate. One major one is the sheer amount of construction projects ongoing in New York, which makes the competitive atmosphere hot for both material and labor. “The amount of building is on the scale that we saw in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s,” said Charles Murphy, senior vice president & general manager of Turner Construction Co., noting that in addition to the high…

Buccini/Pollin Group today announced plans to develop a $500 million mixed-use project on the Delaware River in Chester, Pa. The 70-acre project, to be developed in phases over five years, will include 180 town homes, 225 apartments, 36,000 square feet of retail space, an 8,000 square foot restaurant, 435,000 square feet of office space and a 200,000 square foot convention center. A parking structure will accommodate 1,350 vehicles. A community marina and spacious greenways will add to the amenities. Construction is scheduled to begin in the fall. Today’s announcement follows news reported in late February by CPN that Chester will…

The Laramar Group has just acquired Vintage Park, a 543-unit apartment community in the burgeoning suburban Seattle town of Burien, Wa. Chicago-based Laramar purchased the property through the Laramar Multi-Family Value Fund, which allows the company to buy up to $1.4 billion in multi-family assets. Carrying the address of 1101 SW 139th Street, Vintage Park sits just 11 miles outside of Seattle within a city that is growing more influential with the major redevelopment of its downtown area, which will enhance its already successful business sector. Vintage Park is a 44-structure garden-style community that was developed on a 25-acre site…

In her more than 15 years in the seniors housing sector, Lisa Brush has gained experience at the large and small ends of the industry, with the privately owned and the publicly traded sides, and with properties across the United States and her native Canada. Now, Brush she has left Ventas Inc., where she was senior vice president of seniors housing operations and development, and is starting her own firm, Symphony Senior Living. In an exclusive interview with CPN, she explains, among other things, why real estate people often seriously misunderstand senior housing. In 1992, fresh out of an MBA…

Financing deals during the ongoing credit crunch has left a lot of question marks, but three experts at this morning’s Commercial Real Estate Due Diligence conference, hosted by IncreMental Advantage in New York City, shed some light on the market and what both borrowers and lenders can expect in the near future. Today, life insurance companies and commercial banks are the most viable options for lending money, noted Rick Lechtman, director of The Ackman-Ziff Real Estate Group L.L.C. International balance sheet lenders have also appeared, but Michael Wachs, vice president of AMC Delancy Group, noted that borrowers should be concerned…

Developer Associated Ventures L.L.C. has launched a new limited-service, urban boutique hotel brand, to be called Hotel Highland. The first hotel in the collection, the Hotel Highland at Biltmore, is scheduled to open in September, following the $3 million conversion of a 120-room Phoenix Inn Suites hotel in the Biltmore area of Phoenix. In addition to the hotel, the developer plans to build an 80-unit condominium tower, when market conditions are favorable again. Associated Ventures will look to acquire properties outright for conversion to the new brand, said Melanie Pennell-Mayer, managing member of Associated Ventures, LLC. “We’ll look for owners…

Henderson Global Investors has made its first acquisition in New York City with the purchase of 177 units in three buildings on W. 107th Street on Manhattan’s Upper West Side as part of its CASA IV Fund. The six-story buildings with a total of 135,800 square feet at 210, 220 and 230 W. 107th St. sold for $60 million, according to a March 18 CPN report. Millbrook Properties was the seller. Henderson, an independent investment manager with more than $117 billion under management, said today the acquisition was a joint venture investment made with The Dermot Co., a New York…

Host Hotels & Resorts Inc. and RECO Hotels JV Pte, an affiliate of GIC Real Estate Pte of Singapore, have entered into a joint venture, structured as a Singapore corporation, to “explore investment opportunities” in Asia and Australia. GIC Real Estate is the real estate investment company of the Government of Singapore Investment Corp. Pte The partners have reportedly agreed to invest a maximum of $600 million of equity, which they anticipate leveraging into a total investment potential of $1.5 billion to $2 billion. Host owns a 25 percent interest in the JV and has the potential to earn a…