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I often receive inquiries from board members wanting to know when it is time to consider replacing the CEO. While it is refreshing to know that at least some board members are actually paying attention to CEO performance, the decision to replace a CEO not only requires a complex analysis, but the wrong decision will have far reaching consequences. In this week’s column I’ll share my thoughts on the right reasons to transition the CEO. Before I address the question at hand, for contextual purposes, I believe it’s important to actually define the role of the board of directors. While…

New York City’s real estate market has enjoyed an astounding run in recent years, but the financial markets crisis is starting to take its toll. “I think what happened with JPMorgan Chase and Bear Stearns is a bellwether situation,” said Peter Hennessey, president of The Staubach Co.’s New York City metropolitan area office. The fallout from JPMorgan Chase’s agreement this week to buy troubled rival Bear Stearns will definitely ripple through the Manhattan office market. Assuming that about 7,000 Bear Stearns employees get pink slips, that would eventually return roughly 3 million square feet of space to the market, Hennessey…

Dranoff Properties will meet next week with the Ardmore Negotiations Team to begin contract talks about the Philadelphia-based firm’s $150 million revitalization project for Ardmore Station in Lower Merion Township, Penn.The township’s Board of Commissioners voted this week to move ahead with Dranoff’s plan for the Ardmore Transit Center and Business District Revitalization Project. Dranoff’s initial phase calls for 335 residences, 60,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, 12,000 square feet of office space and approximately 650 public parking spaces and 500 private parking spaces. The four-phase project would take about five years to develop. One of the early…

Coachella Valley Housing Coalition (CVHC) has broken ground on a $90 million green affordable housing development on about 15 acres in La Quinta, Calif., an upscale community near Palm Springs.When completed, the development (pictured) will offer 218 residences affordable to families earning 35 percent to 50 percent of the area’s median income, or about $30,000 per year for a family of four.Wolff Waters Place, as it will be called, includes 22 buildings designed as townhouses, flats and garden apartments, each with a private outdoor patio or balcony. According to CVCH, the development is unusual in that it targets large families,…

Another hurdle has been cleared for Penn National Gaming Inc.’s sale now that the West Virginia Lottery Commission has given the green light for the deal. The Wyomissing, Pa.-based gaming company will be snapped up by funds managed by affiliates of Fortress Investment Group L.L.C. and Centerbridge Partners L.P. in a merger valued at $8.9 billion, including the buyers’ repayment of approximately $2.8 billion in existing debt.As per terms of the merger agreement, announced June 15, 2007, Fortress and Centerbridge will shell out $67 in cash for each share of Penn National common stock. The offer was nothing to sneeze…

Strategic Storage Trust Inc. is looking to make a big entrée into the public storage real estate business now that it has registered a $1 billion initial public offering with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.The SEC deemed Strategic Storage’s registration filing effective earlier this week, after a relatively short four and a half month period, according to Powell Goldstein L.L.P., the law firm that assisted the company in the filing. Incorporated last August with plans to qualify as a REIT beginning with the taxable year ending Dec. 31, 2008, Strategic Storage is offering up to 1 million shares of…

Retail is becoming more global by the year, and international markets present great opportunity for retailers looking beyond their home borders. That is a principal message of How Global is the Business of Retail?, a report published earlier this month by C.B. Richard Ellis Inc.’s European affiliates. “(While) there remain barriers to entry into new markets, the process of the (globalization) of retail is still in its early stages,” the study concludes. “Many more retailers will be establishing overseas operations over the next ten years.” To Anthony Buono, CB Richard Ellis’ executive managing director for retail, the survey suggests market-wide…

EverGreen Solutions, a Washington D.C.-based real estate technology and consulting firm, has announced the launch AptBudget.com., aimed to ease some of the hassle of budget spreadsheet building for multi-family commercial real estate professionals. “AptBudget is brand new and a big thing our clients need,” said Georgiana Oliver (pictured), president & CEO of EverGreen Solutions. “This is all client demand — they were all screaming for this.” One of AptBudget software’s big pluses is the way it handles formulas. “Because the spreadsheets were going from person to person, and the formulas, many of which were super-advanced, were a problem,” she advised….

CB Richard Ellis Investors, an affiliate of Los Angeles-based CB Richard Ellis Group Inc., has acquired a controlling interest in Atlanta-based Wood Partners on behalf of its investors. As a business entity, Wood Partners will retain its name and management team.CBRE Investors declined to specify the sales price, though typically the company does investment deals in the $100s of millions range. All together, CBRE Investors made $11.7 billion of acquisitions in North America, Europe and Asia during 2007, and completed $4.8 billion in dispositions.Wood Partners specializes in upmarket apartment and condo development, having completed about 39,000 units since its founding…

The Las Vegas County Commission has approved the site development plan and special use permit for The Plaza, Las Vegas, providing the developer, ELAD IDB Las Vegas L.L.C., with all the entitlements needed to move forward with the project. The development is slated to include 15 million square feet of total space in seven towers, including 3,500 hotel rooms, 1 million square feet of residential condos, retail space, a casino, restaurants, an entertainment venue and a convention complex. The project will be built on 34.5-acre site that was formerly home to the Frontier Hotel and Casino, which was imploded last…