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Kennedy Wilson Multi-family Management Group has brought its total ownership in the greater Seattle market to 1,735 units with the acquisition of the 300-unit James Street Crossing from Equity Residential for about $36 million.All together, counting the James Street Crossing, the Beverly Hills, Calif.-based company, a subsidiary of Kennedy Wilson, now holds roughly $275 million in four multi-family assets in the market, which it entered only in late 2006.According to the company, its interest in owning apartments near Puget Sound stems from the area’s strong fundamentals. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 51,000 new jobs were created…

According to Real Capital Analytics’ latest monthly report on the U.S. office, industrial, retail and apartment markets, sales transactions are drastically down year-over-year, while offerings for sale continue to be strong in most sectors. Cap rates, no surprise, are up almost across the board. In each sector, the report notes, some buyers are still active and still willing to aggressively pursue the right assets. “While equity capital for property in the U.S. remains plentiful,” the report states, “the buying hiatus is likely to continue…. uncertainty over economic growth has replaced the credit crunch as the major driver of the continuing…

Costa Mesa, Calif.-based REIT Donahue Schriber has wrapped up the acquisition of three shopping centers from separate owners for an aggregate $189 million. The properties account for a total of nearly 1 million square feet of retail in Oregon, Arizona and California. The acquisitions gave Donahue Schriber the opportunity to take a major step in its expansion strategy, which calls for increasing its presence in its target area, the Western U.S. The purchase of the 650,000-square-foot Keizer Station in Keizer, Ore., constituted perhaps the shopping center owner and developer’s most significant purchase, as it marked its entrée into the Pacific…

Hollywood, Fla.-based CORFAC International – Corporate Facility Advisors has tapped James Garibaldi as president. CORFAC ‘s theme for 2008 is “Next Generation,” he told CPN today. “We realize it is now appropriate to focus our attention on the next group of leaders within our organization,” he explained. “The younger members offer fresh perspectives, and are certainly technically more savvy…than the seasoned brokers. And they are certainly driven.”The theme has also been extended to the changes in the market. “The market itself is requiring greater levels of sophistication,” he added. “You no longer have the old close-the-deal quickly process. Most of…

In a complex public-private transaction that took two years to put together, Phoenix Realty Group has acquired a 15-building, 362-unit portfolio of low-income apartment houses in Brooklyn from Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corp. for $96 million.PRG, a national real estate investment firm focusing on workforce and low-income housing, plans $30 million in renovations at the buildings in Brooklyn’s Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood.  The apartments will continue to be affordable housing with about 95 percent of the apartments being subsidized with long-term Section 8 contracts from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. “We believe that the preservation of affordable housing is fully…

Dallas-based Koll Development Co. and Harbert Management Corp. have launched a $120 million industrial development program that will break ground on five speculative projects during 2008. “This is a joint venture in which we’re doing the legwork–looking for sites and opportunities–and Harbert is our financial partner,” Randy Touchstone (pictured), vice president of Koll and director of the industrial program, told CPN today. The terms of the joint venture are confidential. The first project will get underway in April in Houston on a 50-acre site near the Port of Houston. “The program will have a port focus, although we will do…

San Francisco-based private real estate investor Carmel Partners Inc. has acquired three multi-family properties totaling 826 units.Two of the properties are in California while the third is in Hawaii.The largest of the acquisitions involves Kukui Gardens, a property located in Downtown Honolulu. Carmel contracted to purchase all 857 units of the property, and then partnered with the state of Hawaii and a number of nonprofit housing entities to structure a deal that maintains the property as affordable housing, using a variety of federal and state subsidies. Carmel closed on the deal in December 2007 and retains ownership of 468 units.In…

An affiliate of GIC Real Estate–the property investment arm of the Government of Singapore Investment Corp., Starwood Capital Group Global L.L.C. and Morgan Stanley Capital K.K.–has purchased the 438-key Westin Tokyo.  A source familiar with the deal told Bloomberg News that GIC paid approximately $741 million for the asset, but the companies have declined to disclose the transaction amount. The five-star hotel is located in the heart of Tokyo, in close vicinity to entertainment district Roppongi and shopping district of Shibuya and Harajuku streets. It is also surrounded by the Ebisu neighborhood and adjacent to the Yebisu Garden Place complex….

The Spanish stock market regulator suspended shares of real estate firm Inmobiliaria Colonial SA today, before sovereign wealth fund Investment Corporation of Dubai announced that it was interested in buying at least 50.1 percent of the firm, Reuters has reported. The price would be U.S.$2.74 per share, in cash or U.S.$3.33 per share in financial instruments. Overall, this values the Spanish company at approximately U.S.$4.5 billion.The deal will bring clarity to Spain’s commercial real estate market, which has had an overall lack of confidence in Colonial, Andres Escarpenter, CEO of Jones Lang LaSalle Inc.’s Spanish operations, told CPN today. “There…

Just over three years after having closed its first private equity fund, Legacy Capital Partners has closed its second such investment vehicle with $47 million in commitments. Modeled after the first fund, Legacy Capital Partners Fund II will focus its activities on various value-creation pursuits including acquisitions, ground-up developments and redevelopments of a variety of property types. With the goal of taking advantage of steady cash flow and achieving long-term appreciation, LCP II plans to hold properties for atypically long periods. The strategy has proven to be alluring to investors and potential development partners for both funds. LCP Fund II,…