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With an anticipated need for 20,000 hotel rooms over the next ten years, Honduras is seeing an increased level of hotel development. The Central American country of 7.4 million people attracted just over 1 million visitors in 2006, and international tourist arrivals have grown an average of 12 percent per year in the past five years. Liliana Sanchez, investment officer for FIDE Investment and Exports, the Honduran government’s national investment promotion agency, talked about hotel development in in this Central American nation of 7.4 million people. CPN: Are you seeing increased hotel development in Honduras, and, if so, why?Sanchez: Yes,…

Atlanta’s office market should see a slight increase in rents this year, despite a significant delivery of new office space and an economy likely to be in downshift mode, according to a report from Jones Lang LaSalle that examines trends in 52 major buildings in Atlanta’s intown submarkets.Rents should increase over the first half of this year, then slow down in the second half, said David Demarest, managing director of Jones Lang LaSalle’s tenant representation team in Atlanta. “Atlanta is a service economy, and it tracks national trends,” Demarest said. Average overall direct rental rates in Atlanta’s CBD reached $22…

Transwestern has started construction on the first phase of a more than 500,000-square-foot speculative business park on the south side of Houston. The firm purchased 50 acres at the southeast corner of Highway 288 and Reed Road for the development of a the business park, which will be called Park 288. Once completed, Park 288 (pictured) will total 567,600 square feet.  Transwestern has started on the construction of Phase I, which will consist of three buildings totaling 268,400 square feet. The buildings will feature 16-foot to 28-foot clear heights and will accommodate office/showroom, medical and distribution users that serve The…

Nationwide Health Properties Inc. has inked a series of deals with Pacific Medical Buildings (PMB) to buy $915 million worth of properties from PMB over the next two years, as well as acquire a 50 percent interest in PMB Real Estate Services L.L.C., a medical office management company.The deals also stipulate that Nationwide Health may–but is not obligated to–acquire as much as $1 billion worth of medical office buildings from PMB over the next seven years.”This acquisition provides us with a long-term growth platform,” Douglas Pasquale, Nationwide Health’s president & CEO, said this morning during a conference call. “We sought…

Canada’s first lifestyle center, Quartier DIX30 in Brossard, Quebec, nears completion as developer RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust announced the closing of the last originally contemplated phase of the $350 million project.  The fourth phase of the development will leave the mixed-use property with 1.9 million square feet of retail space. In its final state, the shopping and entertainment center will feature over 155 stores, restaurants, a Germain Group-designed boutique hotel, a 900-seat theatre and concert hall and parking facilities to accommodate 5,000 vehicles. Occupying land on the south shore of Montreal, Quartier is sprouting up on land that had…

While Pigeon Forge, Tenn., is known in the Southeast as a top tourism destination, the town is in line to attract national attention when Belle Island Village comes online.  Southern Venue Development L.L.C. is overseeing the creation of the mixed-use themed destination–which will encompass film- and racing-centric attractions–and has just announced that the unique mixed-use project will open this fall. Belle Island village will occupy 26 acres in a town that serves as a gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The development will be anchored by two major attractions: the Debbie Reynolds Hollywood Motion Picture Museum, as well…

An industry alliance of institutional investors, portfolio managers, index providers, banks, brokers and others associated with U.S. commercial property derivative products has launched to help promote the use of the investment tools more commonly seen in Europe.RED-SIG, which stands for The Real Estate Derivatives Special Interest Group, “aims to provide easy, free access to useful and important information for any investor considering real estate derivatives in their portfolio,” said Phil Barker, vice chair of the group and senior vice president-real estate derivatives at CBRE/GFI in New York City.“The market hasn’t adopted these applications as well as they have in other…

Reading International Inc. has borrowed $55 million from GE Commercial Finance to fund the previously announced acquisition of 15 cinemas from Pacific Theatres Exhibition Corp. The seller is contributing financing to the transaction. Located in California and Hawaii, the cinemas contain 181 screens and generate annual revenues of approximately $81 million. The purchase price for the theaters and related assets is $72 million. Los Angeles-based Reading International develops, owns and operates multiplex cinemas in the United States, Australia and New Zealand. When the transaction has been completed, the company’s cinema interests will increase from 286 screens in 44 cinema complexes…

Glass towers positioned too closely to the street and gaps that may exist in on-site vehicle inspection are two security concerns that law enforcement officials have cited about the World Trade Center site, according to a report in Sunday’s Daily News. Officials have expressed concern that Towers 2, 3 and 4—all comprised predominately of glass–will be built too close to the street. All three will be located between Greenwich and Church Streets. In addition, officials anticipated problems in inspecting the approximately 2,000 delivery trucks and sightseeing buses that will pass through the site daily; according to the report, the vehicle…

The City of Pontiac, Mich., is having another go at selling the Pontiac Silverdome for redevelopment.Despite previous attempts to sell the shuttered sports facility on a 127.5-acre site in the Detroit suburb, it remains unused and under city ownership.According to CB Richard Ellis Inc., which is marketing the property, the city has received one proposal to lease the property and another five to buy it. Bidders include, among others, Stuart Frankel Development Co., based in nearby Troy, Mich., which plans to redevelop the site into office and retail space, and the Kampala, Uganda-based United Assurance Co., which would renovate the…