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Seattle-based senior living provider Emeritus Corporation grew again with the acquisition of 23 communities the firm is already leasing. The price tag of $305 million excludes transaction costs. Emeritus adds 1,672 units across the country to its portfolio with the purchase.In September, Emeritus–a provider of assisted living and Alzheimer’s and related dementia care–completed a merger transaction with Summerville Senior Living Inc. making Emeritus one of the largest national assisted living companies, operating 287 communities in 36 states, comprising 24,712 units with a capacity for 29,474 residents at that time. The addition of the 23 properites provides increased financial flexibility for…

With only hours to go before the deadline for a deal on Macklowe Properties’ $7 billion debt on a portfolio of Manhattan trophy towers, key details apparently still remain unsettled. As reported by CPN last Friday, the firm’s founder, Harry Macklowe, had tentatively agreed to turn over control of the buildings to Deutsche Bank AG. The investment bank provided $5.8 million in short-term debt toward Macklowe’s acquisition of the towers from Equity Office Properties Trust a tear ago. Macklowe also faces a deadline today to repay the other major piece of the debt financing package, a $1.2 billion loan from…

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., White Plains, N.Y., announced today that two former Adams Mark Hotels will be reflagged as the Sheraton Dallas Hotel and Sheraton Denver Hotel. And starting in mid-April, both hotels, owned in partnership between Whitehall Funds and The Chartres Lodging Group–known until last month as Oxford Lodging Advisory & Investment Group L.L.C.–will undergo a comprehensive renovation. Each hotel represents a superlative. The Sheraton Dallas Hotel has 1,842 guest rooms and more than 230,000 square feet of meeting space, including the single largest ballroom in Texas. Located in Dallas’s commercial center, it’s attached by a skybridge…

Not to be outdone by the billions of dollars being poured into developments on the Strip, Downtown Las Vegas is set for its own rebirth and the redevelopment of the Moulin Rouge Hotel & Casino is expected to play a big part. A joint venture involving Moulin Rouge Development Corp. and Republic Urban Properties L.L.C. has just presented the city with its plan for transforming the property at a cost of $700 million to $1 billion. Located in the Uptown area of the city, the Moulin Rouge debuted in 1955 and enjoyed a short history–only about six months–as a hot…

The volatile credit market has not spared the nation’s capital its wrath, but “recession-resistant” Washington, D.C. is still poised for a healthy, yet more difficult, 2008. Delta Associates and Transwestern addressed these challenges and opportunities at their 11th annual Trendlines event, held last evening at the Ronald Reagan Building & International Trade Center in Washington, D.C., with over 1,000 in attendance. Larry Heard, Transwestern’s president & CEO, opened the event, and noted that he recently attended a real estate roundtable where 200 leaders were split on whether the U.S. will move into recession. “But most agreed that 2008 was going…

Interest in green building is becoming more prevalent everywhere, but even in the U.S. Green Building Council’s home market of Washington, D.C., landlord and developer experience is mixed relative to just how much users will commit, according to a discussion that took place among panelists at the Transwestern-Commercial Property News investor roundtable (pictured) yesterday in the nation’s capital. While a number of participants said they hadn’t even experienced interest in green space in the market yet, Penzance Cos. has encountered some with 455 Massachusetts Ave., where it took some steps toward sustainable design upon development, and is now considering whether…

Another hurdle was cleared yesterday for the World Jewelry Center in Las Vegas, with the Las Vegas City Council unanimously approving the Site Development Plan and Special Use Permit for the project.The approvals allow the developer, Probity International Corporation, all the entitlements necessary to proceed with the project. The project’s Site Development Plan had been previously approved by the City of Las Vegas Planning Commission and the Union Park Design Review Committee.On Jan. 10, CPN reported that the Las Vegas City Council approved the Disposition and Development Agreement, Owner Participation Agreement and related documents, allowing the Jewelry Center to proceed…

Several programs sponsored by the former Triple Net Properties, now known as Grubb & Ellis Realty Investors L.L.C., have put the Class A, 523,000-square-foot Congress Center in Chicago up for sale. Holliday Fenoglio Fowler L.P. will be handling the marketing.A source familiar with the building told CPN that Triple Net is its first owner, having bought the building for $136 million in January 2003 from Development Resources Inc. shortly after it was completed. The 16-story building is being sold subject to existing financing. Congress Center (pictured), at 525 W. Van Buren St., has 16 stories of office space and is…

The Alter Group has acquired a 3.7-acre site near Chicago’s massive McCormick Place convention center, with plans to develop a large new hotel there. The parcel’s previous owners, a husband-and-wife team of Maine real estate developers, sold the property to Skokie, Ill.-based Alter for about $70 million in a deal inked in December. It is already zoned for a hotel. Plans are still at a very early stage, but the hotel may end up as large as 1,500 rooms in two towers, according to Matthew Ward, Alter Group senior vice president. The project would also include about 100,000 square feet…

A major step in the development of the Picatinny Applied Research Campus in Picatinny Arsenal, N.J., has been taken with the start of construction on the 1.1 million square-foot office and research park’s first structure. Developer Advance Realty Group is behind the massive Class A development, the first component of which is a 27,500-square-foot flex building. PARC boasts a location off Route 15 and near I-80 in Morris County, about 30 miles from New York City. The flex building is part of the project’s first phase, which will ultimately encompass 100,000 square feet of office and lab space. ICS Builders…