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A breakfast meeting sponsored by the Alliance for Downtown New York and the Downtown-Lower Manhattan Association this morning became the forum for the latest update on the World Trade Center rebuilding effort by developer Silverstein Properties.  During the presentation Silverstein Properties president & CEO Larry Silverstein revealed news about the condo-hotel development at 99 Church St., as well as upcoming steps for Towers 2, 3 and 4. The renowned Robert A.M. Stern Architects is behind the design, unveiled today, of the 40-story condo-hotel that will rise at 99 Church Street, the former headquarters of Moody’s Corp. Silverstein acquired the site…

Choice Hotels International has joined forces with Bell Hospitality Group to open at least 50 of Choice Hotels’ MainStay Suites and Suburban Extended Stay brand hotels across the United States. Bell will handle construction of the properties, which will be erected in various locales in the Midwest and the South, as well as in New Mexico and Colorado. As per terms of Choice Hotels and Bell’s development agreement, construction of the 50 new hotels must be in the development stage by Oct. 31, 2009. Already, the partners have closed on franchise deals for five MainStay properties in Tulsa and Oklahoma…

Nearly 200 members of the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate (AFIRE) responded to an annual survey conducted in the fourth quarter of 2007 by saying that they collectively owned $230 billion in U.S. commercial real estate. The survey also concluded that U.S. property assets are by a wide margin the most sought after in the world by foreign investors. “Collectively, AFIRE members hold a total of $700 billion in commercial real estate in their own countries and around the world,” James Fetgatter, chief executive of the Washington, D.C.-based AFIRE, told CPN today. “So the $230 billion in U.S….

The biggest casino buyout ever is now a done deal. Over a year in the works, Harrah’s Entertainment Inc.’s acquisition by private investment firms Apollo Management L.P. and TPG Capital L.P. has finally reached completion, bringing to a close a buyout valued at $27.8 billion. With the conclusion of the transaction, in which the buyers shelled out $17.1 billion in cash and assumed $10.7 billion in debt, Harrah’s becomes a private company. The deal leaves Harrah’s stockholders with $90 per share of common stock. Issued and outstanding shares of non-voting stock now come under the domain of affiliates of Apollo…

With a massive $750 million expansion and renovation project underway on the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas, the resort’s owner, Morgans Hotel Group, has received approval to begin operating the Hard Rock Casino next month. The company received approval from the Nevada Gaming Commission to operate the casino at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. MHG and its equity partner, DLJ Merchant Banking Partners, expect to begin operating the casino in February. The parntership acquired the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino (pictured) for $770 million last February. In March, they announced a major expansion and renovation…

Ground has broken on a sprawling new campus for the Miami Beach-based New World Symphony, also known as America’s Orchestral Academy. The new complex, designed by renowned architect Frank Gehry, will cost $150 million to complete. Miami Beach is presently undergoing a rebirth centering on the City Center Redevelopment Project, of which the new symphony facility will be the centerpiece. The NWS complex will include a performing and recording segment with a capacity to seat as many as 700, a digital music library, 32 rehearsal rooms, a multi-purpose room, artists suites, changing rooms and administrative offices. Additionally, just adjacent to…

Industrial giant ProLogis has inked deals recently to develop and lease more than 1.1 million square feet of industrial space in Poland. All of the transactions were in the fourth quarter of last year, and spread out in various parts of the country.”There’s a lot of demand for modern warehouse and distribution space in Poland,” Michael de Jong-Douglas, managing director for ProLogis in Central and Eastern Europe, told CPN this morning. “Not only among logistics companies, but also among retailers and manufacturers worldwide, all of whom have an increasing interest in Poland.”According to CB Richard Ellis Inc., about 9.5 million…

A 22-acre property in Boyle Heights, a virtually ignored neighborhood in East Los Angeles, has been slated to become home to a new retail project. Manarino Realty, heading up a team involving boxer Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Partners real estate company, has signed a deal with MJW Investments to acquire and redevelop the Sears Roebuck & Co. property. With an agreement in place, the Manarino team will pursue a master plan to accommodate the needs of the underserved community, which sits just five minutes east of Downtown, where billions of dollars are being poured into a bevy of…

Search engine marketing has always played a critical role in managing the visibility of a company’s online brand. However with the Internet becoming what is arguably today’s dominant medium, search engine marketing has also risen to become a key driver in a company’s overall brand strategy.Regrettably the maturity of the products and services that comprise search engine related disciplines come at a time when the industry has never been more complicated and difficult to navigate. Even though businesses today have many more options with regard to how they execute their search engine initiatives, I find that many marketing executives struggle…

Packaging giant Berry Plastics Corp. has expanded its lease at a site in the western Chicago suburb of Aurora, Ill., to accommodate additional operations. The plastics maker inked a lease for 233,000 square feet at 999 Bilter Road near I-88, also known as the East-West Corridor. Evansville, Ind.-based Berry Plastics had previous used 147,000 square feet of space at the site for warehousing. The unusual part of the deal is that, going forward, the company will be using the additional space for manufacturing. “Site selection for a manufacturing facility is quite complicated, since it has to take into account the…