JP Morgan Deal Reflects Seattle-Area Interest (08/04/2010)
A J.P. Morgan fund has paid about $310 million for a coveted office tower and an apartment building in the Seattle area, a sale that underscores investors' hunger for high-quality real estate in that market.
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Walton Street to Sell Mall Stake to Partners (06/02/2010)
Simon Property and a Calpers partnership will take full ownership of the Houston Galleria by acquiring Walton Street Capital's 37.5% stake in a deal that values the trophy mall at roughly $1.65 billion.
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Bainbridge Eyes Multi-Family Buying Spree (05/05/2010)
Bainbridge Cos., which has been on the sidelines for more than two years, plans to buy about $1 billion of multi-family properties in Florida and the Washington, D.C., area over the next year.
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Pension Portfolios Fell by 24% Last Year (04/21/2010)
Real Estate Alert's annual review of public pension
systems has documented just how big a toll the
economic downturn took last year: The 50 largest
plans saw their real estate portfolios plunge in value
by a whopping 24% on average.
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Bank Markets Foreclosed Beverly Hills Parcel (03/24/2010)
(SEE CORRECTION BELOW) A foreclosed Beverly Hills parcel slated for the development of a luxury condominium and retail complex is expected to command less than one-quarter of the price that it traded for two years ago.
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CB Wins Composite Ranking in Dismal Year (02/17/2010)
CB Richard Ellis last year retained its position as the nation's most-active brokerage across the five major property types, but a catastrophic drop in sales activity stole the luster from its crown.
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Starwood-FDIC Team Pulls Condo Offering (02/03/2010)
A Starwood Capital-FDIC partnership has dropped its offering of a California condominium project inherited from the failed Corus Bank and will instead finish the complex itself and then seek to sell the units.
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3 Brokerages Seek to Bolster NY Operations (01/06/2010)
Colliers Pinkard, Holliday Fenoglio Fowler and Jones Lang LaSalle are each aiming to bulk up their New York investment-sales teams, leading some to speculate that another round of musical chairs may be in the offing for top brokers.
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Placement Agents Shift to Advisory Focus (10/28/2009)
With few funds in a capital-raising mode, placement agents have shifted their focus to advising fund operators and their limited partners on how to navigate the troubled real estate market.
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Morgan Stanley Walks Away From Crescent (10/14/2009)
Morgan Stanley is preparing to turn the keys to Crescent Real Estate Equities over to a Barclays syndicate and walk away from its disastrously timed $6.5 billion takeover of the REIT.
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SL Green Sells Mezz Loan at 33% Discount (07/22/2009)
A syndicate organized by Deutsche Bank has bought a $95 million mezzanine loan on a Midtown Manhattan office condominium from SL Green at a discount of about 33%, in the latest sign of how far values have dropped even for core properties.
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Mezz Lenders Taking Over Cabi Portfolio (07/08/2009)
The senior lenders on a heavily overleveraged California office portfolio have agreed to let four investors convert their mezzanine debt into equity as part of a restructuring that will significantly dilute the $100 million investment of a Calpers-Hines joint venture.
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Walsh in Line to Take Over Lehman Funds (06/17/2009)
Mark Walsh is leading a team of Lehman Brothers executives who are close to taking over management of the bankrupt company's property funds, a move that would mark the return of one of Wall Street's biggest real estate dealmakers.
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Apartment Portfolio Seen as Under Pressure (06/03/2009)
A heavily leveraged mortgage on a 2,990-unit apartment portfolio has been transferred to special servicing, raising questions about whether the owner will be forced to sell or recapitalize the complexes.
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Gloomy Outlook Dims CB Ranking Victory (02/18/2009)
CB Richard Ellis dethroned Eastdil Secured last year as the nation's most active brokerage across the five major property types, but the victory came amid plunging sales activity and an increasingly gloomy outlook for 2009.
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Retail Properties Leading Race to Bottom (02/04/2009)
After watching the sales of large shopping centers and malls plunge last year, retail specialists can take solace only from the fact that their sector seems likely to hit bottom before other segments of the commercial real estate market.
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Silver Linings Scarce in Office-Sales Market (01/28/2009)
Coming off a year that saw a sharp drop in office-property sales, market pros expect activity to decline further in 2009, with transactions mostly involving buildings with assumable financing, forced sales or recapitalizations of overleveraged properties.
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CB's Contract as FDIC Advisor Not Exclusive (12/10/2008)
CB Richard Ellis disheartened its rivals two weeks ago by announcing it had landed a contract to market foreclosed properties for the FDIC, but now the agency has clarified that the arrangement is nonexclusive.
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Property Funds Hammered by 1-Year Losses (12/03/2008)
Several high-yield property funds launched by well-known operators in 2006 or 2007 posted poor 1-year net returns through midyear, and the list of weak performers is expected to swell as the fallout continues from the financial meltdown.
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Cabi Misses Loan Payment, Seeks Extension (10/08/2008)
Cabi Developers has missed a big principal payment on a $1.3 billion debt package backed by a Southern California office portfolio and is negotiating with its lenders about a possible workout.
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Wall Street's Woes Rattle Property Owners (09/17/2008)
The seemingly endless cascade of dire financial news over the weekend, capped by the bankruptcy filing of Lehman Brothers, signals that real estate prices could still fall significantly further.
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Broadway Agrees to Sale, Swap in LA Area (09/10/2008)
Continuing an effort to reduce its heavy debt load, Broadway Partners has agreed to sell one Los Angeles office building to Jamison Partners and to swap its interest in another for Blackstone Group's stake in a third property.
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Carlton, Pru Target High-Yield Mortgages (07/02/2008)
Carlton Group and Prudential Real Estate Investors have pledged $400 million of equity for a joint venture that will make high-yield-debt investments - the latest in a string of vehicles formed to capitalize on illiquid debt markets.
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One Glendale Building Listed, Another Pulled (05/14/2008)
An ING Clarion Partners fund is selectively shopping an office building in the Los Angeles suburb of Glendale, even as another property on the same street got pulled from the market because of lackluster bids.
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REIT Pulls $1 Billion of Rentals, Lists Others (04/23/2008)
AIMCO, which put $2 billion-plus of apartment properties up for sale earlier this year, has found buyers for close to $1 billion of the complexes, but has pulled most of the remaining listings after getting disappointing bids.
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Eastdil Dominated as Office Sales Hit Peak (01/30/2008)
Eastdil Secured was by far the most-active broker of large office properties last year, when giant portfolio offerings and subsequent flips fueled the biggest sales volume in commercial real estate history.
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BofA Wins M&A Ranking in Blowout Year (01/23/2008)
Bank of America beat out defending champ Morgan Stanley for the title of most-active advisor on U.S. real estate mergers and acquisitions last year as volume shattered records, according to Real Estate Alert's 12th annual survey.
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Macklowe Taps CB as Advisor on GM Building (01/16/2008)
Faced with an urgent need to raise capital in order to pay off maturing debt, developer Harry Macklowe has retained CB Richard Ellis to advise him on the possible sale or recapitalization of the GM Building in Midtown Manhattan.
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