June 30, 2009 - CPPI Reports Precipitous Drop in April
The Moody’s/REAL Commercial Property Index (CPPI) results are in for April, showing a return of negative 8.6% for the all properties national index. The index now sits 25.3% below its level from this time last year, and 29.5% below the peak prices measured in October 2007. “Unlike other areas where people are comfortable that the [...]
June 29, 2009 - Minneapolis Office Space in Macy’s Building for Lease
NAI Welsh are marketing office space for lease in the Macy’s Building in Downtown Minneapolis, marking the first time in the building’s 107-year history that space has ever been available for lease according to a Business Journal article. Located at 700 Nicollet Mall in the heart of downtown Minneapolis, the iconic building dates back to [...]
June 26, 2009 - Sears Tower Getting Green Retrofit
The Sears Tower will be getting a $350 million retrofit, bringing the world’s third tallest building to new heights of energy efficiency, exceeding its current LEED standing. The strategy, designed by Chicago-based Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, will cut the building’s electric consumption by 80% and water use by 40% according to a CoStar [...]
June 25, 2009 - Denver Office Tower Sells for $135M Cash
Downtown Denver’s Seventeenth Street Plaza office building has been sold to HRPT Properties Trust who paid $135 million in cash, making it the largest real-estate deal done in Denver this year according to the Denver Post. Newton, MA-based HRPT, a real estate investment trust that owns and operates office and industrial buildings, bought the 666,653-square [...]
June 24, 2009 - Reuters CRE Report with Philip Blumberg 6/23
Philip Blumberg, speaking at the 2009 Global Real Estate Summit in New York, says “it’s no wonder why these commercial banks aren’t lending.” Separately, Blumberg says he expects to make some investments in the London property market where “they’ve taken writedowns and are closer to the bottom.”
June 22, 2009 - Philip Blumberg on Reuters 6/22
“As the market begins to de-lever, as it begins to reflect real prices, and as the effects of this recession (or depression) come into play in commercial real estate leases, we’re going to see the disparity between what was paid 2-3 years ago and what is paid by next year at levels and spreads we haven’t seen before.”
June 19, 2009 - NAR Convenes CRE Coalition Meeting
Representatives from various commercial real estate and community organizations and associations met on Thursday, brought together by the National Association of Realtors, to work together to provide policymakers with a package of principles and policy priorities to help their efforts in addressing the current CRE credit market crisis. Bob Toothaker, chair of NAR’s Realtor Commercial [...]
June 18, 2009 - DHS Signs $83M Lease in Arlington, VA
The Arlington County Department of Human Services will be moving from its current location at 3033 Wilson Blvd. to 2100 Washington Blvd., entering into a new 13-year lease at the building known as Sequoia Plaza One. The county’s current lease expires in August 2010, at which point DHS will move into its new 144,740 square [...]
June 17, 2009 - Fund Managers Brace for Changes in Dealings with Investors
Blumberg Capital Partners, a value-add debt and equity investor in Coral Gables, Fla., is launching a closed-end fund and its chairman, Phillip Blumberg, expects its limited partners to set restrictions on the use of debt financing. He also expects those co-investors to seek terms that would enable them to cash out of the fund early, even though closed-end funds typically require investors to commit for their full life cycle.
June 16, 2009 - Spear Street Buys Tech Park for $54M
Spear Street Capital has purchased Murphy Ranch Technology Park, a five building office complex totaling 363,000+ square feet of space, in Silicon Valley for roughly $54 million according to a Business Journal article. The seller, Prudential Real Estate Investors, was represented by Cornish & Carey Commercial in cooperation with Holliday Fenoglio Fowler.
The Murphy Ranch Tech [...]
