December 30, 2009 - Largest Manhattan Office Deal for 2009
Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP closed on a deal this past week to renew and expand its current lease at 1285 Avenue of the Americas, also known as the PaineWebber Building, keeping the international law firm in a 15-year lease for roughly 585,000 feet of space in the tower. Paul Weiss will be [...]
December 29, 2009 - AFI USA Completes $267M Refinancing of Times Square Building
Africa Israel USA (AFI USA) has come to a settlement with its lenders and completed the recapitalization and restructuring of the debt on the Times Square Building according to a CoStar report. The refinancing allows AFI USA to move forward with plans for redevelopment of the property with this new five-year refinancing with a [...]
December 28, 2009 - UBS on the Hunt for New York Space
Bloomberg is reporting that UBS AG is looking to secure as much as 800,000 square feet of NYC-area office space, a timely move as rental rates for Class A offices in Midtown fell 25 percent from November 2008 to November 2009 according to Colliers ABR Inc. Kris Kagel, a New York-based spokesman for UBS, noted [...]
December 24, 2009 - Failed Bank Loans Pique Bid Interest
According to a Wall Street Journal article more than a dozen investors have submitted bids to the FDIC to buy a $1.1 billion package of CRE loans extended by failed banks, including loans held by Franklin Bank, IndyMac Bank and other failed lenders. The FDIC is expected to announce the winning bidder in the next [...]
December 23, 2009 - Bay Area Office Vacancy at 5 Year High
According to NAI BT Commercial the San Francisco commercial vacancy rate is at 15.3%, up from 10.2% in 2007. Though this doesn’t match the 20% vacancy rate seen in 2002 after the dot-com bubble burst, industry experts in a Wall Street Journal article say they expect the rate to continue climbing in the next quarter [...]
December 22, 2009 - Intuit to Sell Intuit Real Estate Solutions
Intuit Inc. has signed an agreement to sell Intuit Real Estate Solutions (IRES) to Vista Equity Partners for approximately $128 million in cash. IRES, formerly known as Management Reports, Inc., is part of Intuit’s global business division and is a leading provider of software and services to companies in the real estate management and investment [...]
December 21, 2009 - Moodys/CPPI Numbers Down
The Moody’s/REAL Commercial Property Price Indices fell 1.5% in October from September, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. This is the lowest seen since since August 2002 with prices down 36% from the same time last year. The November 25 report showed a return of negative 3.9% in September for the all properties national index.
Matthew [...]
December 18, 2009 - Lantana Entertainment Media Campus Sold to Lionstone
The Lionstone Group, a Houston-based private real estate investment firm, has purchased the Lantana Entertainment Media Campus in Santa Monica from Maguire Properties according to a CoStar article. Lionstone purchased the campus as part of its urban investments fund; the terms of the deal were not disclosed. The 463,000-square foot studio production and creative office [...]
December 17, 2009 - Northern California’s Moffett Towers Lands First Tenant
Sunnyvale’s long-vacant office complex, Moffett Towers, has finally signed its first occupant. According to the Silicon Valley Business Journal, chip maker Rambus will move 300 employees into 130,000 sq ft across several floors in one of the seven eight-story buildings that make up the complex. According to Square Feet Commercial Real Estate Blog, the terms [...]
December 16, 2009 - Facebook Leases More Office Space in Palo Alto
As social-networking giant Facebook continues to expand its reach across the globe, they are filling up Palo Alto office buildings nearly as quickly. Earlier this year, Facebook moved its nearly 900 employees to a 150,000 sq ft building located at 1601 South California Drive in the Stanford Research Park. According to the Silicon Valley Business Journal, Facebook will double that [...]
