Commercial Real Estate & Business Opportunities

Amazon.com Expanding Further in Seattle Amazon.com's forthcoming relocation and expansion in Seattle just got a little bit bigger. The locally based Internet retail juggernaut signed a long-term lease for 180,000 square feet with Vulcan Real Estate at 2201 Westlake. Amazon plans to take...

Lehman Bros. Bankruptcy Offers Prime Example of How Not to Grow a CRE Portfolio As corporate post mortems go, the report compiled by the bankruptcy examiner of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., may go down as the standard in bankruptcy documents. And what it tells us about the collapse of the once-venerable investment house will stand...

PwC Investor Survey Finds Hope for First Time in Two Years Visualize recovery. Commercial real estate investors find that easier to do today than at any point during the past two years, despite concerns over weak demand and maturing upside-down loans, according to the first-quarter 2010 PricewaterhouseCoopers...

Former L.J. Melody Trio Joins JLL to Expand Real Estate Investment Banking Business In an aggressive move to expand its capital markets business, Jones Lang LaSalle (NYSE:JLL) hired three leading mortgage brokers to head its Real Estate Investment Banking (REIB) business in the Americas. Thomas J. Melody, Thomas O. Fish and Michael...

Retail Leasing Activity Helps Offset Deluge of Vacant Junior Anchor Stores During 2008 and 2009, several major retailers that typically leased junior anchor tenant positions in shopping centers closed hundreds of stores nationwide. Among the largest closures were 722 Circuit City stores, 589 Linens 'n Things stores, 367 Goody...

Lease Up/Lease Down (Mar. 14-20): E! Renews, Schools Cut Staff CoStar compiles news of corporate expansions, relocations, extensions, closures, layoffs, lease cancellations and mergers in the weekly Lease Up/Lease Down news report, a concise read keeping you updated on major corporate moves affecting commercial...

Bank Watch: FDIC Gives City Bank 30-Days or Else Notice The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) has given City Bank in Lynnwood, WA, until April 10 to raise additional capital or accept an offer to be acquired. The order also repeated restrictions already in place on accepting or renewing brokered deposits...

In The Pipeline: CoStar Development and Construction News for March 14-20 In this week's In The Pipeline, developers will get another shot at winning the right to develop a casino at the Aqueduct Race Track in Queens, NY. CRB Realty Associates has filed a report with the state indicating its interest in developing Parkway...

E! Renews HQ Lease in Los Angeles E! Entertainment Television has re-upped its headquarters lease in Los Angeles, signing a 10-year renewal at Wilshire Courtyard. Comcast's popular entertainment network occupies a total of 335,304 square feet at 5700 and 5750 Wilshire Blvd. It is...

CoStar's Retail News Roundup: Mar. 14 - 20, 2010 This week in the Retail Roundup, CoStar reports on expansions or new concepts at Urban Outfitters and Genesco; closings, cutbacks, bankruptcy, default, receivership or foreclosure news at French Connection, Men's Wearhouse, American Eagle and Williams...

Men's Wearhouse Identifies 145 Stores for Probable Closure During 2009, Men's apparel retail chain, Men's Wearhouse, opened 6 new, but closed 41 stores. Due to geographic overlap caused by its 2006 acquisition of the AfterHours Formalwear chain, the company has identified 145 stores that it would likely close...

American Eagle Shuttering 28 MARTIN +OSA stores Pittsburgh, PA-based specialty apparel retailer, American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE:AEO), is shuttering its MARTIN + OSA banner, including its 28 stores and online business. The company expects to conclude the liquidation of the MARTIN + OSA stores, which...

HHS Leases 114,500 SF in Quincy The Executive Office of Health and Human Services for Massachusetts signed a lease for 114,451 square feet of office space at HarborSouth Tower in Quincy. MassHealth and other related divisions will occupy floors four through eight at 100 Hancock St....

Thinning Loan Loss Coffers May Restrict CRE Lending In addition to keeping an eye on declining property values, falling rents and rising vacancy rate numbers, the commercial real estate community is also concerned over ominous signs in banking industry numbers. One big area of concern is the fact that...

Recent Improvement in CRE Liquidity Welcomed, But Loan Maturities Loom Large Commercial real estate lending has tentatively started to flow, but as any building owner will attest, credit isn't easy to obtain and the onslaught of maturing commercial mortgages is chipping away at the confidence of investors. The challenges to...

NEW PLAYER: Cassidy Turley's Mark Burkhart On Launching a Major New CRE Firm Eight regional commercial real estate firms that teamed up to become one in January officially launched as Cassidy Turley on March 1. The firms comprising Cassidy Turley include Cassidy & Pinkard Colliers in Washington, DC, Colliers Turley Martin Tucker...

Shopping Center Execs Voice Improving Confidence Despite Major Challenges The International Council of Shopping Centers' (ICSC) latest Shopping Center Executive Survey showed that shopping center executives' confidence in the present economic situation and expectations for the future, while muted, are better and improving....

Lease Up/Lease Down (Mar. 7-13): UBS Renews, Postal Service Unveils 10-Year Plan CoStar compiles news of corporate expansions, relocations, extensions, closures, layoffs, lease cancellations and mergers in the weekly Lease Up/Lease Down news report, a concise read keeping you updated on major corporate moves affecting commercial...

Investors Picking Up Unfinished Condo Projects LeaseFlorida LLC in Miami Lakes, FL, foreclosed on two failed residential condominium projects. In the first deal, Cypress Bay condo project in the Sunset Harbor area of Miami Beach. Cypress Bay was a planned 20-unit with ground floor retail at 1225...

Bank Watch: Building a New Banking Company Out of Distress One Main Street LLC, a New York-based investment fund, agreed to acquire tiny Liberty Bank Inc. of Salt Lake City. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval. One Main Street has filed an application to become a bank holding company with the...

Updated: Pershing Square & Fairholme Capital Offer $3.925B to General Growth General Growth Properties (NYSE:GGP) announced Mar. 8 that a joint venture between Pershing Square Capital Management and Fairholme Capital Management said they would commit $3.925 billion of new equity capital, at a value of $15.00 per share, to facilitate...

In The Pipeline: CoStar Development and Construction News for March 7-13 In this week's edition of In The Pipeline, Forest City's Atlantic Yards mixed-use project is scheduled to finally break ground this week. Meanwhile, another long delayed development project, the Guasti Historic District in Ontario, CA,has begun with...

UBS Renews, Consolidates in Chicago UBS is extending its stay at One North Wacker Drive in Chicago, also known as the UBS Tower. The Swiss financial services firm has renewed for 400,000 square feet in the office tower, a total of 13 floors. The 10-year lease, set to commence in 2012...

10-Year Plan Indicates Post Office Closures Faced with a probable $238 billion shortfall over the next 10 years, the United States Postal Service has outlined a new plan to cut costs and return the agency to long-term profitability. The Postal Service's new plan outlined several additional...

CoStar's Retail News Roundup: Mar. 7 - 13, 2010 This week in the Retail Roundup, CoStar reports on expansions or new concepts at TJX Companies and Kohl's; closings, cutbacks, bankruptcy, default, receivership or foreclosure news at Swoozie's and the Northgate Mall; acquisition, merger, loan, sale...

Retailers Expected to Close Fewer Stores in 2010 Add store closings to the list of categories where 'less bad' has become the 'new good.' The International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) issued its latest semi-annual report on store closings and found that the huge wave of store closures that...