US Retail Vacancies Zoom to 17 Year High
October 8, 2009
Tweet The retail vacancy rate (neighborhood and community centers) in the US is up 190 basis points over last year, reaching a 17-year high of 10.3%. At regional and super-regional malls, vacancies are up 200 basis points YoY to 8.6%. “Until we see stabilization and recovery take root in both consumer spending and business spending [...]
Read More >>New FHA Rules Make Life Tough For Condo Sellers
October 7, 2009
Tweet Beginning, October 1st, the FHA has instituted new rules around loans on condos. The full letter is embedded below. The new rules are pretty dramatic, particularly for new condo and vacation-unit developments seeking FHA approval. The rules require at least 50% of the units in the project to have been sold for new product, [...]
Read More >>Mervyn’s HQ Being Sold
October 7, 2009
Tweet Mervyn’s former HQ building is being sold off by a receiver. The receiver has hired HFF to market and sell the asset. The receiver is John Connolly Partners. Globe St. has a write up on the 336,000 square foot project, which sold for some $196 psf in 2007 based upon a long term lease [...]
Read More >>US Office Vacancy At 5-Year High; Rents Plummet
October 7, 2009
Tweet REIS is out with data on the US vacancy rate, and it continues to hike down the hill. Vacancy is now at 16.5%, a five-year high. Meanwhile, office space rents are falling at the fastest pace in a decade. Negative absorption in the third quarter proved to continue at a greater level than it [...]
Read More >>Fed Concerns About Commercial Real Estate Grow
October 7, 2009
Tweet The Federal Reserve is becoming increasingly concerned about commercial real estate. A Fed presentation reviewed by the WSJ indicates the body’s concern over the speed with which banks are recognizing commercial real estate losses and that the banks are on a similar track as when they were slow to react to the residential crisis. [...]
Read More >>Plotting Against the US Dollar
October 5, 2009
Tweet Take a trip to Europe and you’ll very quickly realize how far the value of the US dollar has fallen. Since the printing presses have been turned on full tilt in this country, talk of China and Middle Eastern countries moving away from the dollar as their reserve currency of choice has correspondingly gained [...]
Read More >>Steven Roth of Vornado on CNBC
October 5, 2009
Tweet Bill Rudin of Rudin Management and Steven Roth of Vornado were on CNBC earlier today. Full clip below, but quick sound bite summary: recovery will be longer than anybody anticipates – bottoming process could take 2 years or possibly more flight to quality, tenants want longer term deals this down-cycle following the down-cycle trends which followed 1988 [...]
Read More >>On What Basis?
October 2, 2009
Tweet The co-founder of Green Street Advisors, Mike Kirby, says CRE may have bottomed. Just 3 months ago he indicated that prices were down 40%, and they were to drop more. What has happened between June and now? Not much, aside from a bunch of money pouring into REITs. On the one hand, one can [...]
Read More >>Starwood Reportedly Winner of Corus Bank Assets
October 2, 2009
Tweet The WSJ is reporting that a group led by Starwood Capital is the likely winner of the auction for Corus Bank’s commercial real estate assets. The “face” value of the assets is about $5 Billion according to the article, and the deal is far from done. Starwood recently raised a big chunk of change [...]
Read More >>San Mateo Looking to Mandate Green TI’s
October 2, 2009
Tweet San Mateo currently has a green building program that is voluntary. The city is working on removing the voluntary nature of the program and instead making it a mandate. The mandate would not only cover all new construction, but any TI jobs greater than 10,000 square feet as well. At a time when rents [...]
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