Simon Property Group Going After General Growth

Simon Property Group (SPG: 85.23 +1.25%) has bid $10B for General Growth [GGWPQ.PK]. This comes as little surprise as there has been plenty of talk about Simon seeking to swallow the troubled owner of malls.
The bidding likely will go higher as General Growth also seeks alternative financing from other groups as a way to stay [...]

Investors Wary of Writing Blank Checks

Private money was flowing into REITs by the billions last year (about $20B). But when it comes to handing money over to “blind pools”, the money has been timid. Blind pools are essentially funds offering nothing more than a business plan.
Despite having great track records, Ziman (Arden Realty) and Callahan (Trizec Properties) may have some [...]

CRE Videos … Sternlicht and More

More videos…
First up, Barry Sternlicht on Bloomberg from Davos. Not much new except that they’re hot on residential land. This is understandable as housing stabilizes in a market that has seen little new development.

Second up is Greg Genovese, of Thompson National Properties, and Jordan Sadler, of Keybanc Capital Markets discussing FED impact on the commercial [...]

Rubicon US REIT Goes BK

Not much is known about Rubicon US REIT (a subsidiary of the larger Rubicon US Trust), but according to Reuters, the REIT with assets of $100-500M has filed for bankruptcy. Despite the talk of all the capital raised by REITs, Rubicon won’t be the last.
Property investment fund Rubicon US REIT is a subsidiary of Rubicon [...]

CMBS Delinquency Rate Continues To Rise; Inland Western Issues $500M CMBS Deal

CMBS loans delinquent beyond 30-days now stands at about 4.47% according to Moody’s. The low was reached in late 2007, at .22%. The number is up 46 basis points month-over-month. Hit the hardest is the hospitality sector, where the delinquency rate is at 7.8%.
In other news, JPMorgan sold off $500M of CMBS for Inland Western.
Inland [...]

Pershing Square on The Outlook For Mall REITS

RetailTraffic Blog has posted a presentation by Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management detailing the improving economic climate, and the optimism they feel with regards to well positioned mall REITs.
There are certainly signs of economic activity bouncing back, but the months after this holiday season will be very telling. On a macro level, we will [...]

ProLogis and AMB Present at Goldman Conference

ProLogis and AMB presented at the Goldman Sachs Commercial Real Estate Symposium in New York. Despite the risks that still exist, both groups are seeing more reasons to be optimistic.
One interesting point on the webcast was that even through the peak, there were not that many large industrial portfolios that were backed by CMBS, and [...]

Morgan Stanley to Take Hit on Crescent

Morgan Stanley was one of the most aggressive investors during this last boom cycle. Their activities included the acquisition of the EOP San Francisco portfolio for some $2.5B, and the August 2007 purchase of Crescent Real Estate Equities for $6.5B (if you include the debt), and other smaller deals such as providing the debt on [...]

Carl Icahn Bearish on REITs, Sees Risk of Double Dip

Carl Icahn on CNBC talking markets, debt, and REITs….

Steven Roth of Vornado on CNBC

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 peak: public capitalizations followed [...]