Surprise Surprise: More Store Closings

More store closings are expected. This doesn’t come as much of a surprise. Given the percentage of sales retailers ring up during the holiday season, it was obvious it would have been wise to get through the holiday season and then put the wheels of closure back in action.
Bloomberg has a pretty cool little multimedia [...]

Macklowe’s Back as CMBS Delinquencies Continue To Rise

After suffering some pretty big losses over the past two years, Harry Macklowe is back. This time he has teamed up with CIM Group to take control again of the development site on Park Avenue in New York.
The partnership between Macklowe and CIM will pay off about $510M of debt on the site, which was [...]

AIA Projects 13% Fall in Commercial Construction

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is forecasting that office, retail and hotel development may fall 13% this year. In July, they were forecasting 12%.
ndustrial construction spending is likely to slump the most this year, 24 percent, and an additional 7.8 percent in 2011, the institute said.
The group expects hotel building to also fall about 24 percent [...]

Retail Squeeze: Retail Assets Fall Into Distress

InsideBayArea has an article out discussing some of the retail projects that have fallen into foreclosure. The projects listed include:

Saigon Village LLC, owner of a Vietnamese-themed retail village that us proposed for Stevenson Boulevard between Cedar Boulevard and Albrae Street in Fremont, listed $18.5 million in mortgage debts and a property value of $24 million.
Orchard [...]

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 [...]

Simon Property Group Snaps Up Prime Outlets For $2.3B

Simon Property Group (SPG: 82.08 +1.41%) has purchased outlet owner and operator Prime Outlets for $2.33B. Big news, except the company paid 80% of the price in cash, and the rest in partnership units, plus assumption of debt.
The deal gives Indianapolis-based Simon Property an additional 22 retail outlet centers, increasing its total to more than [...]

101 Wachovia Branches To Close in California

The digestion of Wachovia by Wells Fargo is underway and as part of the process, Wells Fargo will be closing 101 California branches. In addition, 65 existing Wachovia branches will be rebranded. In Santa Clara County, the three branches to be rebranded include:

Berryessa Rd and Sandstone Ln, San Jose
Stanford Shopping Center, Palo Alto
Bollinger Rd and [...]

Apple To Open 40 to 50 New Stores – More Than Half Internationally

Cupertino’s Apple Computer (AAPL: 226.60 +0.49%) announced that it intends on opening 40-50 new stores next year. More than half of them will be international. It also intends to open up some as more significant flagship stores in prominent locations in London, Shanghai, and Paris.
It also recently just opened a new store in Manhattan. That [...]

RREEF Outsources Retail Property Management

Completing its program of getting out of the property management business, RREEF Real Estate has outsourced about 11 million square feet of retail at 58 centers across the US, the company announced Wednesday. Jones Lang LaSalle, United Commercial Realty, Mid-America Asset Management Inc., Crosland and KeyPoint Partners will take over direct property management of RREEF’s [...]

US Retail Vacancies Zoom to 17 Year High

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 and hiring, [...]