Z Gallerie Files Chapter 11 Bankruptcy; Exposes Lifestyle Center Risks
April 13, 2009
Tweet Thanks to reader Chapter 11 for pointing us to a blog post by Chapter 11 Blog about the news that Z Gallerie filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Friday (thats a lot of Chapter 11′s). Z Gallerie at one point had 4 stores in high profile locations in Walnut Creek, San Francisco, Palo Alto, [...]
Read More >>10 Months Later, Regency Flipping Out East Palo Alto Project
April 6, 2009
Tweet After acquiring the Gateway 101 project in East Palo Alto in August of last year for $24.7M, Regency Centers has put the 92,000 square foot retail building back on the market. The building was acquired vacant after the Home Depot subsidiary EXPO Design Center vacated the retail building. After acquiring the building, Regency signed [...]
Read More >>U.S. Office and Retail Vacancy Continues Its Ascent
April 2, 2009
Tweet REIS is out with its latest US office vacancy numbers, and not surprisingly, they don’t look good. It’s expected that this year will end with office vacancy rates at nearly 17%, and rents down 7.4%. They are also projecting 2010 vacancy at 17.6 percent, about 1% below the high that was reached in 1992. That [...]
Read More >>Banks Bracing For CRE Defaults
March 23, 2009
Tweet An article in Bloomberg this morning provides some additional detail on bank exposure to commercial real estate. Most of the banks seem ready to take on the losses, but they don’t seem too worried, which is quite reminiscent of the early days of the crisis in the residential sector. According to the article: The [...]
Read More >>Lender Moving In On Hayward’s Southland Mall
March 20, 2009
Tweet The mortgage on Southland Mall, the General Growth (GGP: 20.98 -0.43%) owned mall in Hayward, have been transferred to a special servicer according to rating agency Standard & Poor’s. General Growth had an $81.3M loan on the mall that matured March 1st, a loan which General Growth indicated it could not service. The mall [...]
Read More >>San Francisco’s Bong Su Latest Victim; Restaurants Hit Hard
March 10, 2009
Tweet With increasing unemployment, falling discretionary incomes, and cost cutting at the corporate level, restaurants are being hit hard everywhere. In California, 1 out of 10 jobs are restaurant jobs, and there are some 61,336 eating-and-drinking places in the state (according to National Association of Restaurants) as of 2007. In San Francisco alone, there are [...]
Read More >>Blockbuster Exploring Bankruptcy?
March 3, 2009
Tweet Blockbuster shares (BBI: 0.00 N/A) sank 77% today as news came out that the company had hired Kirkland & Ellis LLP to explore a possible bankruptcy filing according to a Bloomberg article. The company currently has 7,500 stores and has faced increasing pressure from Los Gatos-based NetFlix (NFLX: 234.37 +2.42%). A bankruptcy by Blockbuster [...]
Read More >>Ritz Camera Files Chapter 11 Bankruptcy
February 23, 2009
Tweet Ritz Camera has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company has approximately 1,000 stores, and locally operates under the names Ritz Camera and Wolf Camera, and also operates the Boater’s World store located on Stevens Creek Blvd in San Jose. In other areas, the company also operates stores under the Kits Cameras, Inkley’s and [...]
Read More >>220,000 Stores To Close In 2009
February 19, 2009
Tweet According to Howard Davidowitz of Davidowitz & Associates, 220,000 retail stores will close in 2009. Practically every major retailer is on his list, including Saks, Neiman Macrus. He also cites that there is 19.5 square feet of retail space for every American. Here’s the video
Read More >>U.S. Office Vacancy Rate Set To Soar
February 19, 2009
Tweet According to REIS, a market research firm, office vacancy rates in the United States are expected to reach 16.7% this year. REIS’s latest market reports indicate an expectation of 17.6% next year, just shy of the 18.7% vacancy reached in 1992. The vacancy rate as of EOY 2008 was 14.5%. REIS also expects rental rates [...]
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