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 [...]

RREEF, RREEF, and RREEF

The Registry has three recent articles out, all of them hitting on RREEF. The first article discusses the SF Employee Pension, and the hit they’ve taken on their real estate investments – to the tune of about $650M.
The most significant unrealized net-asset value losses occurred in three portfolios managed by three well-known pension fund money [...]

Hawaii Uh-Oh: Hotels in Trouble

Hawaii will be one of the hardest hit in the hotel sector. The number of hotels in trouble is staggering, and the dollar amounts blistering. During the “boom years”, PE firms and conduits had a voracious appetite for Hawaiian Hotels and their debt, fueling record high prices that were extremely susceptible to even the smallest fall in vacancy [...]

Sunnyvale Town Center Goes Into Receivership

The Business Journal is reporting that receivers and advisors have been named on the Sunnyvale Town Center project.
Jerry Hunt, president of Blake Hunt Ventures of Danville, and Quattro Realty Group were appointed as receivers.
Meanwhile, Wilson Meany Sullivan, developer of The 88 condominium tower in San Jose, and Federal Realty Investment Trust, the developer of Santana [...]

Hammer Dropping on Sunnyvale Town Center

Wachovia will be pursuing foreclosure of the massive Sunnyvale Town Center project. Meanwhile, contractors and subs have lined up and filed liens against the massive Sunnyvale project – and DevCon, the general also has filed to force a sale.
Wachovia has about $120M into the deal, while RREEF and Sand Hill have about $200M into it. [...]

Lobbying Congress For Help

Absolutely Classic:
U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, sent letters to Kenneth Lewis, president of the Bank of America, and John Stumpf, president of Wells Fargo, dated May 7, asking them to explain why they refused to give Pau and partner RREEF a $391 million construction loan.
“Although I understand and respect your position as private institutions, [...]

Banks Bracing For CRE Defaults

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 country’s 10 [...]

NAHB/Wells Fargo’s July Housing Index Numbers Eclipse June’s All-Time Low

Last month, the NAHB (National Association of Home Builders)/Wells Fargo Housing Index reached an all time low of 18. July’s numbers were released last week, and they fell a further to points to 16. Anything north of 50 is considered good; and it is very obvious we’re very far off that mark.
The outlook for the future [...]

Biggest Banks Likely Beneficiaries

In commercial real estate, the best buildings tend to maintain the highest levels of occupancy, even in a downturn. As the market softens, tenants try to take advantage by moving into better buildings.
I suspect what we’re seeing right now in banking will be similar to what happens in commercial real estate. As the media continues [...]

National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Sentiment Index Reaches All-Time Low

The NAHB/Wells Fargo Sentiment Index guages the market sentiment of builders of single-family homes. The index has been tracking this data for over twenty years and the data they released yesterday indicates that sentiment is at an all-time low of 18. 50 is the median number, with any number over that indicates that more builders [...]