Not Just a Home Inspection..."PEACE OF MIND"

This week's People of Note includes the following markets: Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles, Milwaukee/Madison, New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, South Florida, Washington, DC. LOS ANGELES Cockrum Joins Lowe Enterprises Investors as SVP By Laurie Forbes Lowe Enterprises Investors hired William M. Cockrum IV as senior vice president to head the company’s marketing and capital raising efforts. He will be based in th

GREEN LEAD is a column on environmental and sustainable design and construction, best practices for green building maintenance and operations, economic impact on developers and owners, new LEED and Energy Star building certifications, and trends in the Green Building movement. Send in your Green News Leads to news@costar.com Latest Research on Green Real Estate Now Available

Real estate investment firm C-III Capital Partners LLC last week completed its acquisition of Princeton, NJ-based NAI Global. The long-awaited closing came seven months after the transaction was announced in June, leading some to wonder if the deal had fallen by the wayside. But C-III was hardly idle during that time, acquiring three other companies and making a major play for cash-strapped CRE services firm Grubb & Ellis Co. As reported by CoStar...

A two-week period of exclusive negotiations between Grubb & Ellis Co. and New York-based financial brokerage BGC Partners expired Tuesday without an agreement, according to a document filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Under the previous agreement, Grubb & Ellis provided an exclusive right to negotiate for BGC Partners, headed by chief executive Howard Ludnick, to pursue a debt or equity financing agreement or acquisition of...

With the gradual return of economic growth, including higher levels of manufacturing and consumer spending, the vacancy rate for U.S. warehouses continued to decline at the end of 2011 as the property sector was buoyed by its strongest quarter for net absorption since late 2008. The vacancy rate tracked across 210 markets by Property and Portfolio Research (PPR), CoStar’s analytics and forecasting division, declined to 9.6% in the fourth quarter...

With the gradual return of economic growth, including higher levels of manufacturing and consumer spending, the vacancy rate for U.S. warehouses continued to decline at the end of 2011 as the property sector was buoyed by its strongest quarter for net absorption since late 2008. The vacancy rate tracked across 210 markets by Property and Portfolio Research (PPR), CoStar’s analytics and forecasting division, declined to 9.6% in the fourth quarter...

With the gradual return of economic growth, including higher levels of manufacturing and consumer spending, the vacancy rate for U.S. warehouses continued to decline at the end of 2011 as the property sector was buoyed by its strongest quarter for net absorption since late 2008. The vacancy rate tracked across 210 markets by Property and Portfolio Research (PPR), CoStar’s analytics and forecasting division, declined to 9.6% in the fourth quarter...

With the gradual return of economic growth, including higher levels of manufacturing and consumer spending, the vacancy rate for U.S. warehouses continued to decline at the end of 2011 as the property sector was buoyed by its strongest quarter for net absorption since late 2008. The vacancy rate tracked across 210 markets by Property and Portfolio Research (PPR), CoStar’s analytics and forecasting division, declined to 9.6% in the fourth quarter...

With the gradual return of economic growth, including higher levels of manufacturing and consumer spending, the vacancy rate for U.S. warehouses continued to decline at the end of 2011 as the property sector was buoyed by its strongest quarter for net absorption since late 2008. The vacancy rate for all U.S. industrial properties tracked by CoStar declined to 9.6% in the fourth quarter, down by a slight 24 basis points from the previous three months...

As economic headwinds subside, the commercial real estate lending business for U.S. banks has hit an inflection point. For the first time in five years, a majority of banks are finally talking about their ability to grow their loan portfolios. While the sentiment among banks is neither unanimous, nor the projected lending growth strong, bank executives in analyst earnings calls over the past couple of weeks were clearly signaling they believe they...

The dollar volume of commercial real estate sales vaulted back to longterm historical levels in 2011. CoStar Group has confirmed $291.6 billion in CRE sales in 2011, a 32% increase over the sales volume in 2010. Last year's volume bested the 12-year average volume of $254.2 billion. However, the 2011 dollar volume is still overshadowed by credit-bubble level of $560.5 billion in 2007. Sales of office property led all other types in dollar volume...

Regulators took over four banks in the past week, including the $1.2 billion-sized Tennessee Commerce Bank of Franklin, TN, one other Tennessee bank and one each in Florida and Minnesota. Republic Bank & Trust Co. (RB&T) in Louisville, KY, acquired Tennessee Commerce Bank from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation ("FDIC"). In addition to assuming approximately $1 billion of the deposits of TCB (both insured and uninsured), RB&T purchased...

Goldman Sachs is the putting out the first new CMBS offering of 2012. GS Mortgage Securities Trust 2012-GC6 is a pool of 80 fixed-rate loans totaling $1.15 billion and backed by 127 properties. The loans were originated by Goldman Sachs Mortgage Company (45.8%), Citigroup Global Markets Realty Corp. (45.1%), and Archetype Mortgage Funding ILLC (9.1%). According to Moody's Investors Service, the concentration of multifamily and manufacturing...

In The Pipeline is a column on significant acquisitions of commercial land for sale, and other transactions and trends affecting office, industrial, flex, multifamily, mixed-use, hotel and public works developers. Send us news leads about your new commercial real estate project -- and sign up to be added to our distribution list to receive future In the Pipeline columns by e-mail. Trammell Crow, Principal Launch $1B Development Program Principal...

LyondellBasell renewed 358,138 square feet at 1 Houston Center in Houston. The plastics, chemical and refining company signed a long-term extension deal to maintain its global operations at the central business district office tower. The 1.06 million-square-foot property at 1221 McKinney St. was built in 1996. The lease also included naming rights; the 46-story office building will now be known as LyondellBasell Tower. Charles Gordon, Craig...

This week's People of Note includes the following markets: Dallas, Denver, National, New York City, Orange County, San Francisco and Washington, DC. DALLAS, NATIONAL Behringer Harvard Appoints New President, CEO of REITs By Laurie Forbes Behringer Harvard hired Michael J. O'Hanlon as an executive vice president of the firm and as CEO and president of Behringer Harvard Opportunity REITs I and II. He took the place

The Miami Herald Media Company has agreed to terms to relocate to a 158,265-square-foot office building in Doral, FL. The building, at 3511 NW 91st Ave. in Miami, will be renamed One Herald Plaza at Westpointe Business Park. The company has also acquired an adjacent six-acre pad site to house its 119,000-square-foot production building. CoStar first brought you coverage of the sale of Miami Herald's former waterfront office location to Genting...

The tax rate on carried-interest investment income earned by real estate partnerships, private equity investors and hedge fund operators has once again become an issue for national debate -- this time, all the way to the 2012 presidential campaign. Two prominent Michigan lawmakers announced that they are reviving efforts to reclassify the tax treatment for carried-interest income after Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney released tax records...

Office space absorption doubled during 2011 as the office-using job base expanded and vacancies declined across nearly two-thirds of U.S. submarkets, CoStar Group reported this week in its Year-End 2011 Office Review & Outlook. The report presented to CoStar clients found that positive momentum in office fundamentals and the continued absence of new construction is expected to result in higher rents for building owners over the next few years. Office...

While perhaps not a nationally significant or unusual deal by itself, U.S. Cellular's renewal this past month of an office lease in Madison, WI, succinctly depicts the current state of leasing. U.S. Cellular agreed to extend its lease with affiliates of Wells Real Estate at the U.S. Cellular Building, a four-story, 102,000-rentable-square-foot office building. The Chicago-based carrier leases 73% of the building and owns a 45% equity interest in...