Wall Street Journal, Nov. 17, 2015–Pleven, Liam
A spate of retailer bankruptcies this year has left owners of malls and shopping centers scrambling to fill empty stores and dented their financial results. The share prices of several real-estate investment trusts that focus on retail properties are lagging behind the overall market in 2015.
Wall Street Journal, Nov. 16, 2015–Grant, Peter
Auction.com is launching a major push to develop stronger ties with brokers as part of a broader effort to expand its commercial-property business. The firm, which started online real-estate auctions in 2008, has been listing commercial property since 2009.
Business Insider, Nov. 16, 2015–Marino, Jonathan
Blackstone, the biggest private equity firm on Wall Street, has seen even greater growth in its real estate division, which today manages nearly $100 billion worth of property. Steve Schwarzman is America’s landlord and he’s not afraid to acknowledge it.
Reuters Nov. 13, 2015
Blackstone Group LP, the world’s largest alternative asset manager, has agreed to buy about $3 billion worth of stakes in real estate funds from Californian public pension fund Calpers, a boost to its so-called secondaries business.
Crain’s Detroit Business, Nov. 14, 2015–Pinho, Kirk
From Capitol Park to Merchants Row, from Paradise Valley to the financial district, downtown Detroit’s roster of vacant and neglected historic buildings is dwindling.
Birmingham Business Journal, Nov. 12, 2015–Godwin, Brent
A recent report from Mortgage Bankers Association shows that lending to real estate developers for multifamily apartment projects may begin to even out in the next two years.
World Property Journal, Nov. 10, 2015–Gerrity, Michael
Based on the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Quarterly Survey of Commercial/Multifamily Mortgage Bankers Originations, third quarter commercial and multifamily mortgage loan originations were 12 percent higher than during the same period last year and three percent higher than the second quarter.
Reuters, Nov. 9, 2015–Spicer, Jonathan
Another Federal Reserve official pointed to December as an appropriate time to begin raising U.S. interest rates, as Eric Rosengren said on Monday there has been “real improvement” in the economy of late with the October jobs report delivering “very good news.”
Bloomberg, Nov. 5, 2015–Mulholland, Sarah
Barry Sternlicht’s Starwood Capital Group and Stephen Schwarzman’s Blackstone Group LP are in talks with Freddie Mac to finance two transactions totaling more than $10 billion.
New York Times, Nov. 6, 2015–Prevost, Lisa
The upward trajectory of rents in many metropolitan areas, which shows no sign of abating, often makes homeownership the better deal. But renters still aren’t rushing to buy.
