Oregon’s legislature must be fed up with all the brouhaha surrounding mortgage assignments because Senate Bill 663 in that state would prohibit “the sale, assignment, conveyance or transfer of the loan or right or obligation to service the loan” for five full years after the closing date[1]. The Oregon Senate Committee on General Government, Consumer and Small Business Protection sponsored the bill. Not surprisingly, this extreme proposal has elicited some extreme responses, and many fear that if it passes, it would decimate the Oregon economy. Bill 663 would effectively tie …

An historic structure in Detroit will now take on new historic significance as its new owner combines two popular forms of commercial real estate in one building: senior housing and a luxury hotel[1]. Mike Roberts, CEO of St. Louis’ Robert Companies, believes that his initial and groundbreaking entry into the Detroit market in the former riverfront Omni Hotel will be successful because it combines cash-flow consistency with the higher volume of profits possible in a hotel. “The senior residence side of things will give us a consistency in cash flow …

Self storage has been quietly growing on the commercial real estate scene for some time, but while many retailers and office-space tenants spend a lot of time thinking about how to invest in green commercial properties, until now self storage has slipped largely under the radar. After all, just how much energy does a building full of stuff that is, for the most part, unused by living tenants, really consume? Turns out, quite a lot. In fact, climate-controlled self storage can really burn through electricity and in locations like Florida, …

According to the fourth annual Sustainability Survey conducted by CoreNet Global and Jones Lang, LaSalle, half of corporate real estate executives will “pay extra for space in green buildings”[1]. The survey also indicated that “sustainability” plays a major role in how businesses select office space, with 64 percent of respondents saying that this factor is a “critical business issue” and 92 percent citing it as criteria in location decisions. Fully 50 percent were willing to pay more for green leased space in 2010 – a 13 percent jump from 2009.
Interestingly, …

Jones Lang LaSalle is reaping the rewards for results. According to Reuters, the company’s fourth-quarter earnings “blew past Wall Street’s forecast” with shares rising more than 6 percent this week[1]. The real estate investment firm is predicting continued success in profits as “2011 global commercial real estate investment [rises] 20 to 25 percent to $380 billion,” said the chief executive Colin Dyer on a conference call yesterday. He predicts that in the Americas alone, transaction levels will climb 40 percent this year.
Dyer credits the company’s success in recent quarters to …

In spite of ongoing foreclosure moratoria and other administrative delays that you might expect to keep homeowners – even the distressed ones – in possession of their homes for longer periods of time, U.S. homeownership rates hit a 13-year low at the end of 2010[1]. While some analysts believed that homeownership might actually rise slightly in the wake of the robo-signer fiascos that threatened to stall many lenders’ foreclosures indefinitely, the Census Bureau reported this month that homeownership fell another 0.4 percent in the final quarter of 2010, bringing homeownership …

After a tough year in 2010, a private commercial real estate firm in New York reported today that office rents in Manhattan are on the rise for the first time since the commercial decline began[1]. While New York real estate has been typically resilient – particularly in the rental sector – when it has come to regaining value and encouraging new development, retail and office spaces have continued to suffer in the city. Now, however, it looks like that trend could be reversing before many experts expected it to do …

International investing firm Deloitte released a report yesterday indicating that as far as their experts are concerned, commercial real estate in the United States is clearly “fostering early stages of recovery”[1]. While many analysts were beginning to make similar predictions by the end of 2010, most preferred a “wait and see” approach rather than taking a firm stand on the status of the commercial real estate sector. However, Deloitte’s report indicates that at least for now, the signs are positive.
Deloitte partners abroad are in agreement about the US commercial market …

When a country that has stringent policies against investing in U.S. real estate starts breaking down its own policies, then that spells good news for that country’s investments. As Jeffrey Lenobel, real estate group chairman for New York law firm Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP, said, major Chinese banks are “bullish” when it comes to real estate investments in the U.S. – this is why the China Investment Corporation’s move to help on refinancing a Carlyle Group co-owned Manhattan office tower is seen as a positive thing [1]. This move …