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New accounting standards calling for property to be marked to market,  and changes in lease accounting rules will strongly impact balance sheets, income statements and the general financial outlook of American companies. Unfortunately, many corporations are not ready to deal with the changes, according to a new report from CB Richard Ellis.  The mark-to-market requirement […]

The recession has thwarted real estate billionaire Sam Zell’s plans to raze the art deco, 80-year-old, 26-story 2 North Riverside Plaza building that housed the Chicago Daily News until 1960 and replace it with an office tower.  Instead, Zell’s Equity Group Investments is beginning a multi-million dollar renovation of the building, which the advocacy group […]

Home equity loan delinquencies reached a record high of 3.52 percent during the first quarter of 2009, according to the American Bankers Association.  That contrasts with the 3.03 percent reported during the fourth quarter of 2008.  Late payments on loans climbed to a record 1.89 percent. Home equity loans also are partly to blame for […]

Architecture 2030 is a non-profit, non-partisan, independent organization established in response to the global-warming crisis.  Its core mission is to transform the global building sector from a major contributor of greenhouse gas emissions to part of the solution to the global-warming crisis.  The organization seeks to achieve a dramatic reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions […]

As a follow-up on a previous blog, the Chicago Cubs have been sold to the Ricketts family in an $800 million deal that encompasses the team, Wrigley Field and a 25 percent stake in Comcast SportsNet.  The Tribune will keep a five percent stake in the assets; this means the transaction is worth approximately $845 […]

Cleaning up the mess left by Lehman Brothers’ collapse and bankruptcy involves salvaging a national portfolio of 900 properties valued at $16 billion.  What the advisory firm overseeing Lehman’s bankruptcy achieves could be a framework for the strategies that big banks across the country use as they deal with their own troubled assets whose loans […]

The Treasury Department has issued new tax rules that make it easier for commercial real estate owners to restructure loans on distressed properties that were package by Wall Street and sold as CMBS.  The real estate industry, which lobbied hard for the changed rules, were generally happy but wary that it could open a can […]

The recent upward trend of the stock market has led investment experts to believe that the Dow Jones Industrial Average will soon pass the 10,000 mark  for the first time in a year. Craig Peckham, equity trading strategist at Jeffries & Co., and Michael Cuggino, president and portfolio manager at Permanent Portfolio Funds, believe it […]

Commercial real estate investors are taking a wait-and-see attitude before jumping in and buying distressed assets, according to an Ernst & Young study.  “We haven’t seen many portfolio transactions so far,” says the study’s author, Chris Seyfarth, who is national director of E&Y’s non-performing loans.  “Given the size and the magnitude of the problem with […]

After investing $16 billion in wind turbines, the United States has overtaken Germany as the world’s largest wind-power generator.  Wind power accounted for 42 percent of new generating capacity last year, an increase from just two percent four years ago. The American heartland’s sparsely populated states — from Texas to the Dakotas — are the […]