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To purge their balance sheets of debt and avoid future writedowns, more and more U.K. banks are considering plans to transfer commercial property loans into REITs. Such strategies entail using REITs as publicly traded “exit vehicles” to limit the losses they and their borrowers face. The British Property Federation is currently pushing the idea to […]

The Watergate Hotel – the site where the “third-rate burglary” that sparked the biggest political scandal in American history and brought down Richard M. Nixon’s presidency was plotted — is now a distressed commercial property that failed to find a buyer at a much-anticipated auction. The 251-room hotel, with its spectacular views of the Potomac […]

A new Wall Street Journal analysis shows that U.S. banks are charging off bad commercial mortgages at the fastest pace in almost two decades.  At the current clip, losses on loans that financed apartments, retail centers, offices, and other commercial real estate could total nearly $30 billion by the end of the year. Thousands of […]

Over the past decade, California’s Inland Empire has been transformed from a little-known region with affordable housing and lots of inexpensive land into an industrial hub – thanks to its proximity to the busy Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.  With the City of Ontario embarking on The Ontario Plan, city fathers are laying […]

America’s financial capital is now Washington, D.C. With Congress and the White House acting forcefully to stop the bleeding resulting from the worldwide financial crisis, numerous investors and brokers are relocating from New York to Washington because that’s where the action is these days. One of the nation’s healthiest metropolitan areas, Washington is benefiting from […]

At a time when real estate assets are moving slowly, other areas are being eyed for opportunity plays.  Bond salesman Thomas Ricketts had just about closed his bidding group’s purchase of the Chicago Cubs from the Chicago Tribune.  Documents relating to the fully financed transaction were sent to Major League Baseball over the 4th of […]

Ernst & Young recently conducted a distressed debt survey to determine who will be the most active direct sellers of non-performing loan portfolios.  The results are interesting. 36 percent responded it will be regional banks and thrifts 32 percent responded it will be money center banks 13 percent responded it will be the United States […]

While the commercial real estate market waits to bottom out, dozens of smaller buyers who pooled their dollars to buy office buildings during the boom may be in worse shape than large institutional investors.  These tenants-in-common (TIC) funds, which allow smaller investors to own multiple office buildings together, are facing the same issues as giant […]

Moody’s reiterated its February analysis of CMBS loans,  noting that the majority of 2006 – 2008 ratings of conduit/fusion and large-loan deals are still stable.  The ratings agency warns that the assumptions hold up “as long as conditions in the commercial real estate market and the general economy do not weaken.” Since February, “property prices […]

Troubled Los Angeles-based office REIT Maguire Properties is facing default and currently is in discussions with a special servicer to resolve its financial woes.  The goal is to have the special servicer take over Maguire’s $106 million CMBS financing covering the Quintana office campus it owns in Orange County, CA.  The campus’s major tenant was […]