The Galvin Opinion

A Defensive Strategy for REIT Investors - New York Times

2008-01-07T16:48:00.000-05:00

A Defensive Strategy for REIT Investors - New York Times

REITS did very well this decade, posting impressive gains for investors on a yearly basis. But, 2007 was a different story. The National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts said property REITs posted negative returns of 15.7 percent, on average.

Analysts warn that investors must now be defensive when investing in REITS.

In choosing the better REIT stocks, Mr. Harris said he looks at a company’s balance sheet, particularly at the level of debt; the quality of its portfolio, especially property location; the dividend history; management experience; and the development pipeline. (In a downturn, the fewer projects in the works, the better.)

Mr. Stewart, meanwhile, has created a ranking of so-called defensive REITs. The list of 61 companies, which initially came out last summer and was recently updated, is based on 10 criteria, including a company’s size, earnings stability and growth and dividend record. It also takes into account the duration of property leases.

Topping the list is the largest REIT by market capitalization — the Simon Property Group, which owns and operates shopping malls throughout the world. Most of the top-ranked REITs are also in the retail sector, including Kimco Realty and Realty Income, which Mr. Stewart recommends.

Entertainment Properties Trust, which owns and develops megaplex theaters and entertainment retail centers nationwide and in Canada, was also ranked highly. The chief executive, David Brain, said he was confident the company would hold up well in a softer economy. For one thing, he said, “our properties are very high revenue producers and also produce a present cash flow level of about two times the rent obligation.”

And, “as the economy gets worse, it gets a little good,” he added, because consumers are likely to be looking for less expensive entertainment options like movies. “If you go to any kind of sporting event or concert, those are $50 to $60 price points easily,” Mr. Brain said. “For a tenth of the cost, you get a very high-quality production.”

Many retail REITs are also well insulated, Mr. Stewart said, because they have both high occupancy rates and long-term leases. “If you look at Realty Income, it has one of the longest lease terms in the universe — 13 years, on average,” he said. (Entertainment Properties has some leases in the 10- to 20-year range as well, according to Mr. Brain.)

“Of course, the downside is you don’t have the same benefit in a rising economy,” Mr. Stewart said.

U.K. Real Estate Losses May Be Biggest in 25 Years

2008-01-06T17:13:00.000-05:00

Bloomberg.com: Worldwide

Wary of investing in property in the United States? Well, beware of across the pond, too.

Jan. 7 (Bloomberg) -- LaSalle Investment Management put Condor House, a seven-story office building facing London's St. Paul's Cathedral, on the market for 130 million pounds ($256 million) six months ago. The building sold last month for about 117 million pounds, 10 percent below the asking price.

Appraisal values fell at a record rate in November and commercial real estate derivatives contracts indicate owners of British offices, shopping malls and warehouses may suffer their biggest annual losses in more than a quarter century.

``The U.K. market is falling apart,'' said Peter Hobbs, London-based head of research at RREEF Real Estate, a Deutsche Bank AG unit that manages about $100 billion. ``There's a risk that this cyclical downturn turns into something worse.''

Britain's 700 billion-pound commercial property market will perform worse in 2008 than the rest of Europe, the U.S. and Asia, Hobbs said. The slide is accelerating as banks tighten lending standards across the globe after losses of more than $90 billion from U.S. mortgage investments. Jones Lang LaSalle Inc., the world's second-largest commercial real estate broker, estimates transactions in the U.K. slumped 60 percent during the final quarter of 2007 to about 5 billion pounds.

Building owners may record losses of at least 11 percent in 2008, according to prices of derivatives contracts pegged to indexes compiled by London-based research firm Investment Property Databank Ltd.

The decline would be the largest since IPD introduced its annual total-return index in 1981, which combines data for rental incomes and changes to appraisal values. The benchmark index covers 200 billion pounds of investments and excludes debt, which can multiply property gains or losses.

`Element of Hysteria'

``There's an element of hysteria'' in the market, said William Hill, head of London-based Schroder Property Investment Management, which oversees 10 billion pounds. As funds are forced to sell buildings to meet investor redemptions, finding a buyer at a high enough price is like ``grasping an eel,'' he said.

Westfield Group, the world's largest mall-owner, canceled plans last week to sell the remaining 33 percent of the 530 million-pound U.K. Shopping Centre Fund. The fund owns 25 percent of the shopping centers in Belfast, Derby, Dudley and Tunbridge Wells.

British Land Co., the U.K.'s second-biggest real estate investment trust, abandoned efforts in October to sell a stake in Meadowhall Shopping Centre on the outskirts of Sheffield in northern England. It cut the value of the property by 79 million pounds to 1.58 billion pounds a month later.

Appraisers lowered commercial values by an unprecedented 4 percent in November, increasing the cumulative 11-month decline to 7.8 percent, IPD reported. In the last property crash, values dropped 27 percent from 1989 through 1993.

Big Makeovers for Office Buildings Outside of Midtown - New York Times

2008-01-02T17:09:00.000-05:00

Big Makeovers for Office Buildings Outside of Midtown - New York Times

It's time to get creative in the commercial real estate market. Enterprising developers have bought buildings that are in less than ideal shape but are located in up-and-coming improving neighborhoods.

Will these investments pay off? Time will tell.

“What all of these buildings have in common is ‘location, location, location,’” said Howard Fiddle, the vice chairman of CB Richard Ellis. “They are all in very different neighborhoods that are improving.”

Mr. Fiddle said older buildings are getting unusually expensive makeovers near ground zero, the Brooklyn Bridge and Madison Square Park. Although the rents in these areas tend to be higher than in other large American cities, they are still lower than rents in Midtown Manhattan.

Take, for example, 14 Wall Street. Two large private equity firms — the Carlyle Group and Capstone Equities — bought this 1.1-million-square-foot 31-story building for $325 million in April. The new owners plan to spend $50 million more on renovations, including sprucing up the lobby, the corridors and common bathrooms, adding elevator banks and enhancing the security system.

They intend to spend $5 million on the lobby alone. Besides altering the floor plan and lighting to modernize the look, they are buying original artwork, including a work commissioned from the glass sculpture team of Christopher Cosma and Denise Amses. “We think tenants will appreciate the art,” said Josh Zamir, the managing principal of Capstone Equities. “We want them to know that there is an owner in the building that is paying attention.”

Brokers say that the former owners had considered converting the building to condominium apartments, but the new owners scrapped those plans.

About 300,000 square feet of the building was vacant when Carlyle and Capstone bought it. Much of that space was on the second through the fifth floors, which Bankers Trust vacated some years earlier. About $10 million of the renovation budget will be spent in fitting out 130,000 square feet of prebuilt offices on those floors. The new owners have leased about 50,000 square feet so far, much of that to smaller companies in media, advertising and law.

Then there is the 31st-floor penthouse. The financier J. P. Morgan kept a private apartment there in the early part of the last century, and it later served as a restaurant. While the floor plates on the lower levels are around 40,000 square feet, the penthouse is 6,700 square feet. The new owners hope a small hedge fund or private equity firm will rent it for the panoramic views of the Statue of Liberty and the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.

Mr. Zamir said the rents for the prebuilt offices at the base of the building are in the mid to high $40s; they are above $60 a square foot for the penthouse. He also said he expected local rents to rise. “There is really no new significant office supply until 2011 or 2012, and so much of downtown is being converted to residential that that takes a significant amount of supply out of the equation,” Mr. Zamir said.

Mr. Fiddle of CB Richard Ellis agrees that office rents are likely to rise downtown. In fact, he says, there is an unusually wide gap between rents in Midtown and downtown.

Architecture: Cornices Extend Buildings to the Heavens

2007-12-28T16:56:00.000-05:00

Cornices Extend Buildings to the Heavens - December 27, 2007 - The New York Sun

An interesting primer on the cornice, an important but often overlooked piece of architecture.

Architects have long pondered how best to signify that their building has stopped its penetration into the heavens, and the most popular means they have employed is the cornice, a protruding element that overhangs the building's façade. This element is usually not too tall, so as not to seem ungainly, and not too deep, so as not to appear too dangerous or cast too large a shadow. Cornices, like most architectural elements, come in a variety of shapes and designs, but most are quite detailed and complex and often are the most decorative element of a building's exterior.

Many are elegant and impressive, like the one found atop the Metropolitan Club on the northeast corner of Fifth Avenue at 60th Street, or the Verona apartment building, designed in 1908 by William Mowbray, at 32 E. 64th St., shown at right. Other cornices are quite minimal.

While cornices were popular in pre-war residential architecture, they are much rarer in new buildings, although Annabelle Selldorf's design for the building under construction at 200 Eleventh Ave., best known for the "garage" rooms in many of the apartments, features an interesting, curved cornice interpretation. The center of the top of the façade at the A Building at 425 E. 13th St., designed by Cetra/Ruddy and now nearing completion, has another cornice variation, a perforated overhang.

Commercial Real Estate 'Rules' Changed in 2007 - December 27, 2007 - The New York Sun

2007-12-28T16:52:00.000-05:00

Commercial Real Estate 'Rules' Changed in 2007 - December 27, 2007 - The New York Sun

Michael Stoler gives his take on the unforgettable and not-to-be-missed year that was 2007, for commercial real estate.

For owners, operators, and developers of commercial real estate, 2007 will be remembered for the serious changes that have taken place in "the rules of the game."

The turmoil in the credit markets resulted in a decrease in transactions in the fourth quarter and gave further credence to the expression "cash is king" when purchasing an asset. In addition, the market started to reward "relationship banking," and investors who failed to maintain excellent relationships with their investment bankers and balance sheet lenders had few places to go to secure financing.

Over the course of the holiday season, members of the real estate community banded together to commiserate on the turbulent year past and discuss what could be the next industry phenomenon: that real estate investors increasingly will seek to raise their own real estate investment funds.

A number of successful real estate investors were fortunate during the last year of discontent to have public and corporate retirement funds, foreign investors, and high net worth individuals commit to provide funding for both funds and joint ventures.

[.....]

As we enter 2008, expect real estate investors to look for opportunities to reach out to institutional institutions to fund real estate investment funds and joint venture opportunities.

MGM PLANS CASINO RESORT TO RIVAL BEST OF LAS VEGAS

2007-10-26T13:59:00.000-04:00

MGM Plans Casino Resort to Rival Best of Las Vegas - New York Times

Atlantic City, less attractive cousin to Las Vegas, has been terrible in increasing tourism and cash revenue. The casinos and hotels are old and out-of-date. The only saving grace for "AC" is that it lies in the middle of the megalopolis formed by the Washington-Baltimore-Philadelphia-New York-Boston corridor. Atlantic City has squandered many chances to be a major destination choice for millions of domestic and international travelers.

An otherwise dismal year for the Atlantic City casino industry turned a bit brighter yesterday when MGM Mirage, the gambling giant, announced plans to build a huge resort hotel that would rank among the most expensive casino projects in history.

The casino hotel, to be called the MGM Grand Atlantic City, will cost $4.5 billion to $5 billion, according to the company. In Las Vegas, the current record holder is Wynn Las Vegas, which cost $2.7 billion and opened in 2005, though there are several casino hotel projects on the drawing boards in the $4 billion to $5 billion range.

The MGM announcement comes at a time of declining gambling revenue as Atlantic City faces increased competition from slot parlors that have recently opened in Pennsylvania and New York. Through the first nine months of 2007, the city’s casinos won a combined $3.8 billion, a 5 percent drop compared with figures in the period a year earlier, according to the New Jersey Casino Control Commission.

“What this says is that, like us, MGM sees this decline as a temporary phenomenon,” said Michael Pollock, publisher of The Gaming Industry Observer, a trade journal based in Atlantic City. “What they’re saying with this proposal is that they see the long-term growth potential for Atlantic City as very real.”

Gordon Absher, an MGM spokesman, said the company did not look at the overall performance of Atlantic City’s 11 casinos but instead focused on the experience of a single property: the Borgata, the first billion-dollar casino in a market that still ranks as the second-largest in the United States.

Despite new competition from nearby markets, at the Borgata, which opened in 2003, revenue from slot machines and table games has risen modestly in the first nine months of 2007. MGM owns 50 percent of the Borgata.

“The Borgata has changed the paradigm for Atlantic City,” Mr. Absher said. “The Borgata shows that if you provide people with the right product, Atlantic City can attract the customer who has an appetite for the Las Vegas experience but doesn’t want to fly across the country to have that experience.”

The project, expected to be completed by 2012, includes three distinct hotel towers. One is expected to have a “more contemporary feel,” Mr. Absher said, while a second will be more upscale. A third, he said, will be an all-suites tower “for high rollers or those who are willing to pay to be treated like high rollers.”

The property will also include a 1,500-seat theater, a spa, a convention center and up to 500,000 square feet of retail space.

TIFFANY HAS OPENED A STORE ON WALL STORE, RETURNING TO ITS 19TH CENTURY HOME

2007-10-21T13:51:00.000-04:00

Breakfast on Wall St., Anyone? - New York Times

Tiffany is trying to forge a sleek, younger brand to keep up in the competitive luxury goods market.

This isn't your grandmother's Tiffany...

WHEN it opened a store this month at 37 Wall Street in the financial district of Manhattan, Tiffany & Company was coming back to the old neighborhood. It was just around the corner, on Broadway, that the luxury jeweler was founded in 1837 by Charles Lewis Tiffany and a partner.

The new branch is housed in the former Trust Company of America bank, a 25-story structure built in 1907; the choice of the historic building was a nod to Tiffany’s roots in the area. But within the marble-clad interior, the architect George Yabu, a principal of the Yabu Pushelberg firm based in Toronto, has created a shimmering contemporary emporium that is a departure from other Tiffany stores.

The goal was to appeal to younger, wealthier customers moving into new residential units below Chambers Street and the area’s growing number of well-heeled tourists, according to Mr. Yabu.

“It needed to make some noise that it was down there in this new neighborhood and that we have all this high-quality stuff but we are also kind of cool and hip,” said Mr. Yabu, whose company also renovated the second floor of the Tiffany flagship at 57th Street and Fifth Avenue six years ago and designed the W hotel in Times Square. “It needed a little more spark,” he said.

Tiffany’s in-house designers and Yabu Pushelberg decided that a modern approach was best, with sleek glass fixtures and accessories that would highlight Tiffany’s diamonds, fine jewelry and gifts without obscuring the decorative details of the interior. Tiffany was prohibited from making major structural changes to the Beaux-Arts-style ground floor and mezzanine of the 11,000-square-foot interior of the building, which is recognized for its architectural significance by the New York State Historic Preservation Office.

WEBLO.COM: THE WEBSITE WHERE COPIES OF REAL WORLD ASSETS ARE TRADED FOR REAL MONEY; $9 MAKES BUYERS REAL ESTATE TYCOONS

2007-10-18T14:58:00.000-04:00

Where $9 Makes Buyers Real Estate Tycoons - October 18, 2007 - The New York Sun

This computer game is "Monopoly on steroids." Players can buy actual, real world properties for just a few bucks.

For those familiar with the idea of such Internet domains, Weblo may seem similar to Second Life, which opened in 2003 and boasts 10 million users operating in a multimillion-dollar virtual economy. Weblo's cofounder and chief executive, Rocky Mirza, is adamant that his site is different because Weblo is a copy of the real world, whereas users build the Second Life world themselves.

"Everything you buy here already exists in the real world," he said.

Described as "Monopoly on steroids," Weblo has accumulated about 60,000 users since its launch in December 2006. Players such as Mr. Outcalt make money by having other players click on the advertisements that are featured on their property pages, and by selling their assets for a profit. The Web site receives 5% of each sales transaction and makes a profit through membership fees and money stemming from the initial sales of copy assets. The price of a copy property is based on factors including the Internet usage rate in the area the real asset is located, and the number of Weblo users viewing the virtual asset page.

DROP IN BUILDING PERMITS SEEN AS SIGN OF REAL ESTATE TURMOIL

2007-10-18T14:55:00.000-04:00

Drop in Building Permits Seen As Sign of Real Estate Turmoil - October 18, 2007 - The New York Sun

There has been a steep decline in the number of building permits for New York's outer boroughs but Manhattan's numbers remain strong.

There were 1,187 permits filed in the third quarter. The last time numbers were this poor was in the first quarter of 2004, when 1,144 permits were recorded. And the last time a third quarter posted similar numbers was in 2001, when 1,054 permits were filed.

"That is a meaningful drop," the executive vice president of Radar Logic, Jonathan Miller said.

While Manhattan's numbers remained robust, with 53 new building permits, the highest figure since the second quarter of 2001, the other boroughs posted poor results. Brooklyn had 280 permits in the third quarter, second only to the first quarter of 2002, when 180 new building permits were recorded. Queens was also a poor performer, with 485 permits this quarter, comparable to the first quarter of 2005, when 480 permits were recorded.

"The marginal areas have problems first," the managing director for developments at Prudential Douglas Elliman, Andrew Gerringer, said. "There's a lot of confluencing of events right now that is making this market very interesting."

The credit markets are stymieing development, with builders having to put down as much as 30% of the cost of a new building instead of the 10% to 15% that was possible before the subprime market collapse, a partner at Massey Knakal, James Nelson, said.

EYE OF THE TIGER: A THIRD ACT FOR PHILADELPHIA'S AVENUE OF THE ARTS

2007-10-17T13:55:00.000-04:00

A Third Act for Philadelphia’s Avenue of the Arts - New York Times

With fits and starts, the city of Philadelphia is trying to get right with a cohesive center for its artistic institutions that are neighbored with commercial and residential properties.

It is this kind of innovative thinking that can save long neglected urban centers. Mixed-use development is the best way to revitalize decrepit urban areas.

The first phase cultivated live performing arts; the second phase focused on attracting supporting commercial and retail tenants; and now the third movement: new residential development, much of it directly linked to the arts.

The Avenue of the Arts designation originally applied to the section of South Broad Street stretching from City Hall to Washington Avenue, but it was later expanded to include part of North Broad Street.

Symphony House, still under construction but partly occupied and 80 percent sold, is a 31-story condominium building on the Avenue of the Arts at Broad and Pine Streets. The tower will have ground-level retailing, including a high-end grocery store. In addition, it houses the 350-seat Suzanne Roberts Theater, built for the Philadelphia Theater Company.

While this is the first ground-up condo project to open on the Avenue of the Arts, it will not be a solo performance for long.

A contemporary midrise building at South and Broad, 1352 Lofts, is now partly occupied. There is also a three-phase project being constructed called the Artisan, which will have 30 new contemporary town houses. And the City Council recently approved a major mixed-use project at the southern gateway of the Avenue of the Arts at Broad and Washington; it is to have 860 rentals and condominiums, 30 to 50 stores, and 1,500 parking spaces on about 5.5 acres.

In the not-too-distant future, the developer of Symphony House, Carl E. Dranoff, and a Philadelphia soul music pioneer, Ken Gamble, will announce details of the National Center for Rhythm and Blues, a $250 million 60,000-square-foot museum of Philadelphia’s musical heritage; the project includes studios, offices and retail spaces made financially feasible by two high-rise residential towers.

“Four years ago, when Symphony House was approved by the city, despite all the amenities along the Avenue of the Arts, it was not seen as a residential area,” said Mr. Dranoff, president of Dranoff Properties. “It has become a 24-hour district.”

A GLOBAL VIEW HELPS INDUSTRIAL REITS

2007-10-14T13:48:00.000-04:00

A Global View Helps Industrial REITs - New York Times

Industrial REITs are overlooked but, right now, have the best returns on investment. Because of long term lease agreements, industrial real estate should hold up well if the economy makes a downturn. But, the focus on industrial real estate is headed overseas - especially to Europe.

WAREHOUSES and distribution centers, often tucked away in far-flung industrial parks or ports, hardly seem as glamorous as the trophy office buildings or splashy apartment complexes and hotels that private equity firms have been clamoring to acquire.

In fact, of the roughly $65 billion in mergers and acquisitions this year involving real estate investment trusts, companies with portfolios of property, only one transaction involved a REIT from the industrial sector, according to SNL Financial, a research company. And that deal was valued at a mere $90.2 million.

But investors in the REITs that develop or own these industrial spaces have been reaping attractive rewards just the same.

In the third quarter, industrial REITs were first among all REIT sectors, with an average return of 13 percent, according to the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts; from the beginning of this year through Thursday, the sector was up nearly 14 percent, on average. By contrast, property REITs over all posted a 2.59 percent return, on average, in the quarter and a 1 percent return this year through Thursday, the association said.

Favorable economic conditions have certainly helped, with rising industrial production and job and corporate earnings growth buttressing demand for industrial properties nationwide. Average occupancy rates are now in the low- to mid-90-percent range, up from the high 80’s range just three years ago, according to Christopher Haley, a managing director of Wachovia Securities.

ONCE RELUCTANT, RETAILERS NOW RUSH TO HAWAII

2007-10-10T14:03:00.000-04:00

Once Reluctant, Retailers Now Rush to Hawaii - New York Times

Many people are surprised to hear how expensive it is to do business in Hawaii. The state's economy has never prospered and has relied too much on tourism. There is now hope for the state when it comes to retail and commercial real estate development.

Hawaii now has some 30 million square feet of retail development. Another 4.5 million square feet is either planned or already under construction statewide. Oahu, the most heavily populated island, accounts for only about half of that development, or some 2.3 million square feet.

For years, large mainland-based retailers tended to steer clear of the islands that make up the state of Hawaii because of the extremely high costs of buying land and shipping goods, as well as a tight supply of construction workers and retail employees.

But in the last four years, a wave of retail development has washed over Hawaii, as the state has experienced a post-2001 rebound in tourism and growing optimism among residents, as job growth has been strong and home prices in many areas have roughly doubled since 2003.

As a result, they say, while Hawaii already had a number of familiar big-box retail chains like Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Costco and Home Depot, it has recently drawn attention from several national retailers trying to enter the market for the first time.

“National retailers have seen many of their competitors who have entered the market do the highest numbers of any of their stores, and that has changed their thinking,” said Molly Mosher-Cates, the principal broker and owner of the Sperry Van Ness/MC Realty Advisors office in Kailua, a mostly residential town on the eastern side of Oahu.

The newcomers to Hawaii include Target, which plans to open two large stores by 2009; Nordstrom, which plans to open a larger-than-average store in Honolulu next spring; and Whole Foods, which plans to open four stores in Hawaii in the next three years, although plans for its first store, on Oahu, were stalled by the discovery of an ancient Hawaiian burial ground on the site.

Walgreens plans eventually to open 25 to 30 stores in Hawaii as part of its effort to compete with Longs Drugs, the dominant drugstore in the state. At Petco, the San Diego-based pet products retailer, a spokesman said his company was also looking for possible store sites in Hawaii.

Mike Y. Hamasu, the consulting and research director for the Honolulu office of Colliers Monroe Friedlander, a large real estate brokerage firm, estimated Hawaii now has some 30 million square feet of retail development. Another 4.5 million square feet is either planned or already under construction statewide. Oahu, the most heavily populated island, accounts for only about half of that development, or some 2.3 million square feet.

SOUTH BOSTON: FROM EMPTY LOTS TO BUSTLING WATERFRONT

2007-10-07T14:42:00.000-04:00

From Empty Lots to Bustling Waterfront - New York Times

A photographic rendering of the planned Fan Pier project (in the foreground left, with the Boston skyline in the background).

South Boston has had its share of ups and downs - mostly downs - over the last few years. But, now there is hope that a long neglected, and inscrutable, area can finally turn the corner.

Since 2000, more than 8 million square feet has been developed in the area, and an additional 20 million is under construction, approved or proposed, according to the Boston Redevelopment Authority, the city’s planning and economic development agency.

ON an empty stretch along the South Boston waterfront, hundreds of guests and dignitaries gathered in late September to celebrate the groundbreaking for Fan Pier, a 21-acre, $3 billion mixed-use development. If you squinted just right, you could almost imagine a vibrant neighborhood of parks, residences, hotels, office buildings and shops rising from the barren landscape there.

For those who have long envisioned a revitalized Seaport District, as the area is known, the groundbreaking marked the end of a decades-long saga filled with almost as many dashed hopes as there have been in Fenway Park across town.

The area — roughly 1,000 acres of waterfront property across the Fort Point Channel from Boston’s financial district — served as rail yards for Boston’s working port until about 1955, when heavy industry there dried up. After that, the land was used mostly for parking lots, which have passed through the hands of prominent businessmen including Nicholas Pritzker, the chairman of the Hyatt Development Corporation; Frank H. McCourt Jr., the owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers; and Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of the News Corporation.

As market conditions waxed and waned, this prime waterfront real estate sat untouched, earning it the reputation as the most scenic parking lot in Boston. “A lot of folks had hopes for 25 years,” said Thomas M. Menino, the mayor of Boston. With the start of construction of Fan Pier, he said, “that dream has become a reality.”

A confluence of factors has created a more favorable environment for developers. Access to the area has improved with the new Ted Williams Tunnel connecting the Seaport District to Logan International Airport across the harbor, the extension of the Massachusetts Turnpike and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s new electric bus line, the Silver Line.

Other high-profile developments have brought visitors and a sense of excitement to the area. The Institute of Contemporary Art, the cantilevered glass museum designed by Diller Scofidio & Renfro, opened last December on the Fan Pier property, and the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center has been drawing thousands of conventioneers since it opened in 2004.

Fan Pier, a curved stretch of land and piers between the Moakley United States Courthouse and the Institute of Contemporary Art, will eventually include three office buildings, a luxury hotel, more than a million square feet of residential buildings, more than 300,000 square feet of street-level retail and restaurant space, a six-acre deep-water marina and four and a half acres of public park.

It is just one of several development projects planned or under consideration in the Seaport District. Since 2000, more than 8 million square feet has been developed in the area, and an additional 20 million is under construction, approved or proposed, according to the Boston Redevelopment Authority, the city’s planning and economic development agency.

OFFICE LANDLORDS CONTINUE TO RAISE RENTS EVEN AS FLIPPING SLOWS

2007-10-03T14:33:00.000-04:00

Office Landlords Continue to Raise Rents Even as Flipping Slows - New York Times

In Chicago, Tishman Speyer flipped 101 North Wacker Drive as part of its deal with the Blackstone Group.

The flipping craze has slowed down, considerably. So, how to continue maximizing as much revenue as possible? By raising rent. After all, owners now stuck with properties they hoped to sell have to find a way to cover debt service.

In Chicago, for example, rents usually do not budge much. Since February, however, when Blackstone bought Equity Office for $39 billion, asking rents for prime office buildings downtown have spiked, causing sticker shock for tenants whose leases are expiring in the next year or two. In August, Blackstone sold six downtown Chicago buildings from the Equity Office portfolio to Tishman Speyer, the New York real estate company, for about $1.72 billion.

When Equity Office owned the 40-story tower at 30 South Wacker Drive, the asking annual net rent (without electricity and other operating costs) was $17 a square foot, said Joseph Learner, an executive vice president at Studley, a brokerage that represents tenants. “When Blackstone came in, they jumped the price to $25 net,” he said. “Now, Tishman Speyer wants $28.” (Tishman Speyer executives declined to comment.)

The recent rent increases — a phenomenon that some real estate specialists have labeled the Blackstone effect — are not limited to Chicago. Nor was the trend limited to the Blackstone-Equity Office merger and its aftermath, in which Blackstone sold 253 buildings in the Equity Office portfolio for a total of $27 billion, according to CoStar Group, a research company in Bethesda, Md. Some of these buildings were flipped again by the new buyers.

In the first six months of this year, more than half the office buildings that sold for $5 million or more nationwide had been held for less than two years, according to Real Capital Analytics, a New York research company.

As prices escalated, the capitalization rate — the initial rate of return on the buildings — declined, sometimes to levels of only 5 percent or less.

Lenders were often willing to finance 95 percent or more of the purchase in the expectation that far more rent could be wrung out of the space, once existing leases expired. Commercial loans are pooled and sliced into bonds carrying different levels of risk. But these bonds have recently become a tougher sell.

Since most deals were heavily leveraged, many owners are now left with debt service that is not covered by the building’s cash flow. And owners who counted on being able to flip their buildings for a higher price can no longer do so. In recent weeks, building values nationwide have dropped 5 to 10 percent, according to Green Street Advisors, a research firm in Newport Beach, Calif.

Therefore, landlords “have to increase their net operating income — but pretty quickly,” said Kevin Brennan, an executive vice president for Studley in San Francisco.

MIDTOWN'S BIGGEST BUYERS MAY BE FOREIGN BUYERS

2007-09-09T14:27:00.000-04:00

Midtown’s Biggest Fans May Be Foreign Buyers - New York Times

An Israeli-led group paid $648 million for a 70 percent stake in the Lipstick Building, at 885 Third Avenue.

Foreign investors, emboldened by the cheap dollar, are gobbling up Manhattan real estate. They are different investors in many ways. They prefer to be conservative, laying down more cash and taking on less debt. They invest for the long term.

“The global capital markets are flush with strong currency buyers who see our shores as a relative bargain,” said Douglas Harmon, the senior managing director at Eastdil Secured, a real estate investment bank based in New York.

Foreign investors, according to Mr. Harmon and others in the industry, are generally more conservative in their financing, putting up more cash and relying less on debt. They also tend to be longer-term investors. By contrast, big domestic buyers, including the Blackstone Group, Tishman Speyer and Harry Macklowe, have used heavy levels of debt — up to 95 percent of the purchase price, in some cases — and relied on a steep increase in real estate prices and rents to justify the deals.

Foreign investment has picked up sharply. In May, there was the $1.18 billion sale of the Deutsche Bank building at 60 Wall Street to the Paramount Group of Germany.

In June, the Italian real estate investor Luigi Zunino made a foray into the New York market with the purchase of 660 Madison Avenue, the stylish office tower atop Barneys New York, for $375 million. At $1,488 a square foot, according to Mr. Harmon, it set a record for Manhattan commercial real estate. The deal, which closed on Aug. 30, was leveraged at a more modest 70 percent, with Deutsche Bank providing the financing, according to Mr. Harmon, who was the exclusive adviser for the transaction. That record was broken just four weeks later, when Somerset Partners, backed by European investors, paid $510 million — or just under $1,600 a square foot — for a 33-story office tower at 450 Park Avenue, according to Mr. Harmon, who also advised that deal. Somerset Partners assumed an existing commercial mortgage-backed security loan of $175 million, and used its own equity for the balance.

Israeli investors were also active. An Israeli-led investor group paid $648 million for a 70 percent stake in the Lipstick Building, Philip Johnson’s landmark at 885 Third Avenue near 53rd Street. And Africa Israel USA, a subsidiary of an Israel-based international holding and investment company, bought the former headquarters of The New York Times Company on West 43rd Street from Tishman Speyer for $525 million, three times the $175 million that Tishman Speyer paid in November 2004. Africa Israel also bought the Clock Tower building in Madison Square Park for $200 million and a portion of the Apthorp Apartments on the Upper West Side for $426 million.

In late August, the Dubai investment company Istithmar beat out the Fast Retailing Company, the Asian apparel retailer, with a $942.3 million bid for Barneys New York, being sold by Jones New York.

All told, there were 46 transactions totaling $5.27 billion by foreign buyers of commercial real estate in Manhattan through August, up from 28 for all of 2006, according to Real Capital Analytics in New York. “The global economic expansion is creating a tremendous amount of surplus capital,” said Dan Fasulo, a managing director of Real Capital Analytics, which tracks real estate deals. Much of that capital, he said, “wants and needs to be here.”

MORGANS HOTEL GROUP IS GOING TO RENOVATE THE HARD ROCK HOTEL IN LAS VEGAS

2007-09-02T14:20:00.000-04:00

Party Central, for a Richer Crowd - New York Times

The new owner of Las Vegas' Hard Rock Hotel is going to try attract an upscale crowd while still retaining the property's hard-partying reputation.

THE Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas is undergoing a $750 million renovation and expansion and is expected to emerge with its party image intact but with a broader — and more upscale — clientele, according to its new owners.

The Hard Rock was bought by the Morgans Hotel Group in February for $770 million with an equity partner; it is the first project undertaken by the company without the guiding hand of Ian Schrager.
[...]
“It’s a somewhat unusual purchase for our company,” said W. Edward Scheetz, who has been president and chief executive of the Morgans Hotel Group since 2005. “But we saw a huge opportunity to take what was there, and do a little better job with it, expand and upgrade it to appeal to a broader audience. It hasn’t been reinvented over the years.”

The job of reinventing such a strongly branded hotel and casino has been given to Mark Zeff, founder and president of Zeff Design, an architecture, design and branding firm based in New York.

The project involves not only renovating existing spaces, but also adding two towers, for a total of 1,100 rooms.

Also planned are a new concert space, pool, spa and gambling area; additional restaurants and retail space; and new meeting and convention space that will cater to business conferences for the music and media industries. The projected completion date is mid-2009.

“We’re taking the Hard Rock up a notch,” said Matt Armstrong, senior vice president for business development for Morgans in Las Vegas, who is overseeing not just the Hard Rock but also two other projects that Morgans has in the works in a joint venture with the Boyd Gaming Corporation. “At the Hard Rock, we’re looking to attract somebody today who goes to the Wynn or Bellagio but who is looking for a hipper, edgier experience”

The challenge, according to Mr. Zeff, is broadening the clientele without alienating Hard Rock loyalists. To that end, one of the two new towers will have a separate entrance with its own European-style pool (in other words, topless) and spa (to be designed in conjunction with Amy Sacco, a nightclub entrepreneur in New York), and a handful of 2,000-square-foot deluxe suites, to be designed by celebrities or with an individualized theme.

“People in the rock world or who aspire to be in that environment are not thinking about Pete Townshend’s guitar,” Mr. Zeff said, referring to the memorabilia for which the Hard Rock is known. “They’re thinking about a Vegas rock-star lifestyle.”

And while Mr. Zeff’s mission is to capture a more upscale crowd, it has to be achieved without losing that rock-star edge.

HOW TO ENHANCE THE VALUE OF YOUR COMMERCIAL PROPERTY

2007-08-19T14:15:00.000-04:00

The Paths to Enhancing Commercial Property - New York Times

Yes, commercial real estate is doing well compared to the residential market. But, are you doing all that you can to enhance your commerical property?

I. Raise Rents
II. Synergize Tenants
III. Supersize Parking
IV. Change Zoning
V. Get Easements
VI. Change Names
VII. Reconfigure Space
IX. Modernize

“Just walk around the property and look not only at the structure but the land,” said John T. Reed, the publisher of Real Estate Investor’s Monthly, a newsletter. “Is there any empty space that could be rented, or space that could be rented for a more high-value purpose? I can walk around an apartment complex and come up with a million ideas.”

As they are with homes, cosmetic changes are often a first step in increasing the value of a commercial property. A coat of paint, some professional landscaping and a few new awnings can go a long way in helping to draw interest in a building. So, too, can adding small amenities, like, say, a playground in an apartment complex, or even adding cable television or Internet service.

But there are also less tangible strategies that could be tried: You could change your address — not by moving, mind you — or change zoning, for example, or even grant naming rights to your building.

A GEHRY SIGNATURE IN THE NAPA VALLEY

2007-08-12T14:10:00.000-04:00

A Gehry Signature in the Napa Valley - New York Times

World famous architect Frank Gehry designed the Hall Winery in the Napa Valley. The entire project is not obtrusive and fits in perfectly with the landscape.

The winery is the latest — and by many measures, the most ambitious — addition to the Napa landscape, where showcase wineries have sprouted like vines since the construction of the Clos Pegase winery, designed by Michael Graves, in 1987. The Hall Winery is on Highway 29 near St. Helena, on the site of the former Napa Valley Wine Co-op, which, before Prohibition, turned out roughly 40 percent of the area’s wine, according to Craig Hall, the chairman of the Hall Financial Group, a private investment firm based in Dallas. Mr. Hall bought the winery in 2003 with his wife, Kathryn, who was ambassador to Austria for Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

The project encompasses 120,000 square feet of space that will include modern wine production facilities and the restoration of an original stone winery building, built in 1885, that had been hidden by a large metal warehouse erected in the 1930s. The centerpiece of the design is a 10,000-square-foot tasting room made of glass, stone, plaster and wood, and topped by undulating trellises in Mr. Gehry’s signature style. The trellises will be made of wood or lightweight concrete to harmonize with the bucolic surroundings.

The winery buildings will also incorporate 40,000 square feet of solar panels and undertake other energy-efficient measures. The project — expected to be completed in 2010 at a cost of more than $100 million— will be built in three phases, allowing the Halls to continue to make their lush cabernet, merlot and sauvignon blanc using the existing facilities.

And rather than settle for a lesser-known architect for the new Hall Winery, the Halls set their sights on Mr. Gehry, whose famous designs include the Guggenheim Bilbao in Spain and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. Through friends, they arranged for him to come to Napa in the fall of 2003. Upon viewing the sweeping vista of vineyards and mountains with his associate, Edwin Chan, Mr. Gehry agreed to a deal on the spot.

Capitalizing on the cachet of their famous designer, the Halls say they plan to make the winery a destination, where visitors could take one of several tours that will be offered of the winemaking facilities, the architecture and artwork. “This is what Napa is good at,” Mr. Hall said. “I think we can do that better than others.”

At the groundbreaking ceremony, Mr. Gehry, dressed in black, mingled with the assembled guests, which included Jerry Brown, California’s former governor and now its attorney general; Paul Pelosi Sr., an investment banker based in San Francisco and the husband of Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker; and the winemaker Robert Mondavi and his wife, Margrit, whose Mission-style winery in Napa was designed in the 1960s by Cliff May and was a pioneer among Napa wineries built after Prohibition.

“With the artful combination of the historic and the new, the natural and the human-made,” Mr. Gehry said, “it is our intention that the new Hall Winery will be an experience that is unique to and harmonious with the beauty of the Napa Valley.”

Mr. Hall, too, said he hoped that the winery would become an important addition to the Napa landscape, as well as a symbol of the area’s rise in the winemaking world.

“We have a chance to make a difference, to create something that will stand the test of time,” he said. The way a great wine does.

Building Up, Downtown - New York Times

2007-07-10T09:07:00.000-04:00

Building Up, Downtown - New York Times

The various small cities surrounding New York have big plans for residential and commercial real estate development. They include Yonkers and White Plains. The Ritz Carlton is even coming to White Plains. Yes, that's right, White Plains.

But Mr. Kaiser, who is based in Hoboken, where another industrial waterfront was transformed over the past 25 years into a gold coast thicket of high-rise towers, lofts, town houses and marinas, is only one of many developers now prowling the Yonkers waterfront and its sagging downtown. Whatever the fate of his proposal, projects worth $5 billion are in the pipeline in Yonkers, including as many as 17 high-rise residential towers planned for the city’s 4.5-mile-long waterfront.

“At the end of the day, you’ll look up and down the Hudson and all you’ll see are high rises,” said Louis R. Cappelli, another developer with big plans for Yonkers.

Young people and executives who have fled high-priced Manhattan for Yonkers can find apartments for half the price, with an urban ambience, waterfront views and a 20-minute train ride to Midtown. In what some residents regard as a sign of civilization akin to the day Starbucks opened in Jersey City, a chic restaurant, X20 Xaviars on the Hudson, opened last month on the Yonkers city pier, opposite the newly renovated train station.

To be sure, Yonkers is still four years or so behind New Rochelle, White Plains, Stamford, Conn., and other newly resurgent older suburbs and cities on the comeback trail. Luxury apartments are stacking up in ever taller towers in a thriving downtown White Plains, which looked like a ghost town after 5 p.m. as recently as 2001. And Stamford, where the mayor has promoted high-density residential development near the train station, is poised to become Connecticut’s largest city and a powerful financial center.

In New Jersey, the redevelopment of the factories, warehouses and rail yards that lined the Hudson County waterfront between Jersey City and Weehawken began in the 1970s. High-rise office towers started going up along the waterfront in the 1980s, slowed during a recession in the early ’90s, and then took off again a couple of years later as Manhattan surged. Now, development is seeping from the waterfront into downtown Jersey City, where residential towers are springing up. Rahway, to the south, is also getting its share of attention from developers, with projects like a 16-story hotel and luxury condominium building opposite the train station.

But it is the remarkable turnaround in Yonkers, New York’s fourth-largest city, that raises the question: Is there hope for still-down-on-their-luck cities like Paterson and Camden in New Jersey, Hempstead on Long Island and Bridgeport, Conn.?

Immigration is fueling the growth of many outlying cities and towns in the New York metropolitan region. Baby boomers are beginning to retire, and there is an increasing demand for young educated workers. Middle-age empty nesters and young adults have shown a new willingness to live in urban areas.

A ROCKY START FOR BRITISH REITs

2007-06-28T13:47:00.000-04:00

A Rocky Start for British REITs - New York Times

Long popular in the United States, REITS are only now being created by legistlatures in the UK. They were met with much fanfare and high expecations.

But, the British REITs have disappointed investors, so far. What is happening and what is wrong?

I'm sure the prohibitively high tax rates are to blame. That is the bane of existence for British and European companies.

AFTER much fanfare, legislation creating real estate investment trusts in Britain, one of Europe’s biggest property markets, took effect on Jan. 1. Almost immediately, nine of the country’s largest real estate companies converted to REITs, while five others made the switch soon after and a handful more plan to follow suit by year-end.

In the months leading up to the big debut, expectations ran high, with the hope that Britain’s already-strong commercial real estate industry would further flourish. A REIT market, after all, could attract more investors globally and make it easier for the local companies to raise capital. (The corporate structure gives real estate investment trusts favorable tax treatment in exchange for disbursing most of their income to shareholders as dividends.)

But all of that enthusiasm has since turned into disappointment. British REITs are among the worst-performing real estate investments so far this year, according to industry analysts, with sinking share prices and dividends that are comparatively lower than those of their global peers.

“Here’s a U.K. REIT that says, ‘Buy me, I yield 2.5 percent,’ ” said Jeremy M. Anagnos, the co-chief investment officer of CB Richard Ellis Global Real Estate Securities. “But here you have a very astute property investment base, and they know what they could get elsewhere.”

The average dividend yield on REITs worldwide, in fact, is roughly 4 percent, versus around 2.5 percent for British REITs, according to Mr. Anagnos. In the United States, the dividend yield is around 4.3 percent, according to the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts.

Although some money managers are steering clear of the nascent British market for now, others say they are finding value in some of its shares. Many REITs now trade on the London Stock Exchange at deep discounts — from 5 to nearly 15 percent below net asset value, according to Eric N. Roseman, the president of ENR Asset Management in Montreal — perhaps making some of them ripe for takeovers. By contrast, most REITs globally tend to trade at a premium relative to the value of the properties they own, Mr. Roseman said.

During a visit to New York City early this month for REIT Week, an annual conference sponsored by the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts, Liz Peace, the chief executive of the British Property Federation, urged investors in the United States and elsewhere to be patient.

“The message,” she said, “is this: Don’t write off the British market; we’ve only been around for a few months.”

In recent years, Britain’s overall commercial real estate market has had a solid track record, with shares of real estate companies returning 33 percent, annualized, in the three years through 2006, and 48 percent last year alone, according to Ms. Peace, who attended the conference with a contingent of British REIT executives.

The president and chief executive of the American REIT association, Steven A. Wechsler, said that “to a large extent the market there had already factored in the conversion to REITs,” and he offered his own support. “I don’t think there is anything particularly important in terms of what happens in the first few months,” he said. “REITs are a long-term investment.”

Some managers of mutual funds — through which average investors in the United States can gain exposure to global property markets — say they think that it may take a while for Britain’s REIT market to gain its bearing, as it has for recently established REIT markets elsewhere.

“A few years ago, they never even heard of the ‘REIT’ term,” Mr. Anagnos said. Now, more than two dozen countries worldwide have public REIT markets or legislation in place or under consideration to create them.

“France has had four modifications of the REIT model in the last five or seven years,” said Samuel A. Lieber, the manager of the Alpine International Real Estate Equity fund, which has 11 percent of its holdings in British property companies.

In Britain, Mr. Lieber said, “it will take five years or more for companies to rebalance and orient themselves toward cash-flow generation as opposed to net asset value growth.”

It is that focus on asset growth, he and others have said, that is partly responsible for the low dividends. “British companies historically have not been focused on cash flow,” Mr. Lieber said. “REITs in general are excellent distributors of real estate cash flow.”

The British market has also been adversely affected by higher interest rates, Mr. Roseman said. He noted that last month, the Bank of England again raised its base rate, to 5.5 percent, to help keep inflation in check. “You don’t want to buy anything that’s interest-rate sensitive,” he said.

THE NEW JPMORGAN CHASE BUILDING IN DOWNTOWN MANHATTAN

2007-06-26T13:36:00.000-04:00

BEER-BELLY TOWER ON DIET | By STEVE CUOZZO | Business News | Financial | Business and Money

The new JPMorgan Chase building at the World Trade Center is notable for its large cantilever.

The architect is already having to defend his project from descriptions like "beer belly" "kangaroo" and "electric chair."

"The size of the cantilever is one of those things still being studied," Gene Kohn of the Kohn Pedersen Fox firm said of controversial images released last week.

But, he emphasized, it will still be a "cantilever of some dimension" and there's no alternative to designing the Liberty Street building immediately south of the World Trade Center site any other way.

Kohn took polite exception to my description last week of the protruding block of trading floors facing the 9/11 memorial as a "beer belly." (Readers likened it to a "kangaroo" or "electric chair.")

"Things like that have a way of sticking," he said.

I was referring to the project's ungainly shape, which Kohn acknowledges is "unusual." The tower will be 32,000 square feet at the base, swell to between 52,000 and 56,000 square feet from floors 12-16, and slim down above that.

The trading floors, starting at 190 feet above ground, will hover over a patch of land about two-thirds the size of a city block - an overhang like no other building in New York.

They also gesture ambiguously toward Ground Zero: Does the protrusion compatibly relate to the site's quartet of architecturally arresting towers, or does it fight them?

Kohn noted that, at 42 stories, the JPMorgan Chase tower is much smaller than the buildings inside Ground Zero, crowned by the Freedom Tower at 1776 feet. And he defended its "preliminary" design, pointing out that the rules of the game left him no choice.

Baby-Face Real Estate Brokers Multiply in City Firms - June 21, 2007 - The New York Sun

2007-06-25T13:41:00.000-04:00

Baby-Face Real Estate Brokers Multiply in City Firms - June 21, 2007 - The New York Sun

Enthusiastic newcomers to the real estate industry.

Andrew Barrocas knew he wanted to be a salesman after making $50,000 one summer at age 16, driving a Good Humor ice cream truck. A marketing major in college, he was looking for a different job once he realized he'd make the same income if he stuck with marketing. His brother suggested he try real estate, luring him with the promise of a six-figure income. Mr. Barrocas, now 28, knew it was just what he was looking for.

He got his license immediately after graduation and went to work, soon becoming a top salesman at Citi Habitats within his first year and branching off at age 26 to start his own sales and rental firm.

"Real estate was a route that I didn't have to wait in line in order to be successful. I was able to get as much as I wanted based on what I did and what I was capable of doing," Mr. Barrocas said.

The number of young people getting their real estate licenses is increasing, according to several brokerage firms and the city's largest licensing preparatory school. College graduates like Mr. Barrocas are attracted to the perks of real estate sales: a six-figure salary, flexible hours, and no formal supervisor. The state requires 45 hours of coursework, a licensing exam, and a sponsor, and then anyone can start making a commission.

Recent graduates who get their licenses — which cost $330 for the classes, course materials, and state exam fee — are sidestepping graduate school, avoiding more student loan debt, and earning more than they would in other jobs, the president of the New York Real Estate Institute, Richard A. Levine, said.

The Cranes Are Back, and So Are the Tenants

2007-06-21T17:27:00.000-04:00

The Cranes Are Back, and So Are the Tenants - New York Times

The peaks and valleys of the commercial real estate industry are epitomized by what is going on in Bellevue, Washington.

Just as many people are learning hard lessons via residential investments, no one can ever expect a boom time to last forever. Bellevue has weathered the tough days and is now in a resurgent period.

Will people be more cautious next time? Are the sudden reappearance of cranes a clue that the cycle will only turn over again?

CONSTRUCTION cranes quickly disappeared from the skyline of this affluent city near Seattle, office vacancy rates shot up as high as 28 percent and developers postponed once-ambitious projects when the dot-com boom went bust six years ago. Bellevue had become a city where no developer seemed to want to be.

“Everything was too good to be true, and then reality came through,” said Kemper Freeman, the president and chief executive of Kemper Development, one of Bellevue’s largest land owners and developers.

But this city, whose fortunes rose and fell with those of the technology industry, has been staging a comeback.

Nowadays, a dozen or so construction cranes loom over work sites in Bellevue’s downtown. Some 2.2 million square feet of office space, some of it speculative, and more than 2,500 apartments and condominiums are under construction, according to the Bellevue Downtown Association, a nonprofit group. Projects like Mr. Kemper’s Lincoln Square, a 1.4-million-square-foot development with hotel rooms, condominiums, an office tower and a shopping mall, have been restarted and are near completion.

Already, companies are planning to move into Bellevue, which is about 10 miles east of Seattle and, in the 2000 census, had a population of almost 110,000. Microsoft is expanding its offices here, while Eddie Bauer has chosen the city for its new headquarters and Neiman Marcus is opening its first Pacific Northwest store here.

In the first quarter this year, office vacancy rates stood at 4.5 percent, among the lowest levels since 2000, according to a report released last month by Colliers International, a commercial real estate brokerage firm. The rate in Seattle, by comparison, was 9.3 percent in the first quarter.

Tom Woodworth, a senior investment director at Schnitzer West, a Bellevue developer, said he was not surprised by Bellevue’s rebound. “This is where the jobs are and where there’s developable land,” Mr. Woodworth said.

Schnitzer West had no tenants signed up last year when it began construction in downtown Bellevue on the Bravern, a 1.6 million-square-foot mixed-use complex with three floors of high-end retailers and 450 condominiums, and the Advanta Office Commons, three seven-story buildings east of downtown.

Local real estate brokers had privately questioned whether the company would be able to fill its space because of competing projects under construction. But Schnitzer proved the naysayers wrong in April, when Microsoft agreed to lease a total of 1.3 million square feet in the Bravern and Advanta.

The lease — the biggest in the region, according to local real estate brokers — made Microsoft the largest tenant downtown and gave Bellevue an added boost of confidence. Microsoft will start moving 4,000 new or existing employees into Advanta by year-end; it expects to move into the Bravern by the end of 2008.

Microsoft also has plans to take over 320,000 square feet in Lincoln Square, which is expected to be completed by this summer. Lou Gellos, a company spokesman, said Microsoft was halfway through an ambitious expansion program that will add a third more space, or 3.1 million square feet. The company has been running out of room at its crowded campus located nearby in Redmond.

Big leases have resurrected Bellevue’s office market before. Equity Office Properties Trust, which once controlled about a third of the city’s downtown office space, used cheap rents to attract Symetra Financial, a spinoff of Safeco Insurance, and drugstore.com to downtown Bellevue three years ago, a move that helped to kick-start the leasing market. Then Mr. Freeman persuaded Eddie Bauer to lease 200,000 square feet at Lincoln Square for its new headquarters. A building boom was born.

Investors are also pouring money into the city. This year, there were $2.6 billion in real estate transactions, versus $34 million six years ago, according to Real Capital Analytics, a real estate consulting company. Sales prices have soared, to an average of $376 a square foot this year from $146 in 2001. In Seattle, prices average $364 a square foot, according to Real Capital.

Coney Island Plan Is Scaled Back, but Critics Are Skeptical - New York Times

2007-06-18T15:42:00.000-04:00

Coney Island Plan Is Scaled Back, but Critics Are Skeptical - New York Times

A revitalization of Coney Island has been discussed for many years. For various reasons, attempts to "modernize" Coney Island have never come to fruition. One of the biggest obstacles to a Coney Island development has been opposition from local residents and community leaders.

This latest project seems to have come a lot further than its unlucky forbears. While the plan to remake Coney Island has undergone fits and starts this one looks to be the most promising. Coney Island has not weathered the test of time very well and is in desperate need of a facelift.

Hopefully, this project which harkens progress will be the kind of development that can restore glory to historic Coney Island.

The developer who wants to remake Coney Island’s amusement district has a new plan and says that you’re going to love it.

The developer Joseph J. Sitt’s $1.5 billion plan for Coney Island includes a pulsating amusement area and three hotels, with architecture that invokes the old Luna Park and Dreamland.

Joseph J. Sitt, who says his company has spent $120 million buying up land underneath and around the rides, said on Friday that he had “rolled over” in response to the criticism of his earlier plans for an entertainment and residential complex.

So the looming 40-story tower planned for the Boardwalk at Stillwell Avenue is gone. So are the hundreds of rental apartments and luxury condominiums in the old plan. The new proposal is less dense, he said, but has more of “the new, the edgy, and the outlandish” rides and attractions that America’s first resort was once known for.

“This is our way of showing the New York community that we’re responsive to what they want,” said Mr. Sitt, the founder and chief executive of Thor Equities, which buys and develops commercial, residential and retail properties nationwide. “Our design, in all its greatness, is a way of showing the world what Coney Island can be.”

Who could complain?

Well.

Robert Lieber, president of the city’s Economic Development Corporation, described Mr. Sitt’s new plan as a “wolf dressed up as a sheep.” Mr. Lieber, along with neighborhood leaders and other city officials, had expressed fears that residents of new apartment buildings would not fit comfortably with the noisy, all-hours amusement district that would be preserved between West Eighth Street and the Aquarium and the minor league baseball stadium at West 16th Street.

The new plan keeps the concept of a new glass-enclosed water park, but instead of apartments calls for three hotels, including more than 400 time-share units, along with restaurants, shops, movie theaters and high-tech arcades. The latest renderings depict a pulsating entertainment complex with an Elephant Colossus statue and architecture that evokes the old Luna Park and Dreamland amusement parks.

Mr. Lieber and others say that the time-share units look an awful lot like apartments and that the complex looks more like a mall than Coney Island.

“He came in last week and presented a plan that had essentially the same density, but dressed it up with hotels and time shares,” Mr. Lieber said on Friday. “The building heights still exceed the 271-foot Parachute Jump,” a Coney Island landmark. “And he’s looking for a huge subsidy from the city. North of $100 million.”

The city has been working with local residents and property owners for nearly three years on a master plan for what everyone agrees is a dowdy area. The idea, they say, is to preserve the democratic, open-air quality of Coney Island’s culture and amusement district on the south side of Surf Avenue, while allowing for high-rise residential and retail development set apart from the rides, on the north side of Surf.

The Economic Development Corporation, along with the City Planning Department and the Coney Island Development Corporation, have been devising a rezoning proposal for Coney Island that will go through a public review process later this year.

“The community and the Coney Island Development Corporation have all indicated that residential and amusements don’t go together,” said Chuck Reichenthal, district manager of Community Board 13.

But Mr. Sitt says he believes the changes being proposed are too restrictive and would undercut his ability to redevelop the area.

A New, Taller Skyline Rises on Central Park North - June 14, 2007 - The New York Sun

2007-06-17T13:21:00.000-04:00

A New, Taller Skyline Rises on Central Park North - June 14, 2007 - The New York Sun

It's been long overdue that the northern side of Central Park be utilized for development. This new project should be a harbinger of good things to come.

A luxury building on Central Park's northernmost border is expected to open in September with 48 multi-million dollar units spread over 19 floors.

The blue-glass, L-shaped building, designed by architect Peter Schubert of Hillier Architecture, is a lightweight, modernist counterpoint to the heavy masonry feel of the rest of the neighborhood. The building, located at 111 Central Park North, is designed to maximize the view of a vast open park space stretching out before it.

"It's a location very few people have actually been to or seen," the executive director of development for the Athena Group, Gary Davis, said. "We are in the center of the park, and it's a magnificent view that no one has ever really had before."

The building, where units are selling for between $1.5 million and $8.5 million, features a private courtyard entrance on 110th Street and a 10,000-square-foot landscaped terrace overlooking the park.

"Urban buildings have a fundamental responsibility to the skyline," Mr. Schubert said. "Since we were facing the park we figured that we needed to have a very clear, distinct profile in the skyline."

The building's $8.5 million penthouse apartment was named this year's "ultimate bachelor pad" by Esquire magazine, but Mr. Davis said he hopes the two- and threebedroom units would attract families.

Loans for Commercial Properties Jump 37% - June 7, 2007 - The New York Sun

2007-06-16T13:23:00.000-04:00

Loans for Commercial Properties Jump 37% - June 7, 2007 - The New York Sun

The Mortgage Bankers Association published some interesting news.

Loans to buy and refinance commercial properties jumped 37% by dollar volume in the first quarter as real estate investment trusts were privatized and office buildings were sold or refinanced, a quarterly survey by the Mortgage Bankers Association said.

Commercial loan originations for office properties, the largest sector, climbed 62%. New loans rose 64% for health care properties, 37% for hotels, 26% for apartment buildings, 25% for retail properties and 14% for industrial properties, the survey said.

EUROPE: COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE SIZZLES

2007-06-05T15:40:00.000-04:00

Europe: Commercial Real Estate Sizzles

Despite a stagnant economy, inefficient governments, EU growing pains and rising ethnic tensions, western Europe does have a red-hot commercial real estate market.

The growing popularity of REITs are certainly helping matters.

While residential housing markets across Europe are starting to cool, commercial real estate is sizzling. IPD, a London-based research group, says the value of investment property in Western Europe—retail and office space, as well as big residential developments—rose 7.8% in 2006. Growth last year topped 20% in Ireland, and was over 10% in Britain, France, Spain, and Scandinavia. By contrast, the average increase across Europe was 5.9% in 2005, 3.6% in 2004, and less than 1% during the three preceding years.

What turned up the heat? Europe's recovering economy is one explanation. Growth in the euro zone was 2.8% in 2006 and is expected to hit 2.7% this year, ahead of a projected 2.1% in the U.S. Interest rates also remain near historic lows. "You can borrow at 3% to 5% and get a property that's yielding 6% to 10%" annual returns, says Sabina Kalyan, IPD's chief economist.

At the same time, money is pouring into Europe from big institutional investors and private-equity funds that are trying to diversify their holdings. Many of these players have set up special funds targeting European real estate that they are marketing to investors. Britain, Germany, and France all recently have enacted legislation allowing real estate investment trusts (REITs), which also makes it easier for investors to get into the market.

Until recently, there were relatively few vehicles for foreign investors wanting to get into the European property market, says Nick Tyrrell, head of European real estate research and strategy for J.P. Morgan (JPM) in London. But now, Tyrrell says, "There are a whole bunch of funds. The whole asset class has opened."

There's certainly no shortage of property to buy. To strengthen their balance sheets and concentrate on their core businesses, big European companies are selling off real estate as never before. German insurer Allianz (AZ) has unloaded some $4.1 billion worth of property this year, including the Frankfurt headquarters of the European Central Bank.

Often, activist shareholders are the instigators of such sell-offs. After taking a major stake in French hotel group Accor in 2005, for instance, U.S. real estate-investment group Colony Capital has pushed Accor to sell off more than $1 billion worth of hotels in sale-leaseback deals. Now Colony has teamed up with French luxury magnate Bernard Arnault to exert pressure on French retail giant Carrefour to trim its real estate portfolio (see BusinessWeek.com, 3/8/07, "Scent of a Bargain for European Tycoons").

ANALYSIS: RECORD GASOLINE IMPACT ON COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE

2007-06-05T15:33:00.000-04:00

Record Gasoline Price Impact on Commercial Real Estate - Analysis by Net Gain Real Estate

Further proof how the high price of oil trickles down to all aspects of the economy. This analysis says the commercial real estate industry is being affected by high gasoline prices.

According to a recent analysis by Net Gain Real Estate, record gasoline prices are bringing about significant change in the shopping and buying habits of the American consumer. The company says more and more consumers are not getting into their cars to shop and buy. All the anchors, national franchises, and independent lessees at the different retail centers have hedged their bets with their own Internet web sites. Consumers are finding that these web sites are becoming more reliable, are able to satisfy their needs, and they are using them at a progressively faster rate. The result of these changes will be weaker leases and lower cash flows at many retail properties.

Multi Housing

Multi housing communities will benefit from the record gasoline prices. The reason is that most multi housing communities were developed with excellent egress and ingress and are near major employment centers. Those that are close to public transportation will have an even greater advantage. Needless to say, those developers that bought cheap land in the hinterland will not see an advantage to the record gasoline prices.

Office Building

Office buildings have been going through an evolutionary change. Technological advances have eliminated many types of office positions. However, these same efficiencies have created sufficient growth to offset the loss of demand. Those office buildings that have participated in this offset and are located near public transportation and/or have minimal commute times will be a strong beneficiary of today’s record gasoline prices.

Warehouses

The higher cost of transportation has motivated many businesses to manage their inventories more efficiently. One method is to use more warehouse space by reducing the number of times they replenish their inventories. Warehouses and particularly modern and large ones that are well located in relation to major highways and railroads are going to play an important role in the efficiencies of today’s businesses.

REITS POURING INVESTMENT INTO DENSE URBAN CORNERS

2007-06-01T14:31:00.000-04:00

REITs Pouring Investment Into Dense Urban Corners - May 31, 2007 - The New York Sun

Zoning changes and REITS are playing a vital role in ushering a residential and commercial boom in major urban centers like Brooklyn.

A residential boom is sparking commercial development in downtown Brooklyn, the head of zoning and land use at Herrick Feinstein LLP, Mark Levine, said. "The city helped set the stage for the redevelopment by a major upzoning passed by the City Council in 2004," he said.

One of the most active investors in the urban redevelopment of downtown Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Manhattan is Acadia Realty Trust. On February 23, the real estate investment trust announced that it has entered into an agreement for the purchase of the leasehold interest in the Gallery at Fulton Street and the adjacent parking garage in downtown Brooklyn for $120 million through its Fund II New York Urban-Infill Redevelopment initiative with P/A Associates and Paul Travis of Washington Square Partners. The fee position in the property is owned by the city of New York and the agreement includes an option to purchase this fee position at a later date. Acadia P/A-Travis is partnering with MacFarlane Partners, the leading national minority-owned real estate management firm.

Plans for the property include the demolition of the existing building and the development of a 1.6 million-square-foot mixed-use complex to be called the Center at Albee Square. The residential portion will include both moderateincome and market-rate rentals under the city's 80/20 affordable housing incentive program.

Acadia P/A-Travis, a majority partner, together with MacFarlane, will develop and operate the retail component, which is anticipated to total 535,000 square feet of prime shopping space. Acadia P/A-Travis will also participate in the development of the office component with MacFarlane, which is expected to include about 125,000 square feet of Class A office space. Together, they plan to develop 900,000 square feet in a new residential tower and operate about 1,000 residential units with underground parking.

RETAIL CONDIMINIUMS AND 1031 EXCHANGES: MINDING THE STORE IN A CONDO

2007-05-31T13:13:00.000-04:00

Minding the Store in a Condo - New York Times

The market for retail condominiums in Manhattan has skyrocketed in recent years. More than 560,000 square feet of retail condo space sold last year, a sharp increase from 28,000 square feet in 2003.

The popularity of 1031 Exchanges have led to the proliferation of retail condiminiums.

Retail condominiums work much like residential condos. Developers carve out retail space on the ground floor of a building and sell it to investors. The developers often lease the space out first, and the more compelling the tenant, the steeper the price they can ask of the buyer.

Over the last few years, the market for these properties has skyrocketed in Manhattan. More than 560,000 square feet of retail condo space sold last year for almost $650 million. That was a sharp increase from the 28,000 square feet that sold in 2003 for around $26 million, according to Real Capital Analytics, a New York real estate company that tracks deals worth at least $5 million.

Over the last two years, Manhattan represented 38 percent of the total square footage of retail condo space sold nationwide, and 65 percent of the dollar value, according to the company’s statistics.

While New York has the largest market for retail condos, they are also popular with investors in other densely built-up American cities like Chicago, San Francisco, Boston and Washington, said Dan Fasulo, the director of market analysis at Real Capital Analytics. “They’re the glamour cities, with global appeal,” he said.

Brokers say that in New York’s intense real estate market, developers are eager to assemble construction sites, even in neighborhoods not previously regarded as prime commercial areas. In the process, they are offering such high prices for smaller buildings that the owners cannot resist selling. And once they do sell, there are powerful tax incentives to plow the money back into real estate.

Mr. Cooney, for example, purchased the SoHo store with money he made selling four adjacent residential brownstones on the Upper East Side of Manhattan that had been divided into rental units.

Mr. Cooney, a restaurateur who immigrated from Ireland in 1968 and owns O’Casey’s at 22 East 41st Street, had purchased all four buildings for a total of $350,000 in the late 1970s. So when he sold them for $12 million in 2001, almost all of the proceeds would have been subject to capital gains taxes.

But he opted to do a 1031 exchange, which is named for a section of the federal tax code that allows real estate investors to avoid paying capital gains taxes if they quickly reinvest in real estate. The law gives them 45 days to identify the properties they would like to buy and 180 days in all from when they sold their original properties to close on the new ones.

Mr. Cooney used most of his windfall to buy two retail condos.

First, as part of his original agreement to sell the brownstones to the developer Sherwood Properties, he gained the right to pay $3.5 million to acquire a retail condo in the Metropolitan, the 30-story residential tower at 181 East 90th Street that was built on the brownstone site. A Chase bank branch has a 20-year lease in his condo.

He also paid $6.3 million to the Horizon Realty and Development Corporation for the store in SoHo, where the Museum of Modern Art already had a 10-year lease.

HARD ROCK'S END By LOIS WEISS - Business News | Financial | Business and Money

2007-05-30T13:03:00.000-04:00

HARD ROCK'S END By LOIS WEISS - Business News | Financial | Business and Money

There will be no Hard Rock Hotel in midtown Manhattan as was originally planned.

THE Hard Rock Hotel New York at 235 W. 46th St. is in contract to be sold to Walton Street Capital for approximately $200 million.

"This will be the end of the Hard Rock," confirmed a city spy. "The plan was to convert it, but it will never be done and it will remain the Paramount [Hotel]."

In 2004 we broke the news that a group that included Ian Schrager and the then Morgans Hotel Group had sold the Paramount to Becker Ventures and Hard Rock Café International for about $130 million with all the fixtures.

However, it was always expected that a multimillion-dollar conversion would take place to make the edifice a suitable rockin' memorabilia-ville. But that investment never occurred, and a venture with Sol Melia Hotels ended last fall even though reservations are still directed to its non-working link.

The chain, including the memorabilia, casinos, café and hotel brands were just sold to the Seminoles of Florida.

WEST 50S BLOCK BUSTER

2007-05-29T12:01:00.000-04:00

WEST 50S BLOCK BUSTER By STEVE CUOZZO - Business News Financial Business and Money

More action on the West 50s of Manhattan. An office tower of 975,000 square feet is planned for West 54th Street and Eighth Avenue.

THE wrecking ball - not the curtain call - is coming to the theater
district block bounded by Broadway and Eighth Avenue and West 54th and 55th
streets.

The Eighth Avenue east blockfront and adjacent buildings on West 54th
Street are being primed for demolition by Gladden Properties, a joint venture of
Boston Properties and Robert Gladstone.

Our roving tipster who calls himself "John Q. Public" reports "men
working with sledgehammers bashing away at the interior of the old Tripple Inn
at 263 W. 54th St."

The development site, which also includes an empty lot and an office
building on West 55th formerly owned by Hearst, "can support" a new office tower
of 975,000 square feet, according to Boston's first-quarter SEC filing. That's
even bigger than we predicted when we first reported the joint venture's
purchases of the properties for around $200 million in January and March.

UNITED STATES: MEMORIAL DAY

2007-05-28T07:46:00.000-04:00

John Moore/Getty Images

Mary McHugh visited the grave of her fiancé, Sgt. James J. Regan, who was killed in Iraq in February. He is buried in the new Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery for those killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

BOOM TOWN: Houston, the Oil Town, Is Sharing in a Boom - New York Times

2007-05-23T13:32:00.000-04:00

Houston, the Oil Town, Is Sharing in a Boom - New York Times

Despite the collapse of Enron, the energy market in Houston is running full steam ahead. The city is benefiting from the boom in the energy business with a boom in the real estate market.

Some energy companies are expanding and putting up new buildings. Others, like Citgo, Schlumberger and Halliburton, have moved their headquarters to Houston. Oil and natural gas companies have helped reduce office vacancy rates to 15 percent, a five-year low, according to Grubb & Ellis, a real estate company. Job growth is double the national average — 97,400 jobs were created in 2006. The National Association of Realtors says the housing market in Houston is one of the strongest in the country.

“The increase in the oil business has made Houston,” said Randall Davis, a Houston condominium developer. “It feels a touch like the 1980s — everyone is out, the restaurants are full, the bars are full. It’s like New York.”

The good news extends across the city. The port recently opened a $1.4 billion container terminal to tackle soaring traffic. In 2006, it handled 1.6 million 20-foot containers, up 29 percent from 2003. At the Texas Medical Center, hospitals and universities are investing billions in new facilities. Residential and mixed-use developments are going up downtown.

The Houston economy has been growing since 2004, when energy companies started investing more in big-ticket projects and hiring thousands of employees to run them. Before that, oil companies had been hesitant to pour more into exploration and production, because they had lost millions in the past when oil and natural gas prices collapsed.

“There was always a real reluctance to buy into the commodity cycle,” said Robert W. Gilmer, vice president and senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

Those fears are long gone. Real estate investors, enticed by rising rents and occupancy rates, are returning. Over the last five years, sale prices for office buildings in Houston have climbed by 34 percent, to an average of $129 a square foot in 2006, according to Real Capital Analytics, a national research and consulting firm. Compared with other large cities nationwide, like Chicago and San Francisco, where prices average $191 and $338 a square foot, respectively, Houston is still a relative bargain.

“The office investment market has taken off,” said Ariel Guerrero, Texas research and client services manager at Grubb & Ellis in Houston. “If you look at the price per pound, there’s still value.”

Brookfield Properties, a New York-based real estate investment trust, seems to think so. Last October, Brookfield became the biggest landowner in downtown Houston when it joined with the Blackstone Group to buy Trizec Properties for $8.9 billion in cash and debt. The deal gave Brookfield eight buildings in Houston, for a total of 7.4 million square feet.

THE PLAZA & THE PLAUSIBLE By STEVE CUOZZO - Business News | Financial | Business and Money

2007-05-23T12:29:00.000-04:00

THE PLAZA & THE PLAUSIBLE By STEVE CUOZZO - Business News | Financial | Business and Money

Steve Cuozzo wonders what is going on with the landmark Plaza Hotel. He brings up some very good points.

But Elad's lust to spread the Plaza "brand" raises the question: What's going on at the real Plaza - the one in Manhattan that Elad bought in 2004 for $650 million, and which it plans to reopen as a mixed condo/hotel/retail address this fall?

Well, restaurateur brothers Frederick and Laurent Lesort (of Frederick's on Madison fame) have dropped out of a prospective deal for the Oak Room and Oak Bar after six months of talks - leaving the fabled venues without an operator just four months before they're supposed to reopen.

"We backed out because we couldn't get what we wanted," Laurent Lesort said yesterday. "We definitely wanted the space, but we couldn't agree on points that were very important to us."

"Elad was very difficult," he said.

Meanwhile, reps for Elad's U.S. president, Miki Naftali, could not confirm a single store or restaurant lease, despite a year of buzz.

When Elad bought the money-losing Plaza, it upped its retail space from around 35,000 square feet to more than 160,000 feet on several levels.

But with the Plaza's grand, 100th anniversary reopening set for Oct. 1, Elad's reps confirm only three done deals so far: for celebrity trainer Radu, day-spa Caudalie, and hairstylist Warren Tricomi. Combined, they account for a mere 16,000 square feet.

BUYING PIECE OF PARADISE By LOIS WEISS - Business News | Financial | Business and Money

2007-05-23T11:09:00.000-04:00

BUYING PIECE OF PARADISE By LOIS WEISS - Business News | Financial | Business and Money

Donald Trump is involved with a project in the Dominican Republic. On average, 1.5 acre lots will go for $6 million.

The $350 million in sales in just four hours - a record for the Caribbean - can be explained by the fact that the parcel is called Trump Farallon. Donald J. Trump was on hand to meet and greet buyers, including an unidentified woman who already owns a condo at Trump Park Avenue.

From the signature bluff, the site stretches as far as the eye can see along the Mona Strait, which separates the country from Puerto Rico. Cap Cana's northernmost edge is next to Oscar de la Renta's Tortuga Bay resort, which will be left in the dust once Cap Cana comes into its own over the next five years.

Already under construction is a marina for 1,000 boats, including the world's largest yachts, as well as multiple condo and villa projects - some under the auspices of the Golden Bear himself, golfer Jack Nicklaus - and a handful of hotels.

The peaceful Sanctuary Hotel should be up and running in September, with suites and bungalows carrying a tab from $500 to $5,000 per night. This Alto Bella-owned hotel will have eight restaurants, including one by Alain Ducasse, hotel President Felix Felipe told us.

The Donald was also there to play golf on one of the three Jack Nicklaus-designed courses at Punta Espada Golf Club, which includes an already infamous 13th hole: an approximately 125-yard stretch over the sea that eats balls for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and which sources tell us ate Trump's ball as well.

Sarkozy’s Top Diplomat: Undiplomatic Opposite - New York Times

2007-05-20T12:25:00.000-04:00

Sarkozy’s Top Diplomat: Undiplomatic Opposite - New York Times

“To change the law, you sometimes have to break the law.”
BERNARD KOUCHNER

Has Nicolas Sarkozy made a mistake with this choice of the brash, socialist Kouchner as Foreign Minister? Or will Sarkozy and his man work well together and forge a renewed friendship with the United States?

“An unguided missile,” is how Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the former United Nations secretary general, once described him.

But Mr. Kouchner, who has served as France’s health minister and the United Nations’ administrator for Kosovo, has also been the country’s most popular politician on the left over the years.

Elegant, dapper, with movie-star looks despite his age, Mr. Kouchner is half of one of France’s leading power couples.

His longtime partner, Christine Ockrent, is probably France’s best-known female television journalist. They entertain regularly from their grand duplex apartment overlooking the Luxembourg Garden; they always get the best restaurant tables. They have been tarred by their critics with the label “gauche caviar,” Champagne-and-caviar socialism at its worst.

Mr. Kouchner intimately addresses women — and men — as “my dear.” His passion and confidence in speaking English help compensate for his charming but sometimes excruciating mistakes.

By naming him and three other leftists to his conservative government, Mr. Sarkozy fulfilled his promise that his tenure would be one of “openness,” while stripping the Socialist Party of one of its icons just weeks before French voters choose an entirely new Parliament. (Accepting the job of foreign minister got him drummed out of the Socialist Party on Friday.)

Mr. Sarkozy is also signaling that he is serious about putting both human rights and outreach to the United States at the core of his foreign policy. Mr. Kouchner is as close as a Frenchman comes to being pro-American.

EVEN Mr. Kouchner, a co-founder of the Nobel Prize-winning relief organization Doctors Without Borders, appreciates the novelty of his appointment.

“This is a bit unusual,” he confessed Friday in his first remarks at the Foreign Ministry. He added that he “would not have done it” had he not felt the conviction “to serve our country.”

Eviction Notice Is Latest Russian Move Against Journalists - New York Times

2007-05-19T12:20:00.000-04:00

Eviction Notice Is Latest Russian Move Against Journalists - New York Times

Free and independent journalism are under the attack in Putin's Russia. It is a lamentable development.

Independent news reporting on themes like corruption, poverty, public health and the wars in Chechnya flourished after the Soviet Union’s collapse but has sharply declined under President Vladimir V. Putin. Critics of the Kremlin say that opposition views are now at risk of disappearing from the public discourse.

In place of diverse opinions and perspectives, the three national television networks have been brought under the state’s influence or outright control, and Russia Today, a state-run global television channel, was created in 2005 to promote pro-Kremlin views in formats that resemble modern news broadcasts.

A few news Web sites, a shrinking pool of independent newspapers, all with limited circulations, and a sole radio station, Ekho Moskvy, are almost the only remaining outlets for independent news and public dissent.

Foreign radio material has been restricted or blocked from most frequencies across the country. Parliament, at the request of the country’s top prosecutor and law enforcement arm, is considering restrictions on the Internet, which could further limit choices for audiences seeking uncensored content.

The latest crackdowns have taken a range of forms, including direct police action, the policy at Russian News Service requiring journalists to broadcast content deemed “positive” by managers friendly to the Kremlin and the eviction notice to the journalists’ union, which occupies space in a state-owned building.

The eviction order, presented Tuesday by the Federal Property Management Agency, the union said, ordered the offices vacated by Friday — 10 days before the 26th World Congress of Journalists is to gather in Moscow.

Restrictions on press freedoms in Russia are expected to be high on the journalist’s agenda; the union has been helping to coordinate the gathering and trying to find donors for it.

Igor A. Yakovenko, the union’s general secretary, said that Russian officials had told the union’s lawyer that its space was needed for Russia Today, the state-owned channel.

“This action and its timing are clearly political and send a distressing message,” said Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based organization. “The government is ousting an independent press group in favor of an outlet dedicated to propaganda.”

The world must take notice and condemn the intimidation of Russian journalists.

ZONE THIS: Upper West Side Rezoning Fight Begins - May 10, 2007 - The New York Sun

2007-05-15T16:50:00.000-04:00

Upper West Side Rezoning Fight Begins - May 10, 2007 - The New York Sun

The Upper West Side has undergone a remarkable transformation over the last ten years. The most noteworthy addition is the twin-towered Time Warner Center. It's located at Columbus Circle, the gateway to the UWS.

But, more changes are in the offing. And a zoning battle is brewing between developers and residents.

"People here are furious, still," the president of West Siders for Responsible Development, Miki Fiegel, said of the 37-story Ariel East and 31-story Ariel West. "I look out my window, and see people pointing to the buildings — and shaking their heads."

The Extell Development Co. purchased air rights from a nearby church, and a row of brownstones, enabling the construction of the 300-foot-plus towers. Inside the structures, two- to five-bedroom homes — some commanding prices of more than $3.5 million — boast high-end finishes, park and river views, and amenities such as a private movie theater, a pet spa, and a billiards lounge.

The president of the Real Estate Board of New York, Steven Spinola, said luxury apartments would both increase property values of local homeowners, and bring more upscale retail. He said he worried that the city's proposal would discourage some muchneeded residential development in the area, adding: "This is a wide street — this is Broadway — and it's where you want to encourage bigger and taller buildings." Occupancy for Ariel East and Ariel West is scheduled for July and September, respectively. More than twothirds of the units have been sold, according to a spokesman for Extell, George Arzt. "The new zoning is bad for the architecture of the community because the buildings are going to be really chunky," he said. "But, it's good for our project because the views will be unobstructed."

The planning department is proposing a neighborhood rezoning that, while increasing slightly the maximum squarefootage of developments, would impose height limits for avenues and side streets, respectively; force developers to erect structures flush with the street wall, and restrict the transfer of air rights from mid-blocks to avenues. Under the proposal, certain buildings along Broadway could rise to a maximum of 145 feet, which is less than half the height of either Ariel tower.

The new zoning would also provide incentives for developers to include below market-rate housing in their residential projects. The planning department's proposal would affect the northern portion of the Upper West Side — bounded by 97th and 110th streets to the south and north, and Riverside Drive and Central Park West to the east and west.

Residents have benefited from the huge increase in property values and a new influx of residents have added to the vitality of the area. However, at what point will residents and UWS denizens say enough is enough? And who is to decide what is enough? Some feel that the government should interfere with the market process by applying arbitrary zoning decisions. Others believe that developers, buyers and residents will determine the future of the vaunted neighborhood.

START-UP AT CARNEGIE SITE By STEVE CUOZZO - Business - New York Post Online Edition

2007-05-15T16:29:00.000-04:00

START-UP AT CARNEGIE SITE By STEVE CUOZZO - Business - New York Post Online Edition

Finally, the north side of West 57th street is getting "some work done." Steve Cuozzo details what it took to get to this point.

THE roar of jackhammers across from Carnegie Hall is sweet music to developer Gary Barnett's ears.

Barnett's prolific Extell Development Corp. has finally started work on one of the city's most-watched sites - a colossal, six-building assemblage on the north side of West 57th Street across from Carnegie Hall.

Barnett said yesterday the project will be "at least 50 stories" with "north of 500,000 square feet." Though plans aren't final, "We're looking forward to doing a five-star hotel at the base and above it, condos with Central Park views."

Extell filed demolition plans with the Buildings Department this month. The takedown has begun behind a shroud of black netting. Barnett said actual construction should start this year, even though certain aspects of the project - including choice of architect and hotel operator - have yet to be finalized.

A gratified Barnett said, "It's taken me nine years to put it together." The site includes all the buildings from 147-161 West 57th and air rights from adjacent properties.

50 stories? Hotel? Six-building assemblage? This is going to be quite a project that will change the face of that side of the storied street.

SPRING (ST.) IS IN THE AIR By LOIS WEISS - Business - New York Post Online Edition

2007-05-15T11:32:00.000-04:00

SPRING (ST.) IS IN THE AIR By LOIS WEISS - Business - New York Post Online Edition

Lois Weiss notes how a stand-out SoHO cornder site can fetch $250 million.

"This is one of the most exciting properties on the market today in SoHo," said Richard Baxter of Cushman & Wakefield, which is pitching the place to prospective buyers along with the rest of the fabulous foursome of Ron Cohen, Scott Latham and Jon Caplan.

There are three interconnected buildings on the corner of Broadway and Spring including Nos. 530, 532 and 536 Broadway. There is 125 feet of retail frontage on each street hosting Levi's, Scoop, Sketchers and Arden B., among others.

Dolce & Gabbana has its showrooms and offices on the entire second floor of all three buildings, which is where they hosted a sample sale last week with lines snaking out onto the street. All other commercial tenants have full floors in at least one building with some configured as duplexes or across two buildings.

Nearly all the leases expire over the next five years.

"I've been doing this for a long time and it's time to move on both in terms of me personally and knowing the right time to dispose of an asset," said Ken Schack, a third-generation principal of the company, which has owned the buildings for 60 years.

Looks like they're doing it at the right time.

SECULAR TURKS ARE AT A CROSSROADS: One Turkish City Countering Fear of Islam’s Reach - New York Times

2007-05-15T02:30:00.000-04:00

One Turkish City Countering Fear of Islam’s Reach - New York Times

Konya is still deeply attached to its faith. Mosques are spread thickly throughout the city; there are as many as in Istanbul, which has five times the population. But in a part of the world where religion and politics have been a poisonous mix and cultural norms are conservative regardless of religion, it is an oasis: women here wear relatively revealing clothing, couples hold hands and bus segregation is a distant memory.

“We’ve been wearing the same dress for 80 years, and it doesn’t fit anymore,” said Yoruk Kurtaran, who travels extensively in Turkey. “Things used to be black and white.”

Now, he said, “there are a lot of grays.”

The shift shows the evolution of Turkey’s Islamic movement, which has matured under Mr. Erdogan, abandoning the restrictive practices of its predecessors and demonstrating to its observant constituents the benefits of belonging to the European Union.

It also follows a pattern occurring throughout Turkey, where the secularists who founded the state out of the Ottoman Empire’s remains are now lagging behind religious Turks in efforts to modernize it.But secular Turks, like those who took part in the recent protests, do not believe that Mr. Erdogan and his allies have changed

Turkey is now one of the world's most fascinating places to monitor. It is wedged between the modern, secular European west and the Islamic, traditional Middle East. Turkey's economy is growing by leaps and bounds but is the cultural and social issues that dominate the Turkish debates.

ASKED TO NAME NAMES: U.S. Asks Europe to Ensure Continued Access to Air Passenger Data - New York Times

2007-05-14T02:24:00.000-04:00

U.S. Asks Europe to Ensure Continued Access to Air Passenger Data - New York Times

The United States is making demands of Europe to give up airline passenger data.

On the fringes of a meeting of European interior ministers here Saturday, Mr. Chertoff argued that other countries, no matter how friendly, could not decide who entered the United States. He plans to repeat the message before a European Parliament panel in Brussels on Monday.

“While we reassure Europe, we have to insist that we can’t tie our hands in keeping dangerous people out of the United States,” Mr. Chertoff said in an interview here.

Under an interim accord between Washington and the European Union, data that overseas passengers routinely give airlines — address, credit card, passport, phone and other information — is being used for screening on arrival at American airports.

But the accord expires July 31, and some European governments and data protection advocates have strenuously objected to what they call an invasion of privacy and possible misuse of personal information.

At the heart of the discussions between Mr. Chertoff and the Europeans is the issue of how Washington can screen passengers who, as citizens of 15 European Union countries, do not need to apply for a visa for stays of up to 90 days. The nations include Britain, France, Germany and Italy but not the most recent entrants to the European Union, like Poland, Hungary and Romania.

Will Europe relent and consent to giving up the names? Should they? The United States does have concerns about "visa loopholes"

MOVING ON UP: An Open, Sunlit Space at 7 World Trade Center - New York Times

2007-05-13T17:09:00.000-04:00

An Open, Sunlit Space at 7 World Trade Center - New York Times

The brand-new 7 World Trade Center is a fantastic building. Yes, it is modern but it also has safety features in response to the 9/11 attacks but it is also a fine work of art. The exterior and interior are both praiseworthy.

“We wanted our new space to reflect our new ownership,” said John Koten, the chief executive of Mansueto Ventures. “We wanted something that could communicate that we are a more nimble company and no longer part of a big bureaucracy.” Mansueto Ventures is owned by Joe Mansueto, who also founded Morningstar Inc., the investment research firm. Mr. Mansueto paid $32.5 million for the two magazines.

On April 2, the publishing company and its staff of 190 moved into 40,000 square feet on the 29th floor of 7 World Trade Center. Mansueto had previously been in 39,000 square feet on a floor it had shared with the Meredith Corporation, a publisher of books and magazines like More and Family Circle, at 375 Lexington Avenue at 42nd Street.

Besides the developer, Silverstein Properties, and the offices of its team of architects from various firms that will be designing the buildings at Nos. 2, 3 and 4 World Trade Center, Mansueto is only the third tenant to move into 7 World Trade Center, which is part of the first phase of construction to be completed around the former site of the twin towers.

The company’s general manager, Kristine Kern, looked at 50 spaces around Manhattan before settling on the downtown site. The new space, according to Mr. Koten, fits in perfectly with the message the company sends its 1.44 million subscribers, the majority of them high-earning male managers and entrepreneurs.

“We are taking the advice we give to our readers, to be ahead of the trend, be pioneering and go where other people are afraid to go,” he said.

James G. Phillips, principal in the New York-based firm TPG Architecture, and Luc Massaux, TPG’s studio design director, designed the space, whose parallelogram shape is dictated by the unusual street pattern in the financial district. The center core construction of the tower, at the foot of Greenwich Street between Barclay and Vesey Streets, is column-free, making the raw floor a blank canvas for architect and tenant. Obtuse and acute angles set it apart from office towers with square or rectangular footprints, Mr. Phillips said.

“It makes the floor plan more dynamic,” he said.

Sweeping 360-degree vistas of New York dominate the space, whose exterior walls are all glass. “The mandate was to do nothing to interfere” with the view, Mr. Phillips said. “Just bring it inside.” Partitions were kept to a minimum to preserve the views and natural light. Seven conference rooms and 35 individual offices around the periphery have glass walls, with sliding glass doors framed with galvanized aluminum. Workstations for interns, which are away from the windows and around the inner core of the building, are equipped with stools to permit the most light and good views.

This article does a terrific job of giving you the whole story of what does into design.

TAX TRICKS: Developers Are Rushing To Beat the Tax Man - May 3, 2007 - The New York Sun

2007-05-12T16:54:00.000-04:00

Developers Are Rushing To Beat the Tax Man - May 3, 2007 - The New York Sun

Here is some interesting information about tax law and how it affects real estate development.

As debate rages in the state Legislature in Albany about a revised version of the popular tax abatement program, residential developers around the city are rushing to get their foundations in the ground before the current version of the program expires at the end of the year. Construction is now slated for more than 100 sites throughout the city for new residential condominiums. No matter what compromise is reached in Albany, developers agree that the new version of the program will not be as generous as the current one.

"The uncertainty of the 421-a legislation continues to drive construction and development, causing everyone to rush to get foundations in before the end of the year," the senior partner in the real estate department of Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, Ross Moskowitz, said. "Although not the intended objective, the loss of 421-a benefits in its present form, especially outside of Manhattan, will result in less projects being built and a corresponding reduction in the number of affordable units being constructed."

The 421-a tax incentive program was created in 1971 to spur housing development. Under the program, housing developers within designated areas are given tax incentives to develop housing. The program has helped fuel the construction of more than 110,000 apartments in New York City.

Edifying. There are so many moving parts and so many factors to consider when buying, selling and devloping property.

GORDON BROWN: THE MAN WHO WOULD BE PRIME MINISTER Blair Endorses Gordon Brown as His Successor - New York Times

2007-05-12T02:10:00.000-04:00

Blair Endorses Gordon Brown as His Successor - New York Times

How will Gordon Brown be different from the affable Tony Blair? How will his policies be similar?

As a first step to becoming prime minister, Mr. Brown announced his candidacy in the race for the Labor Party leadership, although it is doubtful that he will face serious opposition. Most Labor Party heavyweights who might have challenged Mr. Brown signaled their reluctance to do so in the weeks leading to Mr. Blair’s announcement on Thursday that he would step down on June 27.

Two Labor left-wingers who said they would challenge Mr. Brown have failed to reach a deal on which of them should stand, apparently because of a lack of support among Labor lawmakers.

Mr. Brown appeared before a crowd of cheering, youthful Labor Party supporters in central London to make his announcement today.

“Today I announce that I’m a candidate to be leader of the Labor Party and to lead a new government,” he said.

In a clear effort to distance himself from Mr. Blair, he promised greater government accountability, new procedures to allow parliament a voice in going to war and a greater stress on what he called “hearts and minds” alongside military efforts to combat terrorism and promote security.

“Tony Blair has led our country for 10 years with distinction, with courage, with passion and with insight and in the weeks and months ahead my task is to show that I have the new ideas, the vision and the experience to earn the trust of the British people,” Mr. Brown said. “Today there are new priorities and I offer a new leadership for this new time.”

He will almost certainly run unopposed. But will he have the support of the British people?

SARKOZY SAYS ITS OKAY TO BE FRENCH: The Sarkozy of the Future Jousts With the Chirac of the Past - New York Times

2007-05-12T02:05:00.000-04:00

The Sarkozy of the Future Jousts With the Chirac of the Past - New York Times

A new brand of talk from this different style of European leader

President-elect Nicolas Sarkozy, by contrast, does not believe in saying he is sorry.

“I’m going to make the French proud of France again,” Mr. Sarkozy said in his speech after he was elected president on Sunday. “I am going to bring an end to repentance, which is a form of self-hatred, and the battle of memories that feeds hatred of others.”

But when Mr. Chirac pointedly asked Mr. Sarkozy to attend a ceremony remembering the victims of the French slave trade and celebrating the abolition of slavery, he could not refuse.

Perhaps it was a last act of Chirac-ian vengeance, just six days before Mr. Sarkozy takes over. Mr. Chirac and Mr. Sarkozy do not like each other, even though Mr. Sarkozy served as a minister in Mr. Chirac’s cabinet and Mr. Chirac endorsed him — reluctantly — for president.

Which way will Sarkozy now go?

JIHAD EVERYWHERE: Qaeda Presence in Pakistan Worries Britain - New York Times

2007-05-12T01:55:00.000-04:00

Qaeda Presence in Pakistan Worries Britain - New York Times

Pakistan is our putative ally. What should and can they do to confront Al Qaeda?

The diplomat, Robert Brinkley, the British high commissioner to Pakistan, said that although the Pakistani government had made praiseworthy efforts to find and detain terrorists, “the fight is not finished.”

“There are still some terrorists able to get in touch with the others,” Mr. Brinkley said, speaking at the Peshawar Press Club.

Of particular concern, he said, was that extremists in Britain were still communicating with terrorist leaders in the tribal areas, looking to them for “guidance, ideas and, in some cases, training for operations.” Such contacts were believed to have been a factor in the deadly London transit bombings in July 2005, he said, adding, “It’s top priority to ensure it does not happen again.”

Britain sees a lot of travelers from Pakistan. They seem to be quite worried.

BLAIR STEPS OUT: Blair Choreographs End to a Stewardship Dogged by Iraq - New York Times

2007-05-12T01:53:00.000-04:00

Blair Choreographs End to a Stewardship Dogged by Iraq - New York Times

Blair walks out, via the Third Way, of 10 Downing Street

Traveling by executive jet and motorcade to his northern constituency, Mr. Blair announced after months of speculation that he would give up the post of prime minister on June 27. The date will bookmark a decade in which he sacrificed his popularity to the war in Iraq and struggled at home to improve schools, policing and hospitals.

Yet he and his allies seemed to suggest Thursday that for all the missteps, he changed something in his nation’s debate and its mood, and, with it, Britain’s place in the world. “This is a country today that for all its faults, for all the myriad of unresolved problems and fresh challenges, is comfortable in the 21st century — at home in its own skin, able not just to be proud of its past but confident of its future,” he said.

Tony Blair's domestic and foreign legacy will be decided by history books not newspapers.

LONDON CALLING: JP Morgan To Erect New European Headquarters in London - May 3, 2007 - The New York Sun

2007-05-11T16:59:00.000-04:00

JP Morgan To Erect New European Headquarters in London - May 3, 2007 - The New York Sun

Action across the pond in London.

JP Morgan entered exclusive talks with the City of London municipality and real estate developer Hammerson Plc. The three parties have 90 days to agree on terms, the statement said.

Property Week reported in February that the JP Morgan might move its new headquarters to Canary Wharf because of the need for space. JP Morgan's London operations are currently based in several buildings. The proposed new headquarters, to be built between London Wall and Fore Street, would house JP Morgan's London investment banking business. The asset management and treasury and securities units would remain nearby, the New York-based bank said.

BETRAYAL FROM WITHIN: 2 Convicted of Leaking Memo on Bush-Blair Talk - New York Times

2007-05-11T01:49:00.000-04:00

2 Convicted of Leaking Memo on Bush-Blair Talk - New York Times

Political interests were motivation for leaked memo.

Shortly afterward, David Keogh, a government communications officer, and Leo O’Connor, a researcher in the office of a Labor Party legislator, were charged with breaking the Official Secrets Act. Mr. Keogh, 50, was accused of passing a copy of the contentious memorandum to Mr. O’Connor, 44, who worked in the offices of Anthony Clarke, a Labor Party lawmaker who opposed the war in Iraq.

Mr. Keogh testified that he hoped the leaked memorandum would attract broader interest. “The main person in my mind was John Kerry, who at the time was American candidate for the U.S. presidential election in 2004,” Mr. Keogh said. “It was to help my country.” When Mr. Clarke found a copy of the memorandum among his papers, he called the police and the prime minister’s office.

When will it stop?

DEADLY MISTAKES: Stiffer Penalties for Building Violations Sought - May 3, 2007 - The New York Sun

2007-05-10T17:03:00.000-04:00

Stiffer Penalties for Building Violations Sought - May 3, 2007 - The New York Sun

There have been a disturbing rash of deadly accidents in the last few years in New York. The NYSun reports that there have been 29 deaths in the last year alone!

Contractors, construction union members, and the Department of Buildings Commissioner, Patricia Lancaster, support the anticipated legislation, and appeared yesterday at a City Hall press conference touting the potential safety regulations. The legislation, which has not yet been drafted, would also require the Buildings Department to issue an annual report card with the names of contractors and owners forced to stop work as a result of the new rules.

Reform and oversight is needed but the government must do a better job of enforcing existing regulations.

ULSTER SAYS NO BUT NOW SAYS YES: Two Former Enemies Are Sworn in to Lead Northern Ireland’s Government - New York Times

2007-05-10T01:45:00.001-04:00

Two Former Enemies Are Sworn in to Lead Northern Ireland’s Government - New York Times

Has peace finally arrived in Northern Ireland?

Watched by dignitaries from Britain, Ireland, the United States and elsewhere, the Rev. Ian Paisley, leader of the Democratic Unionists, the dominant party among Northern Ireland’s Protestants, and Martin McGuinness, of the republican and mainly Catholic Sinn Fein party, were sworn in as leader and deputy leader, respectively, of the Northern Ireland executive government.

Only time will tell.

AU REVOIR, JACQUES: France: Chirac Starts to Bow Out - New York Times

2007-05-09T01:41:00.000-04:00

France: Chirac Starts to Bow Out - New York Times

Chirac is out and Sarkozy is in.

President Jacques Chirac made his last major public appearance as he laid a wreath at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris to commemorate the Allied victory over the Nazis in 1945. Mr. Chirac, who steps down next Wednesday after 12 years in office, is to hold his last meeting with his ministers today. After a three-day vacation in the Mediterranean, Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s newly elected president, is to join Mr. Chirac at a ceremony tomorrow in Paris to commemorate the abolition of slavery.

The new president will be very different from the difficult Chirac.

PARAMOUNT GROUP BUYS DEUTSCHE BANK BLDG: A Record-Breaking Price For Downtown Building - May 7, 2007 - The New York Sun

2007-05-08T16:44:00.000-04:00

A Record-Breaking Price For Downtown Building - May 7, 2007 - The New York Sun

Deutsche Bank Building on Wall Street was bought by Paramount Group for $1.2 billion. That's $738 per square foot.

WHAT ELSE IS NEW? Office Rents at Record High in Manhattan - New York Times

2007-04-20T17:14:00.000-04:00

Office Rents at Record High in Manhattan - New York Times

This should come as no surprise. When will there be a leveling off or a downturn?

Rents in Midtown reached a record average $70.77 a square foot, with some surpassing $150 a square foot, Cushman & Wakefield said.

At the end of March, average asking rent for Manhattan office space reached a record $53.43 a square foot, up 24 percent from $43.20 a year earlier, Cushman & Wakefield said. Rents in the top-quality Class A buildings rose 29 percent, to $64.54.

Leasing during the quarter fell to 5.4 million square feet, from 5.9 million a year earlier, according to Cushman & Wakefield. That did not include Lehman Brothers Holdings’s second-quarter sublease deal for 400,000 square feet at 1271 Avenue of the Americas, Time Warner’s former headquarters.

The vacancy rate fell to 5.7 percent, the first time in six years that it has been under 6 percent. The rate is down from 8.4 percent a year earlier.

“The trend is solidly upward,” said Kenneth McCarthy, Cushman & Wakefield’s managing director.

HEDGE FUND IN $2.9B SUBPRIME DEAL By RODDY BOYD - Business - New York Post Online Edition

2007-04-18T02:47:00.000-04:00

HEDGE FUND IN $2.9B SUBPRIME DEAL By RODDY BOYD - Business - New York Post Online Edition

It looks like hedge funds are beginning to take over the subprime mortgage world

Ellington Capital Management is in the process of finalizing an agreement with Fremont General Corp. to buy $2.9 billion worth of loans and the distressed lender's real estate business, including its mortgage bond investments and loan origination platform.

Last month, Fremont shuttered its subprime unit after the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. issued a cease-and-desist order to the company because of poor underwriting standards.

Ellington, which has $4 billion in assets, signed a letter of intent for the purchase, said Michael Vranos, the fund's founder and chairman.

"Taking over a lot of structure like this is new, but we feel comfortable with the portfolio and with our risk management ability," Vranos said.

THE SAD DECLINE OF FRANCE: FRENCH FLEE STAGNANT ECONOMY

2007-04-16T06:37:00.000-04:00

French flee stagnant economy - Europe - MSNBC.com

When a rich, western nation embraces socialism then only bad things can happen. France is a perfect example. It's meddlesome government passes thousands of economic regulations per year but the French economy only worsens.

Private companies can't fire underperforming workers. Young, eager workers can't get hired at struggling, stagnant firms. The welfare system is too big for France to properly manage. The famed republic is in decline.

France is a disaster.

Half of French households live on less than $1,990 in income per month. Unemployment hasn’t fallen below 8 percent since 1984. Public debt has quintupled since 1980 to fund a welfare state that more people depend on for survival. Imports are spiking and fueling a ballooning trade deficit. France was among the top 10 richest countries per capita a generation ago — today’s it’s slipped to 17th place.

Will France hear the wake-up call and realize that capitalism is its salvation?

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Opposition Rally in Russia Halted by Police for 2nd Day - New York Times

2007-04-16T00:22:00.000-04:00

Opposition Rally in Russia Halted by Police for 2nd Day - New York Times

The winds of frustration are swirling around Vladimir Putin.

Organizers of the rallies, including the former chess champion Garry Kasparov, who was arrested Saturday and later released, call them “dissenters’ marches.” They have been supported by people with diverse political views who say they are standing up for their right to oppose Mr. Putin. The groups taking part include the National Bolshevik Party of the novelist Eduard Limonov, which is known for its acts of civil disobedience and which has been banned by the government as an extremist group.

The Other Russia alliance had applied for a permit for the Moscow march but was refused. The alliance defied the ban, as it did for both marches in St. Petersburg and one in the Volga River city of Nizhny Novgorod in March.

On Saturday in Moscow, Mr. Kasparov was arrested in a cafe before the rally even began. He was held until late Saturday evening, accused of shouting antigovernment slogans. He was eventually released and fined 1,000 rubles, or about $39.

Riot police officers tugged at the clothing of Mikhail M. Kasyanov, Mr. Putin’s former prime minister and now an opposition leader, but did not arrest him. His bodyguards were arrested. The police also detained Maria Gaidar, a daughter of a former prime minister, and Ilya Yashin, the leader of the youth wing of the Yabloko opposition party.

In St. Petersburg on Sunday, the police said they arrested 120 people. Among those held was Mr. Limonov, who was arrested in an apartment together with eight members of his group.

FRANCE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION: SARKOZY V. SEGOLENE IN THE BATTLE OVER THE FRENCH SUBURBS, THE BANLIEUES

2007-04-16T00:18:00.000-04:00

France - Elections - Immigrants - Housing Projects - Poverty - New York Times

The Parisian suburbs, populated by immigrants and minorities, are separate enclaves neglected by the Parisians who live in the exclusive arrondissements.

For many observers, both inside and outside the country, the future of France is at stake in this election. Sarkozy’s supporters, who include a number of prominent intellectuals (unlike in almost every other rich country, their role continues to be significant in France), say he represents a clean break with the politics of the past half-century in France. For the novelist Marc Weitzmann, an enthusiastic “Sarkozyiste,” French postwar politics was dominated first by an unholy alliance between Charles de Gaulle and the French Communist Party and then by the Socialist FranÃ§ois Mitterrand and the Gaullist Jacques Chirac, who in a sense perpetuated this sclerotic political arrangement. For Weitzmann, Sarkozy provides an alternative to a system that has failed to produce social peace, failed to adapt to France’s reduced role in the world and above all failed to reform its economy on either the Tony Blair model or the German Social Democratic model.

A decade ago, it would have been inconceivable to have found a Parisian intellectual like the writer Pascal Bruckner supporting a right-wing candidate like Sarkozy. But as Bruckner put it to me recently, Sarkozy “wants to give a kick in the rear to our old, decrepit country, to put an end to the French feeling of self-hatred, to reinforce our self-esteem and the value of work. He wants to extricate us from our decadence and put an end to the so-called ‘French exception,’ which is nothing more than the narcissism of failure.”

Will third-party candidate Francois Bayrou prove to be the upstart? We shall see, the election is very soon.

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BBC NEWS | Europe | Secular rally targets Turkish PM

2007-04-15T00:31:00.000-04:00

BBC NEWS | Europe | Secular rally targets Turkish PM

Secularization is the key for Turkey's economic and political success. Many young people took to the streets of Turkey to continue with secularization.

Some 300,000 people have demonstrated in Turkey's capital, Ankara, to demand that religion and politics should be kept separate in their country.
Protesters carried banners of Kemal Ataturk, the revered founder of the Turkish republic as a secular state.

The rally comes two days before the presidential election process begins and is intended to pressure current PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan not to stand.

His opponents accuse him of having an Islamic agenda - a charge he denies.

Tens of thousands of people were bussed into Ankara from across Turkey to attend the rally near Ataturk's mausoleum.

Even though Turkey has made some bad decisions lately, including banishment of websites it considers 'insulting to Turkishness', it still is the brightest beacon of what secularization can do for a nation.

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Pakistan Minister Faces Edict Over Hug

2007-04-15T00:27:00.000-04:00

Pakistan Minister Faces Edict Over Hug - washingtonpost.com

A female Pakistani minister was already killed last month for perceived violations of Islamic law. Now, another minister fears for her life.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistan's tourism minister says she fears for her life after clerics at a radical mosque issued an edict accusing her of sinning by hugging her French parachute jumping instructor, the state news agency reported.

Minister of Tourism Nilofar Bakhtiar told a parliamentary committee of her fear on Saturday following the Taliban-style edict against her by Islamic clerics at Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, in Islamabad, the Associated Press of Pakistan reported.

Two clerics at the mosque said the hug was "an illegitimate and forbidden act" and "without any doubt, she has committed a great sin."

The clerics issued the edict against Bakhtiar last Sunday, demanding that she be dismissed, her family punish her and she be made to ask for forgiveness after pictures in the Pakistani media showed Bakhtiar hugging her parachute jumping instructor at a fundraising jump in France.

Hundreds of students from an Islamic seminary attached to the mosque have been running an anti-vice campaign in Islamabad, threatening music shops and brothels, in a bold challenge to President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, a U.S. ally who has pledged to promote moderate Islam.

The mosque's chief cleric, Maulana Abdul Aziz, is an outspoken critic of Pakistan's support of the U.S.-led war on terror.

About 100,000 people rallied in Karachi Sunday to protest the seminary's anti-vice campaign. The mass protest was organized by the Mutahida Qami Movement, or MQM, a party based in the southern port city that strongly supports Musharraf.

The war in Pakistan is that of two competing visions for the future.

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John J. Sheehan - Why I Declined To Serve - washingtonpost.com

2007-04-15T00:14:00.000-04:00

John J. Sheehan - Why I Declined To Serve - washingtonpost.com

Retired Marine Corps general John Sheehan explains in the Washington Post why he turned down the White House's offer to be the new "war czar", formally known as implementation manager for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The day-to-day work of the White House implementation manager overseeing Iraq and Afghanistan would require a great deal of emotional and intellectual energy resolving critical resource issues in a bureaucracy that, to date, has not functioned well. Activities such as the current surge operations should fit into an overall strategic framework. There has to be linkage between short-term operations and strategic objectives that represent long-term U.S. and regional interests, such as assured access to energy resources and support for stable, Western-oriented countries. These interests will require a serious dialogue and partnership with countries that live in an increasingly dangerous neighborhood. We cannot "shorthand" this issue with concepts such as the "democratization of the region" or the constant refrain by a small but powerful group that we are going to "win," even as "victory" is not defined or is frequently redefined.

Chirac’s Iran Gaffe Reveals a Strategy: Containment - New York Times

2007-02-05T14:46:00.000-05:00

Chirac’s Iran Gaffe Reveals a Strategy: Containment - New York Times:

Confusing messages being sent from the Elysee Palace in Paris, France.

"PARIS, Feb. 2 — When President Jacques Chirac said this week that he would not be overly worried if Iran obtained a nuclear weapon, he inadvertently said aloud what some policy makers and arms control experts have been whispering: that the world may have to learn to live with a nuclear Iran.
Mr. Chirac quickly retracted his words, and Élysée Palace reaffirmed France’s commitment to preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear-weapons state. But in veering from the prepared script and letting the veil of caution fall, he became the first Western leader to imply that containment of a nuclear Iran is preferable to other options, especially war.
“Jacques Chirac said things that many experts are saying around the world, even in the United States,” Hubert Védrine, foreign minister from 1997 to 2002, said on LCI television on Friday. “That is to say, that a country that possesses the bomb does not use it and automatically enters the system of deterrence and doesn’t take absurd risks.”
The logic of the argument goes this way: Iran is making enriched uranium, which can be used either for making electricity or, with additional enrichment, nuclear weapons. If Iran masters that process for military purposes, it may be able to build a bomb or two in the next few years.
Under that thinking, the only realistic goal is to slow down the process as long as possible. But even if Iran has the bomb, it will be subject to the same classic doctrine of nuclear deterrence that restrained the nuclear powers during the cold war. "

Vornado Raises the Stakes in Equity Office Showdown - Mergers, Acquisitions, Venture Capital, Hedge Funds -- DealBook - New York Times

2007-02-01T12:02:00.000-05:00

Vornado Raises the Stakes in Equity Office Showdown - Mergers, Acquisitions, Venture Capital, Hedge Funds -- DealBook - New York Times:

This is turning into a game of high-stakes poker.

"Investors seemed to be expecting an even bigger increase from Vornado. After Thursday’s bid was announced, Equity Office’s stock dipped about 1.4 percent to $54.75 a share. (The New York Times had reported that the bid was likely to be raised to about $57; the Chicago Tribune said the bid was going to about $58.50.)

Vornado said Thursday that it would offer $31 a share in cash and Vornado stock valued at $25 for each share of Equity Office. It also said it was in discussions to sell about $10 billion of Equity Office’s assets to Starwood Capital and Walton Street Capital when the transaction closes and plans to sell an additional $10 billion in assets in the first year after closing.

The chairman of Vornado, Steven Roth, has missed out on the flurry of mergers that have swept through the real estate investment trust industry.

Last fall, Mr. Roth proposed to Samuel Zell, the founder of Equity Office, that they merge their companies. But after a series of missteps, Blackstone swooped in and reached a deal to buy Equity Office for $48.50 a share.

Outraged, Mr. Roth assembled a group of investors to make a counteroffer. Vornado and its partners, the private equity firms Starwood Capital and Walton Street Capital, told Mr. Zell on Jan. 17 that they would top Blackstone’s bid with a cash-and-stock offer of $52 a share."

PUTTING IT TOGETHER: THE ARTIST AS DEAL MARKER - New York Times

2007-01-30T12:40:00.000-05:00

Putting It Together: The Artist as Deal Maker - New York Times

The interesting rise of Scott Latham as told by Alison Gregor

Today he and his team of brokers at Cushman & Wakefield are involved in some of the most notable building sales around. His team’s biggest transaction was just last month: the sale of 666 Fifth Avenue for $1.8 billion. In 2005, the group worked on the $1.72 billion sale of the MetLife Building at 200 Park Avenue.

Mr. Latham, now 48 and an executive director at the company, says his past work life helped to build character as well as guide his approach to real estate today.

“If you’re going out fishing, you don’t want to catch the little things,” he said. “You want to catch something bigger and bigger, because it’s satisfying. And it’s more challenging.”

Colleagues and associates say they think that Mr. Latham brings rare abilities to the job.

“He’s got a great personality, and I’m sure that the eclectic experiences that he’s had in his life are part of that,” said Rob Speyer, a senior managing director at Tishman Speyer Properties. Tishman sold 666 Fifth Avenue in partnership with Pramerica Property Funds to Kushner Properties with Mr. Latham’s assistance.

Richard Baxter, another executive director at Cushman & Wakefield, who has known Mr. Latham for a decade and worked with him for the last three years, says his colleague “knows where to go to fish, and that’s the ability that Scott brings that very few brokers have.”

But it is the experience of creating a deal, not just ushering one along, that excites Mr. Latham. He said he has been particularly proud of some of his smaller building sales handled “off market,” meaning that the property was never listed for sale.

Mr. Latham handled such a transaction in 2004 with the $675 million sale of the landmark Plaza Hotel. He said that he recognized that the owners of the Plaza at the time, a partnership of Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia and Millennium & Copthorne Hotels, might be willing to sell the hotel if the right offer came along. He then approached El-Ad Properties, a company specializing in condominium conversions. That same year, in fact, Mr. Latham had convinced the owner of the Gift Building at 225 Fifth Avenue, Green Stamp America of Japan, to sell to El-Ad Properties.

Mr. Latham says the creation of a real estate deal is “a similar process to creating artwork.”

“You have an idea, and you work with it, and the idea talks back to you,” he said. “Eventually, it evolves into whatever the piece of art is at the end of the creative process.”

Both sales garnered accolades from competitors of Mr. Latham, like Craig Evans, a senior managing director in institutional investment sales at the brokerage firm Colliers ABR. Mr. Evans said he admired the “agility” of Mr. Latham and his team in closing the Plaza deal.

CHANGING 8TH AVENUE

2007-01-29T12:35:00.000-05:00

MORT'S PIECES OF 8TH By STEVE CUOZZO - Business - New York Post Online Edition

Steve Cuozzo notices that exciting developments on 8th Avenue in NYC.

SCORE one for Boston Properties.

The publicly traded giant led by Mort Zuckerman is tying up a spectacular assemblage that paves the way for a new, 850,000-square-foot office tower in the heart of fast-changing Eighth Avenue.

Boston, in a joint venture with Robert Gladstone's Madison Equities, just bought 247-259 W. 54th St. from a local family for $38.75 million.

The unexpected deal, brokered by Eastern Consolidated's Brian Ezratty and Scott Ellard, adds to an already impressive package Boston has been working on since early last year - the entire east blockfront of Eighth Avenue between 54th and 55th streets.

The eight-story, 97,679 square-foot address is home to the N.Y. State Department of Labor, which is expected to move out. Ezratty earlier negotiated the buyout of a sound studio in the building.

The property is immediately adjacent to two parcels on the avenue that Boston and Gladstone are also buying.

One is an empty lot owned by Hearst Corp. and the other a row of vacant tenements owned by the Wong family. Both of those purchases are expected to close within the next few weeks.

Without the side street purchase, Boston could only have built around 700,000 square feet.

HUDSON SQUARE: A RELATIVE BARGAIN IN A CORNER OF THE VILLAGE - New York Times

2007-01-28T12:43:00.000-05:00

A Relative Bargain in a Corner of the Village - New York Times

There's always a good deal to be found in Manhattan. Are readers familiar with Hudson Square, downtown?

In New York City’s sizzling commercial real estate sector, one of the rare submarkets where the statistics appear relatively weak is Hudson Square. In this wedge of the West Village, the office vacancy rate was 18.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2006, compared with a rate of 6.7 percent for Manhattan as a whole, according to figures compiled by Cushman & Wakefield.

And yet real estate professionals say Hudson Square is much healthier than its vacancy rate would suggest. Rents are 25 percent higher than they were a year earlier, but they are still a relative bargain compared with Midtown. This has helped to attract a new class of tenant to the neighborhood.

Hudson Square was given its name in the early ’80s by Trinity Real Estate, a big commercial landlord there, which resurrected the name of a turn-of-the-20th-century park, which was situated where the Holland Tunnel now stands. The area is bounded by Morton Street on the north, Avenue of the Americas on the east, Canal Street on the south and the Hudson River on the west.

It once housed mostly printing businesses in huge buildings with vast floor plates. In the late ’90s, during the dot-com boom and collapse, technology companies arrived and subsequently departed.

“When I first moved in nine years ago, buildings were shuttered and defunct,” said Sefton Stallard, the chef at Blue Ribbon Bakery, a casual bistro on Downing Street. “The area wasn’t kept up.”

Now, Mr. Stallard said, “life seems better.” There are very few buildings that are vacant now, and the neighborhood is alive both day and night.

Many properties are humming with what the author Richard Florida has deemed the “creative class”: graphic artists, photographers and architects. They are drawn by buildings whose high ceilings and large floor plans lured their industrial predecessors. The new tenants include the architect Rafael Viñoly, the advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, and L’Oréal, the French cosmetics giant.

Brokers say a number of properties have drawn tenants from media sectors. Workman Publishing, for example, has leased 59,000 square feet at 225 Varick Street, and the public radio station WNYC has leased 90,000 square feet at 10 Hudson Square.

The filmmaking Weinstein brothers have leased space in 345 Hudson, where other tenants include the Guggenheim Foundation and CBS Radio, according to Carl Weisbrod, the president of Trinity Real Estate, a division of Trinity Church, which owns 15 buildings in Hudson Square, including 345 Hudson. Trinity began renovating its buildings about 25 years ago and has completed comprehensive renovations on seven of its 15 properties.

MAJORS BID FOR JAVITS By LOIS WEISS - Business - New York Post Online Edition

2007-01-24T16:22:00.000-05:00

MAJORS BID FOR JAVITS By LOIS WEISS - Business - New York Post Online Edition

The Javits Center might have a neighbor on the West Side, in a neighbor. Lois Weiss has the story.

THREE qualified bids to develop a convention hotel opposite the Javits Center were received on Friday by the Empire State Development Corp.

The hopefuls and hotel partners are The Moinian Group with Marriott International, Extell Development with Hyatt, and Austin, Texas-based Faulkner with Hilton.

"The bids are still being evaluated," said spokesman A.J. Carter yesterday.

Michael Petralia, the new president of the New York City Convention Center Development Corp., the state agency supervising the Javits expansion, is one of several people expected to evaluate the bids.

The hotel itself is to be developed on the entire Eleventh Ave. block between 35th and 36th streets.

Joseph Moinian, who is also constructing a Downtown W Hotel with 217 rooms, 64 suites and 158 residences, is planning a much larger hotel for the convention headquarters facility.

Sources said The Marriott would be a 70-story, 1,400-room hotel designed by architecture firm Gensler with two ballrooms that have a total capacity of 5,000 for dinner. It would be the largest in the city.

Marriott Chairman and CEO Bill Marriott has also been very involved in its design.

Coincidentally, Moinian also owns the entire block directly to the site's south where he can build up to a 2 million-foot mixed-use project.

Neither he nor Extell's Gary Barnett returned calls by press time. Faulkner reps declined to discuss their proposal.

A COMMERCIAL LANDLORD'S BIGGEST SALE MAY BE ITSELF - New York Times

2007-01-23T16:07:00.000-05:00

A Commercial Landlord’s Biggest Sale May Be Itself - New York Times

Equity Office Properties is the object of a fierce bidding war.

The battle over Equity Office pits a group of investors led by Vornado Realty Trust, the owner of more than 100 million square feet of property and one of the nation’s most successful publicly traded real estate companies, against Blackstone Group, a private equity fund that has been acquiring real estate at a breathtaking pace over the last five years. In November, Equity Office accepted an all-cash offer of $48.50 a share from Blackstone, in a $36 billion deal, including debt, that would represent the largest leveraged buyout ever.

Last week, however, Vornado and its partners sought to top that bid by offering $52 a share in stock and cash. Equity Office, which had appeared to welcome a competing bid, according to analysts, agreed on Monday to give the Vornado team access to nonpublic information and said the challenger had until Jan. 31 to make a formal offer, which is just six days before Equity Office shareholders are scheduled to vote on the Blackstone bid. None of the parties would agree to be interviewed.

The frenzy over Equity Office is only the latest indication of how much capital is flowing into commercial real estate, especially office buildings, the last sector to recover from the recession that began with the dot-com bust in 2000. Many investors, including Steven Roth, the chairman of Vornado, say they believe that vacancy rates will continue to decline in the next couple of years, with a corresponding rise in rents.

In Vornado’s latest annual report, Mr. Roth described the transactions in which private companies have paid large premiums for publicly traded real estate companies as an “epidemic,” and said this trend “seems to support the conclusion, with which we agree, that public market trading prices are cheap to private values.”

Yet Mr. Roth, who parlayed a stake in a discount appliance chain in New Jersey into a diversified real estate empire that includes premier office buildings in New York and Washington, the Merchandise Mart in Chicago, and some of the costliest retail space on Madison Avenue in Manhattan, has stayed on the sidelines while other REITs like Trizec Properties, CarrAmerica Realty and Reckson Associates Realty were acquired.

Last summer, according to a document filed by Equity Office with the Securities and Exchange Commission, top executives of an unidentified company met with Mr. Zell to discuss a possible merger, and was given access to the company’s books. But nothing came of those discussions. (Analysts said the company was Vornado.)

A deal with Equity Office would give Mr. Roth the chance to acquire quality buildings in desirable markets where his company is not currently represented while avoiding the rich prices that individual buildings are commanding.

Last month, Vornado paid $542 million, or about $1,009 a square foot, for 350 Park Avenue, a 30-story office building between 51st Street and 52nd Street in Manhattan. Earlier this month, it bought the 1-million-square-foot Manhattan Mall in Herald Square for $689 million, augmenting the 6 million square feet of space it owns in the rapidly appreciating neighborhood around Penn Station.

PLAZA TO MARK 100 By STEVE CUOZZO - Business - New York Post Online Edition

2007-01-22T15:47:00.000-05:00

PLAZA TO MARK 100 By STEVE CUOZZO - Business - New York Post Online Edition

These are auspicious times for the exciting developments at the new Plaza Hotel.

PRAISE Eloise - New Yorkers will get an autumn present on Oct. 1, with a gala reopening ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the lavishly reconfigured Plaza Hotel on Fifth Avenue.

But what's inside the gift wrapping will be a surprise, at least until announcements are made over the next few months.

Although Elad Properties President Miki Naftali expects "all" of the landmark's 160,000 square feet of retail space on six different levels to be leased by then, and its restaurants open, he's keeping the wraps on what stores and eateries will actually move in.

Three months ago, Naftali told Women's Wear Daily that letters of intent - not leases - had been signed with a batch of unidentified, high-end stores.

Yesterday, he told us, "We have some signed leases and hope to have about 30-35 percent of the entire space leased by the end of this month."

There are letters of intent for both the Oak Room restaurant and the Grand Ballroom but not completed contracts yet. Naftali said the "deals are very complicated" because "they involve a lot of cooperation involving the infrastructure of the building."

Elad and leasing agent Robert K. Futterman have, remarkably, maintained secrecy in a town where news of lease negotiations travels at the speed of light; word has yet to leak out of even a single prospective deal.

Elad bought the failing hotel in 2004 for $675 million and is spending $350 million more on restoration and redesign to bring it into the modern world.

MEET ME IN REVITALIZED DOWNTOWN ST. LOUIS - New York Times

2006-10-04T22:32:00.000-04:00

Meet Me in Revitalized Downtown St. Louis - New York Times

According to the New York Times: The glass-fronted St. Louis Centre is being redeveloped by the Pyramid Companies.

It is great to see cities trying to make an effort by revitalzing their downtown areas. For too long, residents fled cities for the suburbs while politicians dithered and did nothing to bring back valuable intellectual capital as well as meaningful revenue streams.

Publicly-run urban planning ideas in the 1970s became beached whales. What is needed are privately funded ventures such as the one being undertaken in St. Louis, right now.

The developer of the complex is Pyramid Companies, the largest of a handful of concerns that have led the downtown turnaround. The company owns or controls about three million square feet of space, making it the largest private landlord in the downtown area.

“If downtown development is a 30-piece jigsaw puzzle,” said John Steffen, president of Pyramid, “then the Centre is the piece which brings the whole picture into focus.”

In addition to the complex and its multistory parking lot, Pyramid has acquired the vacant 500,000-square-foot Stix, Baer & Fuller department store just north of it and the 240,000-square-foot Mercantile Library Building diagonally across from it at Sixth and Locust Streets.

Pyramid’s plan calls for stripping the four-story Centre building to structural steel and converting it to about 120 residential condominiums, ranging in size from 750 to 3,500 square feet, and 110,000 square feet of street-level retail space. He also plans to eliminate the sky bridges that connect the building to its former department store anchors, Famous-Barr (now Macy’s) and the Stix, Baer & Fuller building.

“Because we’re not using historic tax credits, the condos will have features like balconies and terraces and all-glass window walls,” he said. “Right now, there really isn’t anything like that in downtown St. Louis. They will be unique and we should be able to charge a premium for them.”

Mr. Steffen also plans to simultaneously redevelop the Stix, Baer & Fuller building and the Mercantile Library Building along similar lines. Both of those projects, however, will use state and federal historic tax credits.

He said that construction would start after the first of the year and be finished by 2009.

The total cost of the project is $270 million, with part of the financing coming from Spinnaker Real Estate Partners, a Norwalk, Conn., development firm.

St. Louis Centre, which has been largely vacant for many years, was conceived in the mid-1980’s as a way to revive the ailing downtown St. Louis retail district by recasting it as a suburban mall. The complex, which occupies an entire city block, had space for about 150 specialty stores.

The original developer was Melvin Simon & Associates, the forerunner of the Simon Property Group, based in Indianapolis and one of the largest developers of malls in the country.

Numerous other cities around the country also bought into this concept with generally disappointing results.

“The thinking back then was if you built it, people would come,” said Bruce A. Kaplan, president of Northern Realty Group in Chicago, which specializes in downtown retail leasing. “But they didn’t. Almost all of the downtown malls from that period failed.”

The reason, he added, is that suburbanites preferred to shop closer to home, leaving downtown malls dependent primarily on daytime office workers.

“But you can’t make it on office workers alone,” Mr. Kaplan said. “You need people who live in and around the downtown area, you need tourists, you need business travelers and conventioneers. Then the synergies start to happen. But in St. Louis and a lot of other secondary markets, none of that was there.”

It's nice to see that good ideas are finally being implemented.

RITZ SITE GETS A RITZY PRICE: $52M - New York Post

2006-10-03T22:37:00.000-04:00

RITZ SITE GETS A RITZY PRICE: $52M By LOIS WEISS - New York Post Online Edition: Seven

Lori Weiss: FUR TRADE: The Ritz fur shop site, as it looked last year, is now a vacant lot on 57th Street.

A marquee Manhattan property has been snatched up.

BARRY Sternlicht's Starwood Capital Group has gobbled up the now vacant Ritz site at 105-07 W. 57th St. for a whopping $52 million.

The narrow site next to the Buckingham Hotel may be destined for a new Crillon, the French boutique hotel and residence brand Starwood is launching led by its flagship Hotel de Crillon in Paris.

In January, Starwood said it was targeting the city and while reps confirmed the purchase they declined comment on the exact plans.

The sellers, entities of Investcorp and Ceebraid-Signal, were going to build a new tower full of lavish condos and ritz it up, just as they had done at Palm Beach's Brazilian Court.

They paid $23 million to the family that owned the Ritz fur shop, and another $8.75 million to adjacent property owner Sam Domb for development rights but never moved forward.

DOWNTOWN IS LOOKING UP: New York Post

2006-09-28T22:26:00.000-04:00

DOWNTOWN IS LOOKING UP By STEVE CUOZZO - New York Post Online Edition: Seven

REBOUND: Office vacancies in lower Manhattan are moving toward pre-9/11 numbers.

Steve Cuozzo remarks on the remarkable comeback that downtown Manhattan has made in the five years since 9/11.

FOR the first time since the end of 2001, more than 90 percent of downtown's office space is leased, according to Cushman & Wakefield - a milestone that's been reached earlier than the most optimistic forecasts predicted.

Confounding skeptics who claim companies don't want to be anywhere near Ground Zero, the vacancy rate below Canal Street has fallen to a remarkably healthy 9.5 percent, according to Cushman research honcho Jonathan Mazur.

If that figure holds up when Cushman releases its definitive third-quarter report on Oct. 4, it would represent the first time downtown availability has fallen below 10 percent since December 2001.

Downtown's vacancies are higher than Midtown's 6.9 percent and Midtown South's 6.0 percent.

But it has less space available on a percentage basis than all but a handful of other U.S. business districts. By comparison, vacancies are 16.3 percent in Los Angeles, 16.4 percent in Chicago and 19.6 percent in Houston.

The 9.5 figure "is our projected number for the next report," said Cushman's New York office head Joseph Harbert. "We're thinking it's pretty good, and we don't expect a lot of surprises between now and Friday."

The data comes on the heels of a definitive agreement between the Port Authority and Larry Silverstein for rebuilding the World Trade Center site.

Downtown Alliance President Eric Deutsch says the news "marks a significant turning point from recovery to full-blown economic growth" in the area.

Encouraging news, indeed.

BILL CLINTON'S WEEKEND ERUPTION

2006-09-25T13:11:00.000-04:00

Michelle Malkin has all the interesting links.

Rage: The Morning After

Lots of opinion and interesting links all around.

NYTimes: READ BETWEEN ALL THOSE FOR-SALE SIGNS

2006-08-28T13:22:00.000-04:00

Different theories abound on the varying clues in the real estate market. Many observers ask will there be a hard landing or a soft landing?

New York Times: Read Between All Those For-Sale Signs

The collapse of most bubbles does not have a single obvious starting point, like a bad corporate earnings report or an interest-rate rise. Instead, the psychology of buyers and sellers shifts, slowly at first and then sometimes in a cascade.

“It’s always mystified people about why these things turn,” said Robert J. Shiller, a Yale economist and author of “Irrational Exuberance,” a history of speculation. “People want something concrete.”

There seem to be three major paths that housing could follow over the next year: a soft landing, the start of a long slump, or a crash. A soft landing is the one predicted — and preferred — by most economists on Wall Street and at the Fed. A long slump is what many past real estate booms turned into. A crash is the outcome that a small group of analysts say is the only possible ending for the biggest housing boom of all.

Their prediction looks better than it did a few weeks ago, but even they aren’t sure whether this is the beginning of the end or another false turning point. “The funny thing about bubbles,” Mr. Shiller said, “is that you never know when they’re over.”

For a crash to happen, prices would have to decline significantly in some once-hot markets. So far, as sales have slowed and the number of houses on the market has soared, many owners have chosen to sit tight. If they were instead to decide that selling later would be even worse than selling now, this could change quickly.

The doomsayers’ strongest argument may be that too few families can afford prices in some metropolitan areas. In Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Miami, prices have almost doubled since 2003, and they have risen about 50 percent in New York and San Francisco, the National Association of Realtors says.

New York Times: Read Between All Those For-Sale Signs

ECONOMY GROWS 0.9% IN EUROPE

2006-08-16T15:57:00.000-04:00

Almost 1% is lauded as a milestone in Europe's Central Bank yet that number significantly trails the economic progess made in the United States.

[NY Times]: With France and Germany leading the way, the economy in the 12 nations that use the euro currency grew at its fastest quarterly rate since 2000, a development that is expected to fortify the resolve of the European Central Bank to raise interest rates again this year.

The gross domestic product of the nations grew 0.9 percent from April to June compared with the previous quarter, Eurostat, the statistics agency of the European Union, reported Monday. Growth has recently mostly reflected strong exports, but the latest figure received a lift from business investment and consumers, whose reluctance to spend has been the hallmark of the slow recovery.

The German economy, where households have been the most tightfisted, also grew 0.9 percent.

“Domestic demand is doing its job, finally,” said Erik Nielsen, chief Europe economist with Goldman Sachs. “We finally have a little drive from something other than exports, which is good.”

The data broadly confirmed figures released by various countries over much of the last week, most recently France on Friday. Though overall growth is accelerating in the euro region, it is uneven, with France growing at a rate of 1.1 percent to 1.2 percent in the quarter, and Italy lagging at 0.5 percent.

FoxNews.com reported that the United States gross dometic product grew by 2.5% in the second quarter of 2006 and by 5.6% in the first quarter of 2006.

According to Bloomberg.com, the Mexican economy grew by 4.4% in the April-June period after growing by 5.5% in the January-March period.

HIGH-PROFILE BUILDINGS IN DEMAND

2006-08-04T15:21:00.000-04:00

Lois Weiss says that 9 W. 58th Street is highly sought after...

Sheldon Solow, the grand poohbah of 9 W. 57th St., won't even allow a tenant to view availabilities in his "Country Club" property before reviewing their financials.

That's why Dallas-based Highland Capital Management was thrilled to make the cut and will soon make a grand entree into a 12,100 foot, fully-built spread on the 38th floor that starts at $150 a foot.

Highland, here since 2003 at temp offices at 245 Park Ave., sought grand new offices for a year with Ben Friedland and Sacha Zarba of CB Richard Ellis. They toured competing buildings and spaces, including Solow's vacant top floor, but were discouraged by the true lack of choices and possible months of slogging through a build-out.

But the Clinton Group wanted to consolidate on the 26th floor and building agents Peter Turchin and Steve Siegel of CB Richard Ellis made the elegant quarters available as a direct deal to Highland, complete with Central Park views, furniture and phones and its double door entrance off the elevator. CBRE declined comment.

Lois Weiss: Frenzy of Interest

IN MEXICO, LOANS WITHOUT BORDERS

2006-08-03T17:37:00.000-04:00

As more Americans buy homes in Mexico different types of mortgages are being set up...

Buoyed by gains in domestic real estate, Americans have jumped into the worldwide housing market in recent years, buying second homes in far-flung destinations.

Although such purchases are often financed with cash or second mortgages taken out on primary residences, a growing number of citizens are finding help from mortgage cooperatives set up jointly by American and foreign institutions. The deals are slightly more complex than those found in the United States; interest rates and down payments are higher, too. But mortgage executives say these products offer better terms than conventional second mortgages.

Mexico is the most recent example, because it has become a booming market for people looking for beachfront homes. The United States Embassy in Mexico City said neither Mexican nor American government agencies track the number of Americans living in Mexico from year to year. But a spokeswoman said the number had grown since the last Mexican census, in 2000, when 340,000 Americans were counted.

Prices in Mexico are still much lower than in comparable American beach areas, and sites like Los Cabos and Cancún have drawn thousands of American buyers.

Brian Murphy, the president of ConfiCasa Riviera Maya, a brokerage affiliated with ConfiCasa International, based in Houston, said that lenders began offering cross-border loans to Americans about two years ago. “The loans are happening,” he said. “They’re just not the same loans you’ll get in the states.”

For instance, the loans usually require down payments of 30 percent, and most amortize over 20 years and have fixed rates. One exception is a 30-year adjustable mortgage, starting at 7.9 percent (plus a 2 percent origination fee). Buyers can also find 20-year fixed-rate loans at 7.75 percent, if they borrow at least $300,000.

The loan process is similar to its stateside cousin, with appraisals and credit checks. But buyers must register with the Foreign Investment Ministry and will most likely be required to set up a trust, called a fideicomiso, to protect the state’s property rights. Although title insurance is not required, Mr. Murphy recommends it, because laws in different Mexican regions can cloud ownership rights.

Buyers should prepare for longer waits than they are typically subjected to in the United States. “You’re usually looking at a 90-day close,” Mr. Murphy said.

Many people credit General Electric with helping bolster the cross-border mortgage market through a partnership that G.E. Mexico, which finances loans, formed with its WMC Mortgage unit, which underwrites them. (Home buyers looking for brokers authorized to make such loans can check MexicanDreamMortgage.com., a site set up by G.E.)

Given the brisk demand for these loans, it is not surprising that other lenders are poised to join in. Mark Zaltzman, chief financial officer of Hipotecaria Su Casita, one of Mexico’s biggest mortgage lenders, said that it would probably begin lending to Americans for purchases in Mexico by year’s end.

NYTimes: In Mexico, Loans Without Borders

575 LEXINGTON AVENUE IS VERY AVAILABLE

2006-08-03T15:24:00.000-04:00

Another prominent tower is now being marketed

ANOTHER real estate family is trying to take a tasty office tower chip off the table.

The Koeppels have hired Darcy Stacom and Bill Shanahan of CB Richard Ellis to market the nearly 600,000-foot 575 Lexington Ave.

With no other major office products available in the city, sources say investors of all sizes, shapes and origins have been scrambling to win the deal for the sleek black tower.

According to CoStar Group data, the 1958 building developed between 51st and 52nd streets by Sam Minskoff received a full-scale modernization and renovation at the end of 1990 courtesy of Der Scutt Architect.

The law firm Boies, Schiller & Flexner and Weill Cornell are among the tenants.

It has a few availabilities with current asking rents of $70 a foot.

With the then-empty 522 Fifth Ave. trading for over $700 a foot and others twice this size popping for $1,000 a foot, the final number is anyone's guess. Calls to the family and the brokers were not returned.

NY Post: The Koeppel family is marketing 575 Lexington Avenue

BIG LEASES SIGNED IN MANHATTAN

2006-08-02T15:19:00.000-04:00

It seems that Equinox Fitness Club is expanding its muscles in Manhattan.

Steve Cuozzo notes...

EQUINOX Fitness Clubs, the high-end gym-and-spa chain that Related Cos. bought last year for $505 million, keeps on flexing its muscles all over Manhattan.

Equinox just signed what might be its largest lease ever at SL Green's 1 Park Ave. - a 52,120-square-foot deal that includes 15,000 feet of offices. A 1,500-square-foot ground-floor entrance leads to the bulk of the space on the second floor, which has windows overlooking the avenue.

To accommodate the new club in the prewar office building at 32nd Street, Green eliminated some former second-floor office space and built a private entrance for Equinox on the 33rd Street side. "We also converted two elevators to be all theirs," said Green leasing honcho Steven Durels.

Newmark Knight Frank's Jeffrey Roseman, who represented Equinox, called the new club "a total amenity for the building."

The asking rent was $40 a foot.

COMING AMERICA: MORE EUROPEANS ARE BUYING LUXURY HOMES IN USA

2006-08-01T15:33:00.000-04:00

The New York Times notes a growing trend...

“I love Monaco,” said Eugenia Foxworth, an agent at Coldwell Banker Hunt Kennedy in New York, who calls the French Riviera a great place to network for sales. Her recent travels also included Thailand and Greece, where she marketed a 33-acre estate in northern New Jersey with tennis courts that convert to a skating rink. It is listed at $7.5 million.

“I’ve had more sales with Europeans in the past year than Americans,” Ms. Foxworth said.

Wooing international buyers has become a priority for some agents who handle luxury properties. Real estate analysts say rising interest rates, a glut of fancy designer estates and inflated prices are shrinking the number of American shoppers interested in high-end properties, although the observation is based on consumer attitudes rather than actual sales.

Meanwhile, the number of overseas buyers is soaring. A study conducted last year by the Florida Association of Realtors and the National Association of Realtors found that 15 percent of the homes sold by almost 1,000 Florida agents in the last 12 months had been bought by foreigners.

Nearly 60 percent of those buyers were Europeans taking advantage of the euro’s strength against the dollar. (The euro is now trading at around $1.27, about 27 percent more than the rate in July 2002.) Buyers from Asia, Latin America and other regions also are looking to the United States, which is viewed as a relatively stable market.

As a result, more luxury home sellers are marketing properties overseas. The number of agents certified as international specialists by the National Association of Realtors has grown to more than 2,000, nearly a third more than three years ago.

“Owners of very expensive homes are looking to where the wealth is,” said Laurie Moore-Moore, the president of the Dallas-based Institute for Luxury Home Marketing, which works with agents.

Susan Greenfield, vice president of Brown Harris Stevens in New York, who travels around the world marketing properties, was in Cannes, France, recently promoting a three-bedroom, 1,850-square-foot condominium priced at $2.599 million. “You can’t do this over the Internet,” Ms. Greenfield said. “You can’t do this over the telephone.”

Once a rarity, Americans are now a common sight at trade shows around the world, like Sima, or Sálon Immobiliario de Madrid, one of Europe’s largest annual real estate exhibitions. This year’s event drew 25 exhibitors from the United States, a new record for that show, according to a show spokesman.

Magazines and Web sites also are benefiting from the new international marketing push. For example, Unique Homes Magazine, a twice-monthly publication distributed in 80 countries, has grown from 240 pages to 320 pages in the last year.

Brokers say they have increased their advertising budgets in vehicles that reach wealthy people beyond American borders. “My business model has completely changed,” said Luke Romero, an agent in Houston with Cameron & Tate Properties, which focuses almost exclusively on international buyers.

Mr. Romero travels extensively in Latin America, particularly Panama and Mexico, and is active in the International Real Estate Federation, commonly known by its French acronym, Fiabci, an organization focused on facilitating relationships among real estate professionals.

Try the Riviera

CYNTHIA MCKINNEY & CINDY SHEEHAN

2006-07-21T11:22:00.000-04:00

Um, okay. Get down tonight.

SEE YOU SOON

2006-07-08T15:27:00.000-04:00

Going on vacation. Have a happy and safe July. See you soon!!

DAY ONE: RUNNING OF THE BULLS IN PAMPLONA, SPAIN

2006-07-07T14:59:00.000-04:00

The encierro has begun.

San Fermines will knock you out

DAILY KOS'S READERSHIP IS DECLINING

2006-07-02T17:54:00.000-04:00

President Bush and Daily Kos have one thing in common - declining support in 2006

As Daily Kos attracts more attention from the mainstream press his daily readership is declining.

This is his traffic for the last year.

This is his readership for the last month - are the scandals turning off his ardent supporters?

SUPERMAN IS NO LONGER AMERICAN: TRUTH, JUSTICE AND ALL THAT STUFF

2006-06-28T03:50:00.000-04:00

Jeanne Wolf interviewed the writers of the new Superman movie and asked them why "truth, justice and the American way" was changed to "truth, justice and ... all that stuff."

The response that Mike Dougherty and Dan Harris gave Wolf was that Superman is not American.

[Movies.com]:
Mike: "When it comes to the American way, that's tricky."
Dan: "I don't think 'the American way' means what it meant in 1945."
Mike: "He's not just for Metropolis, and not just for America."
Dan: "He's an alien, from Krypton; he has come to Earth to be kind of a savior for this world, not our country … And he has no papers."
Mike: "What would happen with the immigration laws we have now?"
Dan: "I'd like to see someone kick him out!"

Director Bryan Singer admits that when they made the revision to the legendary slogan, they did have the international market in mind. Which means American audiences might like to hear those words more than foreign ticket buyers. As far as the filmmakers are concerned, Superman is for all the world. And that world includes a lot of cash.

What's wrong with reasserting that Superman is an American? After all, the audience is not dumb. Clark Kent works in America; presumably pays his taxes before April 15, votes on election day and serves jury duty. He doesn't speak the Queen's English. If Clark Kent lived in Belgium he'd be spending his time writing white papers, if he lived in France he'd be protesting for the 35 hour work week. Instead, he is an American who doesn't wait around for the government to do the saving, he takes it upon himself to help his neighbors. Ony in America could an outsider like Superman forge his own identity yet be accepted at the same time.

Hollywood filmmakers have become embarrassed to be Americans. The movie industry used to be proud in exporting our national ideals and values. But, Hollywood no longer wants to be associated with "America".

The "American way", according to Hollywood, has now become a grotesque beast that plagues the planet Earth. Hollywood buys into a myth that the United States is out of touch with the rest of the world due to the political bent of America's elected government officials and the nation's response to the most devastating terrorist attacks in our history. The "American way" in Hollywood's eye is now represented by a fascist syndication that sanctions torture in military prisons, encourages the destruction of the air we breathe, wiretaps your grandmother's phone calls, monitors where you spend your money, cracks down on televised profanity and enables "Jesus freaks" to turn the world upside down. It is the myth and caricature of what America has become that has made Hollywood the very paranoid and delusional center of influence that it accused the rest of the nation of becoming.

There is something about a notion of an "American way" that now shames Hollywood writers. There are very few movies made anymore about the heroism of our military personnel. We no longer see Hollywood movies in which characters pray or go to church services. The only remarkable screen protagonists we have left are the men wearing tights and capes. Superheroes are a distinctly American creation (leave it to the French to come up with the super bureaucrat) -a reflection of what we all wish we could be if we were better people - but Hollywood denizens wish to deny the American in all of us.

AMERICANS HAVE HIGHER OPINION OF MUSLIMS THAN DO WESTERN EUROPEANS

2006-06-28T00:01:00.000-04:00

From the NY Times

Poll Finds Discord Between the Muslim and Western Worlds
By MEG BORTIN

PARIS, June 22 — Non-Muslim Westerners and Muslims around the world have widely different views of world events, and each group tends to view the other as violent, intolerant and lacking in respect for women, a new international survey of more than 14,000 people in 13 nations indicates.

In what the survey, part of the Pew Global Attitudes Project for 2006, called one of its most striking findings, majorities in Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan and Turkey — Muslim countries with fairly strong ties to the United States — said, for example, that they did not believe that Arabs had carried out the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.

The findings illustrating the chasm in beliefs follow another year of violence and tension centered on that divide. In the last 12 months there have been terrorist bombings in London; riots in France by unemployed youths, many of them Muslim; a global uproar over Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad; and no letup in the war in Iraq.

This led majorities in the United States and in countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East to describe relations between Muslims and people in Western countries as generally bad, Pew found.

Over all, Muslims in the survey, including the large Islamic populations in Britain, France, Germany and Spain, broadly blamed the West for the bad relations, while Westerners tended to blame Muslims.

Muslims in the Middle East and Asia depicted Westerners as immoral and selfish, while Westerners saw Muslims as fanatical.

The results were not uniform, and delivered some surprises. Support for terrorism declined in some of the Muslim countries surveyed, dropping sharply in Jordan, where terrorist bombings killed more than 50 people in Amman in November.

Two-thirds of the French people surveyed expressed positive views of Muslims, and even larger majorities of French Muslims felt favorable toward Christians and Jews. Muslims surveyed in Europe were less inclined to see a "clash of civilizations" than were general publics in Europe or Muslims elsewhere.

Pew found sharp divergences regarding respect for women: non-Muslims in the West view Muslims as lacking respect, the survey indicated, while Muslims outside Europe say the same of Westerners.

In the West, where many see Islamic customs like mandatory veils for women and regulations barring them from working outside the home or driving as discriminatory, big majorities saw Muslims as not respectful of women.

In contrast, fewer than half of the Muslims asked in Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey said they associated Westerners with respect for women. European Muslims surveyed were more likely to view Westerners as respectful of women, in some places by wide margins.

Pew, which interviewed Muslims in Europe as a group for the first time this year, said their views represented "a bridge" between the widely divergent views of other Europeans and of Muslims in Asia and the Middle East.

The overall results, said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center, show that "even though relations are not good, there hasn't been a spike in outright hostility between the two groups over the past year."

Nonetheless, majorities in every country surveyed except Pakistan expressed pessimism about Muslim-Western relations, with Germany most strongly viewing the situation as bad (70 percent), followed by France (66 percent), Turkey (64 percent), Spain and Britain (61 percent), and Egypt (58 percent).

Pew surveyed 14,030 people from March 31 to May 14 in Britain, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Spain, Turkey and the United States. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus two to four percentage points, except in Britain and Germany, where it was six points.

For analytical purposes, Muslims were oversampled in Britain, France, Germany and Spain, and the margin of sampling error for their responses is plus or minus five or six points. Interviews were conducted face to face, except in the United States, Britain, France and Germany, where they were done by phone. The poll was conducted nationwide except in India and Pakistan, where it mostly covered only urban areas.

In follow-up interviews in countries surveyed about the results, Muslims attributed poor relations with the West to a variety of causes. But many pointed to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians as the main cause and accused the West of double standards on terrorism.

Pew asked respondents to give their opinions of Christians, Muslims and Jews, and it found anti-Jewish sentiment to be "overwhelming" in the Muslim countries surveyed. It reached 98 percent in Jordan and 97 percent in Egypt.

Majorities in the Muslim world, Pew said, also expressed the opinion that the victory of the militant group Hamas in Palestinian elections in January would "be helpful to a fair settlement between Israel and the Palestinians" — a view that was roundly rejected by non-Muslim publics.

NATIONAL PRIDE: USA TOPS PATRIOTISM POLL

2006-06-27T16:57:00.000-04:00

I went on the National Opinion Research Center's website but couldn't find a link to their poll results. I would like to see what countries round out the top ten.

However, it says a lot for the United States. Despite all the national media's navel gazing, the drumbeat of criticism around the world, the shocking events of 9/11, two wars, a very racially and lingustically diverse society, ours is not only a resilient but proud nation.

Pessimists be damned, this is the best news I've received in quite some time.

MSNBC:

America tops in national pride, survey finds
U.S. leads 34 countries in confidence in democracy, military, economy

CHICAGO - U-S-A! U-S-A! When it comes to national pride, Americans are No. 1, according to a survey of 34 countries' patriotism.

Venezuela came in a close second in the survey, released Tuesday by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago.

People rated how proud they were of their countries in 10 areas: political influence, social security, the way their democracy works, economic success, science and technology, sports, arts and literature, military, history, and fair treatment of all groups in society.
[...]
Strange bedfellows
The U.S. ranked highest overall and in five categories: pride in its democracy, political influence, economy, science and military. Venezuela ranked highest in four categories: sports, arts and literature, history, and fair treatment of all groups in society.

TIME MAGAZINE: HOW TEDDY ROOSEVELT INVENTED MODERN AMERICA

2006-06-25T15:30:00.000-04:00

Time Magazine pays deserved attention to President Theodore Roosevelt

At home and abroad, Theodore Roosevelt was the locomotive President, the man who drew his flourishing nation into the future
By RICHARD LACAYO

[TIME]:

Presidents come and go, but monuments are always with us. There's a reason Theodore Roosevelt is the only 20th century President whose face is carved into Mount Rushmore, the only one who could hold his own with Washington, Lincoln and Jefferson. Roosevelt not only remade America, but he also charmed the pants off everybody while he did it. And just short of a century after he left the White House, in 1909, the collective memory of his strength and intellect and charisma still lingers.

TIME Magazine

NEWSWEEK: THE WAR'S LEFT FRONT

2006-06-25T14:50:00.000-04:00

Newsweek introduces readers to The Daily Kos

However, Newsweek's Jonathan Darman neglects to inform readers that Markos Moulitsas once said 4 American civilian contractors deserved to be tortured and killed in Fallujah.

Remember when the would-be Democratic leader made this gruesome comment?

WITHER PANDA? TWICE AS MANY GIANT PANDAS MAY BE ALIVE THAN PREVIOUSLY THOUGHT

2006-06-19T21:04:00.000-04:00

Remember the anguished cries? "Save the panda!"

Never mind.

Fears that the giant panda is on the brink of extinction may be unjustified, research suggests.

Scientists believe populations have been underestimated in past surveys and there may be as many as 3,000 pandas left in the wild.

Keep this story in mind when you hear about the looming global warming crisis from those who profit on scare-mongering.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Hope for future of giant panda

WASHINGTON POST: INTRODUCING...AGAIN... BARACK OBAMA

2006-06-18T07:53:00.000-04:00

Never has a first-term senator been so heavily promoted to be president despite the utter lack of real evidence on what makes him the obvious choice to be the Democratic Pary's presidential candidate. His record is liberal but no one knows much about the man's character, his leadership abilities nor his ideas on where the country should go. The Washington Post doesn't seem to have a clue.

Flash over substance: Liberal, inexperienced first-term senator anointed rock star and Democratic party savior by the Washington Post

It is a homily that has left some fellow politicians swooning. "I haven't seen a phenomenon like this, where someone comes in so new and is so dazzling," said Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), a 25-year veteran of Congress. Schumer, who heads the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said Obama "is more requested than anybody else" in the party's hierarchy for fundraising and campaign appearances on behalf of congressional candidates. "Everyone wants him. He's lightning."

From obscurity in the Illinois legislature to national prominence, is Obama the next Lincoln?? Inquiring minds want to know, the Washington Post wishes it were so.

TOUGHER IMMIGRATION BILL PASSED IN FRANCE

2006-06-17T02:02:00.000-04:00

The French immigration law is tougher than anything seen in the United States

Sarkozy: Assimilate or else

A "tough on immigration" bill has passed in France and it is markedly different than any proposals offered in the United States.

The sharpest distinction between the French and the American solutions concerns what each country feels it should do with the illegal aliens who have been in these respective countries for the longest period of time.

Unlike the United States which wants to reward illegal aliens who have been breaking the law for the longest period of time, the French have taken the opposite approach. A tough new law that passed the upper house of the French parliament abolishes the rights of illegal immigrants who have remained for at least ten years.

It seems that France is ready to withdraw the welcome mat.

[BBC]: The upper house of the French parliament has passed a tough new immigration bill, weeks after it was adopted by the lower chamber.

The bill makes it harder for unskilled migrants to settle in France and abolishes the rights of illegal immigrants to remain after 10 years.

One facet of America's immigration policy is "family reunification" in which immigrants can arrange to bring their spouses and children to the United States.

France would not be so inclined to mimic "family reunification" but would rather make it harder for immigrants to bring their loved ones to France.

The proposed law also requires immigrants from outside the European Union to sign a contract agreeing to learn French and to respect the principles of the French Republic, and makes it more difficult for them to bring their families over to join them.

Mr Sarkozy has argued that riots by youths in immigrant suburbs across France last November showed the system of immigration and integration was failing.

He says France, like a number of other Western countries, needs to choose the immigrants it needs.

Here are some of the features of the French bill (according to BBC News)

*Only the qualified get "skills and talents" residency permit
*Foreigners only allowed in to work, not live off benefits
*Foreign spouses to wait longer for residence cards
*Migrants must agree to learn French
*Migrants must sign 'contract' respecting French way of life
*Scraps law on workers getting citizenship after 10 years

BBC NEWS: French immigration bill approved

KENYA SMASHES U.S. VISA SCAM RING

2006-06-15T13:42:00.000-04:00

I wonder how many other illegal rackets are operating in the vicinity of other American embassies around the world?

A visa fraud ring operating around the United States embassy in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, has been broken up, police say.

They said 77 people were arrested when Kenyan police and the US authorities carried out a joint sting operation.

Officials said the ringleaders paid the winners of a US visa lottery to falsely claim they had dependents who would then be eligible to enter the US.

They said the scam caused financial hardship to many families.

Dozens of heavily armed policemen supported by plain-clothes officers swooped down on the US consular office in the upmarket Gigiri district shortly after the embassy opened for business, reports the AFP news agency.

Officials told AFP that people paid thousands of dollars to those running the scam, to pair them up with the lottery winners.

From the BBC: BBC NEWS | Africa | Kenya smashes US visa scam ring

MOVIE REVIEW: THE NYTIMES HATED DISNEY/PIXAR'S "CARS" BECAUSE IT'S BAD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

2006-06-14T18:08:00.001-04:00

Movie critic Manohla Dargis complained that there is "not a hybrid in sight!"

NYTimes critic dismissed the movie as lacking any living characters - do these three sprightly fellows to the right look alive to you?

The NYTimes movie critic Manohla Dargis characterized the animated movie Cars as "creepy". She even compared it "The Terminator". Her biggest complaint was the lack of liberal preachiness prevalent in too many animated films and the sin of Cars is that it ignored Hollywood's flavor of the month, global warming.

Dargis' take & complaints

* "...the film's regrettably retro attitude toward all things automotive (not a hybrid in sight!)"
* "An animated fable about happy cars might have made sense before gas hit three bucks a gallon, but even an earlier sticker date couldn't shake the story's underlying creepiness, which comes down to the fact that there's nothing alive here: nada, zip."
* "instead of blowing the living world into smithereens, these machines have just gassed it with carbon monoxide."
* "Even stranger, the film turns Detroit's paving over of America into an occasion for some nostalgic historical revisionism. Surreal isn't the word."
* "One clunker won't shut down or even threaten the factory line, but here's hoping that as this onetime scrapper becomes increasingly entrenched and establishment, it keeps its geeks-and-freaks flag flying."

Ms. Dargis claimed that the hippie VW bus character (played by George Carlin) was the movie's most "credible resident" because he "mutters about conspiracies".

Why would someone take global warming so seriously that they are offended it's not addressed in a kiddie film? Jonah Goldberg addressed Gore-mania when it comes to the idol worship of "Inconvenient Truth" by liberals and environmentalists.

Goldberg asked, "Why on Earth aren’t these people denouncing the movie Cars?" Well, take a look at Ms. Dargis's movie review - a serious takedown of a non-serious movie.

A delicious treat is the number of NYT Reader Reviewers who take Dargis' dour item to task...

* "One need not worry that nothing is "alive" in Cars, the newest animated film from Pixar, because the Cars themselves are alive. This crosses the reality boundary that my three-year-old son crosses every day: his cars talk to each other and to him. He apologized to one the other day for not taking it with him to daycare."
* "I don't often read Manohla Dargis's reviews, so I don't have a feel for her perspective, but her review of CARS has to be about as misguided as you can get. (Did she want an emissions test for each vehicle?)"
* "Manohla Dargis, your reviewer of "Car" needs to lighten up. Cars is a movie for kids, not a polemic for political correctness. I have seen Cars already and I loved it."
* "Cars is a story of America because Americans love cars, and our passion for automobiles is put forth with hilarity and class in the film. Despite the review by the Times critic, who seemed to want to prove intellectual superiority and establish personal PC views on pollution more than enjoy a movie, the film is an outragious and clever tale..."
* "Oh puh-lease!!! Get off of your preachy soap box and stop seeing everything as a means to further indoctrinate the masses. This is ENTERTAINMENT, not the anti-car message you wish it was. Gassed them out with carbon monoxide? Everything is clean but the fossil fuel? A bit biased, perhaps? Just because you don't like cars and wish this movie shared your view doesn't give you the right to pan it. Most people actually do like cars."

It looks like the marriage of automobiles and mainstream movie fare is the ultimate opiate for the masses. Ms. Dargis, please pass the buttered popcorn and warning label-free soda, thank you.

Mmmmm, animated exhaust...

NY Times: "Cars" - Review - Movies - by Manohla Dargis

GORDON BROWN: U.K. MOVES TO DRAW ISLAMIC BANKING BUSINESS

2006-06-14T17:22:00.000-04:00

The UK's Chancellor of the Exchequer encourages London banks to make sure their services comply with Sharia law in order "to make Britain the gateway to Islamic finance and trade".

Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown speaks at the Islamic Finance and Trade Conference in London. Brown has backed a push by Muslim leaders here to make Britain the gateway to Islamic finance and trade.(AFP/John D McHugh)

[NYPOST]: June 14, 2006 -- LONDON - Britain's top finance official, Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, said yesterday he wants to make London the global capital for Islamic banking.

Brown said the U.K. Treasury is working on a package of measures that would legalize services including savings accounts and mortgages complying with Shariah law, which bans the practice of paying interest.

Some are included in the Finance Bill now being considered by the House of Commons.

With 1.8 million Muslims in the U.K., companies including HSBC Bank and Lloyds TSB Bank already offer some services that fit the rules.

"It is the vibrancy and dynamism of Britain's Muslims, combined with Britain's openness to the world and our historic ties with Muslim countries, that means the ambition you have set for yourselves - to make Britain the gateway to Islamic finance and trade - is one I believe Britain is well placed to achieve," Brown told a conference on Islamic banking in London.

Interesting.

U.K. MOVES TO DRAW ISLAMIC BANKING BIZ Bloomberg - New York Post Online Edition: Business

CHINTA POSTED TRADE SURPLUS OF $13 BILLION LAST MONTH - New York Times

2006-06-13T19:31:00.000-04:00

Wow. The numbers are boggling.

China said Monday that its trade surplus reached a record $13 billion in May, raising the prospect of renewed trade frictions with the United States and Europe.

The huge trade gains are just the latest evidence of China's remarkable economic boom, and the figures could create new pressures on Beijing to allow its currency to appreciate against other world currencies as a way of balancing global trade.

After posting a record $100 billion trade surplus in 2005, much of it with the United States and Europe, China said Monday that its total surplus had already reached nearly $47 billion in the first five months of this year, a period that is traditionally slower for exports than the second half of the year.

The government said that in May, exports rose 25 percent, to $73 billion, while imports rose 22 percent, to $60 billion.

China Posted Trade Surplus of $13 Billion Last Month - New York Times

NAT'L GUARD TROOPS SCARING MIGRANTS FROM BORDER: ARIZONA APPREHENSIONS DOWN 23% FOR FIRST TEN DAYS OF JUNE

2006-06-12T19:39:00.000-04:00

Enforcement, or at least the threat of it, works.

It looks like the placement of National Guard troops at the border is having its intended effect...

The arrival of U.S. National Guard troops in Arizona has scared off undocumented Mexican migrants along the border, significantly reducing crossings, according to U.S. and Mexican officials.

U.S. authorities said Monday that detentions along the U.S.-Mexico border decreased by 21 percent, to 26,994, in the first 10 days of June, compared with 34,077 for the same period a year ago.

Along the Arizona border, once the busiest crossing spot, detentions have dropped 23 percent, according to the U.S. Border Patrol.

Arizona Republic: Guard troops scaring migrants away from border, officials say

CNN: TATTOO NATION - THE U.S. IS GETTING INKED

2006-06-10T20:33:00.000-04:00

Gross.

It looks like this bizarre fad is continuing, unabated. I do predict that it will fade.

Future generations of kids will make fun of their parents tattoos the way today's Gen Xers make fun of their parents bell-bottoms, platform shoes and disco records.

A generation or two ago, Yu's tattoos -- to say nothing of his pierced nose -- probably would have placed him in a select company of soldiers, sailors, bikers and carnival workers. But no longer.

The American University employee is among about 36 percent of Americans age 18 to 29 with at least one tattoo, according to a survey.

The study, scheduled to appear Monday on the Web site of the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, provides perhaps the most in-depth look at tattoos since their popularity exploded in the early 1990s.

The results suggest that 24 percent of Americans between 18 and 50 are tattooed; that's almost one in four. Two surveys from 2003 suggested just 15 percent to 16 percent of U.S. adults had a tattoo.

CNN.com - Tattoo nation --the U.S. is getting inked - Jun 10, 2006