Square Feet

Larry Fink of Blackrock on Commercial Real Estate

squarefeet — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 01:33:13 +0000

Larry Fink, Chairman and CEO of Blackrock on commercial real estate…

Chairman of AREA (Apollo) William Mack on CNBC

squarefeet — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:38:50 +0000

William Mack, the founder and chairman of AREA Property Partners, formerly Apollo Real Estate Investors was on CNBC. He seems to generally share the same view as Soros and Ross. He focuses in on consumer confidence as the driver for a recovery. The four things are: 1) job recovery, 2) home price recovery, 3) access to [...]

CalPERS Takes Huge Hit to RE Portfolio

squarefeet — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:39:30 +0000

CalPERS has taken a huge hit to its real estate portfolio according to The Registry. At the end of March, the pension fund placed a net-asset fair-market value on its real estate holdings of $17.6 billion. Three months later, the retirement system said the value had fallen by nearly a quarter to $13.4 billion. Amongst those losses [...]

CalSTRS Taking Steps to Reduce Risk

squarefeet — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:32:20 +0000

Funny how CalSTRS and other pension funds decide now that they want less risk after the market has tanked. CalSTRS’ new real estate policy creates a higher floor for so-called “core” real estate investment, raising it from 30 percent of assets today to no less than 35 percent. Core real estate is the least risky with [...]

Banks Quick to Adopt New FDIC Guidelines

squarefeet — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:10:16 +0000

WSJ is reporting that banks are being quick to adopt new FDIC guidelines which allow them to reclassify the type of debt they have on their books from performing to non-performing by meeting less stringent requirements. The new policy statement recently issued by the FDIC recently gives banks the ability to restructure loans without hurting the [...]

County Planning On Buying, Flipping Out Former San Jose Hospital Site

squarefeet — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:55:27 +0000

The Business Journal is reporting that Santa Clara County is stepping up to acquire the 13-acre former hospital site on Santa Clara Street in Downtown San Jose. The county plans on opening a 30,000 square foot clinic on the site, land banking the balance, and then flipping it out to a developer when the market [...]

Manhattan Rents Decline 6-9% Year-Over-Year

squarefeet — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:43:34 +0000

Weakness in the job market continued to put pressure on apartment rents in Manhattan, driving them down 6 (3 bedroom)-9% (studio) year-over-year. Manhattan apartment rents fell as much as 9 percent in October from a year earlier as unemployment cut demand and landlords lowered rates, according to Citi- Habitats Inc. Average rents dropped for all apartment sizes [...]

Applied Materials May Cut Up To 15% of Workforce

squarefeet — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:39:09 +0000

Three analysts are expecting Applied Materials (AMAT: 12.97 -2.11%) to make further cuts to its headcount, cuts which could amount to 15% of the company’s 12,600 or so employees. The Santa Clara company manufactures equipment for the production of semiconductors, an industry that is suffering from sharp declines in CapEx spending. The company also had lay [...]