Gilbert Restaurant for Auction

Nice, fully-equipped restaurant for auction...

The former GrainBelt GrillHouse in downtown Gilbert is heading to auction Jan. 11, and 15 to 20 serious buyers, many of them restaurateurs, are reportedly gunning for the building. [...more...]

Proposed Tax Change for Real Estate Partnerships Has Investors Seeing Red

Commercial real estate groups contend that the Tax Extenders Act of 2009 (HR 4213) would more than double the taxes on carried interest received by general partners in real estate partnerships because the carried interest would no longer be taxed as capital gains at 15%, but as ordinary income with rates as high as 35%.[...more...]

FDIC’s Recommendations for Commercial Real Estate Loans Begin to Ease Borrowers’ Woes

The FDIC recommendations might prove helpful because today a large number of defaults in the commercial real estate sector are due to an overall decline in property values, rather than to missed debt payments or bankruptcy situations, says Suzanne Mulvee, senior real estate economist with Property & Portfolio Research (PPR), a Boston-based real estate research firm. That means that in many cases, a two- or three-year extension might save borrowers from defaults and lenders from having to recognize large losses. [...more...]

‘Phantom’ Vacancy Haunts Office Market as Job Losses Mount

Amid rising unemployment and weakening demand for space, the U.S. office vacancy rate rose to 13% in the third quarter. But it could climb as high as 19% if companies consolidate their space to reflect smaller workforce levels.[...more...]

Will New FDIC Bank Rules Help or Harm Commercial Real Estate?

. . . The new guidelines issued by regulators allow lenders to classify loans as performing even though market values of the underlying real estate have fallen by as much as 40%. A key to assessing a loan portfolio, according to the guidelines, is whether borrowers are current on principal and interest payments . . . [more]

Commercial Real Estate Debt Won't Be the Next Shoe to Drop, Economists Say

For months, the buzz has been that commercial real estate—with $3.4 trillion in outstanding debt, $1.4 trillion of which is coming due by the end of 2012—would precipitate the next leg in the credit crisis and possibly derail the broader economic recovery. To some, that mountain of debt coming due represents a clear parallel to the trillions of dollars in residential loans that helped destroy more than 100 banks and made the current recession the deepest and longest since the Great Depression.[...more...]

Dynamic Duo? Apartments, Industrial Gain Favored Status

“Bleak” may be one of the most common descriptors for the national commercial real estate market outlook in 2009. But according to new research, apartment and industrial properties are expected to rebound sooner than other sectors.[...more...]

Economic growth will rebound in the second half of 2009

...Housing: New and existing home sales are close to their lows, with 72% of NABE panelists expecting sales to hit bottom by the middle of 2009. More than 60% of those surveyed said housing starts would also bottom out at the same time.

The panelists were split on the issue of when home prices will hit their lows: 30% said it would happen by the third quarter of 2009; 30% said the fourth quarter; and 40% said declines will continue into 2010 or later. The median prediction is that home prices will rise 1% in 2010, the report said. [...more...]

Has the Office Vacancy Rate Become Irrelevant?

The U.S. office vacancy rate has not broken through the 13% barrier for 14 years since the end of the great oversupply build-up of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Even now after 15 months of the most severe recession since the 1930s, the U.S. office vacancy rate still hovers manageably below 12.5%.

In its First Quarter 2009 Office Review delivered this week, CoStar Group asked the question: "What's wrong with this picture?"[...more...]

WACHOVIA TOPS LIST OF COMMERCIAL/MULTIFAMILY LOAN SERVICERS

Looking to get into a multifamily property this year? Wachovia serviced the most loans last year, might be a good place to start. Or, you could get into one of our Seller-Financed properties...

Wachovia Securities was the nation’s largest commercial real estate loan servicer in 2008 with $412.9 billion in loans serviced, a new report shows. Wachovia Securities serviced 91,591 loans with an average value of $4.5 million, according to the annual ranking of commercial and multifamily loan servicers by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).[...more...]