Commercial Real Estate Finance

Posts Tagged ‘Middle East’

Obsessively tracking and compiling lists of the world’s tallest skyscrapers, I’ve been told, is “such a guy thing.”

Either way, the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), an organization dedicated to such a guy thing, has lots of great lists and features on their website. Here’s their current ranking of the Top 10 Future Tallest Buildings in the World:

10. Manara Warisan Merdeka, Malaysia (height: 1,969 ft.)

9. Makkah Royal Clock Tower Hotel, Saudi Arabia (1,972)

8. Lanco Hills Signature Tower, India (1,982)

7. Triple One, S. Korea (2,034)

6. Shanghai Tower, China (2,073)

5. Wuhan Greenland Center, China (2,087) Read the rest of this entry »

When Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) began its Blitzkreig of Internet retail in the 90s, I admit I was one of the skeptics. Sure, an Internet bookstore seemed perfectly feasible, but I couldn’t fathom the idea of an Internet super-retailer with the muscle to put Sears, Borders, Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, and countless other traditional stores out of business.

No way! I said. Amazon’s expanding too quickly! Slow and steady wins the race! Etcetera.

Boy did I miss the boat on that one. I couldn’t imagine any e-store growing that large that quickly and staying afloat.

Perhaps this same skepticism is skewing my view on Dubai, United Arab Emirates, which is expanding with an aggressiveness comparable to–no, exponentially greater than–Amazon.com. I’ve kept my Easy Does It mentality, as you can see in last Thursday’s post about Dubai’s hospitality investments.

Buying a famous ocean liner to convert to a high-end floating hotel seems a bit much, even for a market with a giant water park, the world’s tallest building, and a man-made peninsula. Considering the extremely volatile nature of today’s global economy, I argued, Dubai’s investors and developers should be pursuing something more stable than luxury tourism.

Thankfully for Dubai and perhaps the rest of the Middle East, investors in the region are moving into other markets as well. For instance, it was recently announced that Dubai Properties, LLC has entered into an agreement with Emirates REIT, the UAE’s first REIT, to invest in Dubai’s growing office sector. The property they’ve contributed to the REIT’s holdings (an office park, whimsically named “Office Park”) gives Dubai Properties a stake in the REIT. Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s a look at some of the largest construction projects throughout the world. The projects range in purpose, from entertainment and leisure to scientific research. The results have been ranked by cost, based on U.S. dollars.

10. Great Man-Made River Project – Libya – $27 billion
Since 1985, Libya has been working to irrigate 387,000 acres of arid land and provide several major cities with water.

9. Saadiyat Island – Abu Dhabi – $27 billion
With completion slated for 2018, this project will boast 27 square kilometers of cultural paradise.

8. Sellafield Nuclear Site – England – $30 billion
As the U.K.’s primary nuclear-fuel reprocessing facility, the plant spans 700 acres and employs 11,000 workers.

Read the rest of this entry »

During the 2008 presidential campaign, Jon Stewart observed that Obama, on the subject of racism, “spoke to Americans as though they were adults”. I tend to agree and it proved a pivotal moment for Obama, and the country as a whole (first African American President…etc). In his speech on Monday night, Obama spoke to Americans about the Middle East as adults only in part, but still perhaps better than any president before him. Read the rest of this entry »

We learned something this week.In spite of the horrors in Japan and the Middle East, the world has not stopped rotating on its axis (although, the axis did move)…. at least for the moment.

So, what to do?The market seems to be taking a breather after the recent volatility, so we’ve been given a chance to think for a moment.A far better trader than me once suggested the job of a speculator is to figure what the market will focus on next.Let’s take a guess: Read the rest of this entry »

The concurrent situations in Japan and the Middle East make for extremely challenging cross currents in global markets.Both situations are complex and hard to understand.The reality on the ground in Japan is a function of particle physics filtered through a government agency.The rolling series uprisings in the Middle East seem to be grass roots, local phenomena; the details of which are difficult for outsiders to grasp.How likely is a meltdown in Japan?What would happen if there was one?How widespread is support for the protesters in Bahrain?How do people in Iran feel about the Saudis sending troops to put down the protest in Bahrain?

I have no idea.

Here is, however, what I’ve observed: Read the rest of this entry »

By the time you read this, the so-called “Day of Rage” will have likely come and gone in Saudi Arabia. If they ‘rage’ hard enough, oil could be well on its way to $150/bbl. Sitting here Friday morning, headlines like “Oil Markets Brace for More Volatility as ‘Day of Rage’ Looms in Saudi Arabia,” are increasingly common. Its headlines containing the words ‘rage, Arabia, and looms’ that are providing the consistent bid in oil markets, not the madness unfolding in Libya. Read the rest of this entry »

This gets a little political, so maybe it’s a little more ‘my’ guide than Llenrock’s…

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Just when we thought Dubai’s office vacancy rate couldn’t get any worse strata titling happened.  Strata titling is a form of ownership that began in Australia as a means of horizontally dividing up apartment buildings amongst multiple owners.  For example, strata titling allows you to have a twenty story apartment building and 20 different owners.  This sort of subdivision amongst owners works fine when dealing with apartments, because tenants are only renting one unit at a time, but things get trickier when dealing in office space.
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