Commercial Real Estate Finance

Posts Tagged ‘retail REIT’

Week in Review for February 2 – 8:

- The Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (“JOBS Act”), signed into law last year, will likely help more investors participate in real estate ventures formerly restricted to high net worth investors, reports Commercialappeal.com. This securities act, intended to boost American start-ups, will likely promote a “crowdsourcing” approach to fundraising among some real estate companies.

- Philadelphia Business Journal’s Natalie Kostelni provides a look at the brand-new, Philadlephia-area headquarters of Endo Health Solutions (NASDAQ: ENDP). The 320,000-SF property was developed by Trammel Crow Co. and IMC Construction.

- Liberty Property Trust (NYSE: LRY) announces a new office development for the Great Valley Corporate Center, close to Endo Health Solutions’ new property. Liberty will develop a 200,000 SF office for financial giant Vanguard Group in a $55 million project slated for completion in the summer of 2014.

- As New York City’s multifamily market grows increasingly competitive, developers seeking higher returns pursue multifamily opportunities in the Bronx, New York’s poorest (but least expensive) borough. The borough saw a 63% increase in investments in 2012, reports Ariel Property Advisors.

- Real Estate Investment Today reports fundraising for retail REITs throughout the world grew by 80% in 2012, based on data from SNL Financial. Retail REITs raised a total of $22.5 billion last year,  the majority of this capital going to publicly traded American retail REITs. Read the rest of this entry »

In the mid-90s, the King of Prussia Mall outside Philadelphia underwent an incredible transformation.

Its owners, including Kravco and Simon Property Group (NYSE: SPG), renovated and expanded the mall, connecting its two sections (the Court and the Plaza) to turn KOP into one of the largest shopping malls in the U.S. More importantly, the mall saw a huge influx of specialized, boutique and brand-name merchants, as well as higher-end anchor tenants like Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus. Suddenly, King of Prussia was no longer a mall; for the region’s shoppers, King of Prussia was THE Mall.

The enormous growth that turned King of Prussia (now majority-owned by Simon Properties) into a retail mecca was something that occurred throughout the country–a culmination of the 80s’ unbridled consumerism and emphasis of the shopping mall “experience.”

Today, e-commerce is crushing many community malls and power centers, and even the highest-end regional malls (KOP included) aren’t drawing shoppers the way they once did. But the “mega-mall” as we knew it in the 90s hasn’t gone away, but simply migrated to other countries.

Like Russia.  Read the rest of this entry »