Commercial Real Estate Industry Requesting Loans

Article by Colleen Corley Via Commercial Property News

Good times are ahead for buyers and sellers in the hotel industry, according to a mid-year report on hotel transactions by Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels. Activity reached a record $8.4 billion for the first half of 2005, with a total of $15 billion projected for the year.

Plentiful debt and compressed interest rates--two factors that led to a near-doubling of transactions in 2004--have continued this year at a robust pace. The amount of capital in the market has increased significantly, with large private equity funds raising real estate opportunity funds from $5 billion to $10 billion.

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To learn more about Pacific Security Capital’s commercial real estate loans or its preferred borrower program, PacificElite(TM) please visit www.PacificSecurityCapital.com or call 1-800-844-6085.

Article By Maura Webber Sadovi Via Wall Street Journal's RealEstate Journal

Pittsburgh's troubled commercial real-estate market, suffering from lackluster job growth and a stagnant population, has largely missed out on the national property boom.

The pain has been particularly keen for the office market. Although first-quarter office vacancy rates inched down from the year-earlier period, office rents are expected to fall in the near term and rise only 1.9% annually through 2009, just under half the forecast average national rate, according to Property & Portfolio Research Inc., a Boston-based real-estate research firm.

The dollar volume of office sales in Pittsburgh has lagged behind nearby cities like Baltimore and Philadelphia and prices have stayed low, according to Real Capital Analytics, a New York research firm. The region's office space sold at an average price of $71 a square foot in 2004 compared with the national average of $165 a square foot.

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For information about Pacific Security Capital commercial real estate loans contact us at 1-800-844-6085.

Article by Ryan Chittum Via the RealEstate Journal

The office market expanded strongly in the second quarter as companies leased more space, a sign they expect to expand their work forces. Office-building vacancies tumbled to their lowest level in three years, and rents registered their second quarterly increase in a row after four years of declines.

The national vacancy rate dropped to 15.4% in the second quarter from 15.9% in the first quarter, according to the survey of the top 67 U.S. office markets by Reis Inc., a New York-based real-estate research firm. Rents jumped 0.7% in the second quarter to $20.32 a square foot a year from $20.18 a square foot in the first quarter. That builds on a 0.6% jump in the first quarter, which was the first rent increase in four years.

Absorption -- the net change in occupied space -- was a strong 19.5 million square feet in the second quarter, the second-best performance since the fourth quarter of 2000 and nearly double the 10.4 million square feet absorbed in the first quarter.

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For information about Pacific Security Capital commercial real estate industry services contact us at 1-800-844-6085.

Article by By Kristin Olson Via Commercial Property News

The United States Department of Treasury's report on the effectiveness of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act, released yesterday, stated the act was widely effective and affordable. With a few changes made to the current act, due to expire December 31, the Administration would accept an extension, according to a letter signed by Treasury Secretary John Snow.

Many real estate related industries are calling for an extension. The Mortgage Bankers Association, for example, wants an extension of the act until challenges in predicting terrorism risk and the loss probability can be resolved through a thoughtful solution.

The MBA is not alone in believing an extension of the program is necessary. The Coalition to Insure Against Terrorism, a group consisting of 75 companies, mostly real estate related, and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, agree with the MBA that terrorism insurance is critical and stand by the department's report.

According to statements from these companies, without a TRIA extension, commercial real estate investment markets will become dysfunctional, rating agencies will place loans on watch lists, the cost of insurance will increase, and it will have a destabilizing affect on rates--all conspiring to produce a net loss for consumers.

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For information about Pacific Security Capital commercial real estate investment services contact us at 1-800-844-6085.

tags: commercial real estate investment, commercial real estate loans

Article by Jesse Bravin via RealEstate Journal

The Supreme Court gave local governments broad rein to take private property for economic development, ruling that transferring land to private investors for projects promising to bring jobs or commerce was a public use akin to building a park or paving a road.

The 5-4 decision lifts a cloud over redevelopment projects across the country that hinge on local authorities using eminent-domain powers to assemble parcels for private investors to develop commercially. Several projects could lead to the condemnation of property for conversion to shops or other uses that will feed off the primary development. The threat of condemnation, developers say, encourages holdouts to sell.

The court's ruling came in a case out of New London, Conn., a depressed manufacturing city whose economic hopes were buoyed in 1998 when New York drug maker Pfizer Inc. announced plans to open a research facility there. City authorities proposed to redevelop the adjacent residential Fort Trumbull neighborhood to capitalize on Pfizer's presence, including a hotel and a pedestrian "riverwalk." Most landowners sold willingly. Nine refused, and the city condemned their property.

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For information about commercial real estate, contact Pacific Security Capital at 1-800-844-6085.

Article by Parke Chapman Via National Real Estate Investor:

With the Department of Defense shutting down military bases across the nation, commercial real estate developers are investigating potential redevelopment sites. As many as 33 major bases will be closed while another 29 bases will be “realigned,” which in military shorthand means they will absorb more staff. Meanwhile, the shuttered bases should save the government a whopping $50 billion over the next 20 years.

The government cost-cutting benefits are clear, but are base redevelopments worth the headache for developers? To be sure, decommissioned military bases offer unique risks and rewards for any developers bent on reinventing them.

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For information about commercial real estate, contact Pacific Security Capital at 1-800-844-6085.