properties

General Growth Granted Extension to File Reorganization Plan

March 4, 2010

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Allan Gropper granted General Growth Properties an additional 120-day exclusive window to file its bankruptcy reorganization plan. The four-month extension is less than the 180 days that General Growth requested, but is significantly…

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FDIC Seeks Bids on $610.5 Million in Unpaid Loans From Failed U.S. Lenders

February 27, 2010

By Brian Louis Feb. 27 (Bloomberg) — The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is seeking bids for $610.5 million of unpaid loans it’s holding from failed U.S. lenders including IndyMac Bank, Silverton Bank and New Frontier Bank. The loans are backed in part by land, developed lots and condominium construction projects, said Peter Tobin, managing director of New York-based Mission Capital Advisors LLC , the FDIC’s marketing agent and financial adviser for the offering. Most of the properties are in Colorado, California, Utah and Idaho, and about 78 percent of the debt is 90 days or more past due, according to a description on Mission Capital’s Web site . The FDIC is disposing of real estate, soured mortgages and personal property ranging from tour buses to palm trees that once belonged to failed banks. More than 160 lenders collapsed since the start of 2009, and the tally may grow this year, with 702 firms on the FDIC’s “problem bank” list as of Dec. 31. The sale ”is going to appeal to a broader investor class,” Tobin said. The winning bidder will take an interest in a limited liability company owning the assets in partnership with the FDIC. The auction may attract more bidders than previous sales because the portfolio is smaller, Tobin said. The biggest piece of the package is from New Frontier, the Greeley, Colorado-based lender that failed in April. The portfolio lists $220.2 million in Frontier debt from 187 loans, with 91 percent at least 90 days overdue . Silverton, IndyMac The second-biggest component is from Silverton, the Atlanta-based lender that serviced about 1,400 banks in 44 states until it failed in May. The offering includes 23 Silverton loans showing balances of $85.3 million, with 81 percent behind by 90 days or more. IndyMac’s share of the FDIC offering is a single overdue loan of $48,000, according to Mission Capital’s listing. Regulators seized Pasadena, California-based IndyMac in July 2008. Bids for the latest FDIC auction are due April 6, Mission Capital said. David Barr , an FDIC spokesman, declined to comment. The planned sale was reported earlier by Commercial Real Estate Direct on its Web site . To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Louis in Chicago at blouis1@bloomberg.net .

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Mike Stark: Chris Dodd on "Jingle Mail"

February 25, 2010

Late last year, Morgan Stanley, in essence, defaulted on a 10-digit mortgage debt they were carrying. They looked at a tanking commercial real estate market and realized they’d never get the return they assumed when they ran the numbers before borrowing the money to purchase the buildings. They made a business decision, mailed the keys to their creditors, and walked away from the deal when it soured for them. Soon afterward, in New York City, Tishman Speyer Properties and BlackRock Realty returned one of the country’s largest apartment complexes to its creditors under similar circumstances. They had purchased the property for $5.4 billion; today it’s worth only about $1.8 billion. In both these cases, contracts were signed. One could say that both Morgan Stanley and Tishman Speyer Properties/BlackRock Realty took out real estate loans (or mortgages) and promised to pay them back. When they mailed their creditors the keys and walked away from their promise to pay, one could say they broke their word, right? Well… In a word: No. You see, the contract they signed provided for exactly what happened. The money they borrowed was secured by the properties. If they failed to pay, the creditors got to keep everything they had paid to that point, and they got the buildings. In these cases, you can be pretty sure that the borrowers were “under water”; they owed more on the properties than they could possibly hope for in an open market sale (added to the equity, if any, they already had in the properties). After all, if their equity plus the sale price exceeded what they owed, they’d be better off selling and keeping the difference. Why do I bring all of this up? Well, because right now, hundreds of thousands of home-owners are under water. In late 2006 they bought a house for, say, $250K with nothing down. They have an exotic mortgage – let’s say they bought the house with a “balloon mortgage” and their payments were pretty low for the first three years, but have doubled in the last month or so. Let’s say they bought their home in Las Vegas or Arizona – markets that have been hit especially hard by the real estate bust. And let’s say a home identical to theirs, right next door, was sold yesterday in a foreclosure sale for $130K. Why in the world should these homeowners pay that mortgage? After all, their debt was secured by the property, just like the commercial cases cited above. In most cases, they’d be fulfilling the terms of their contract by mailing in the keys and walking away from the house. In fact, by doing this, they’d save almost enough money to purchase the next house that sells in a foreclosure sale – perhaps even the one they’re in! A word of caution: none of this is legal advice. Talk to a lawyer, accountant and financial advisor before considering this route. In some places (but not most), mortgage-holders are allowed to seize property above and beyond the real estate that secured the loan. The point I’m making here is that we only hear about “moral obligations to pay debts” in the context of consumer conditioning. Such nonsense doesn’t apply to big business. The John Galts on Wall Street don’t constrain themselves with morality considerations; they look at the numbers with lizard-eyes and make the decision that ensures the number at the bottom of the page is as big as it can be. An ugly truth is that corporate law establishes a fiduciary responsibility – corporate decisions must be based on the what will return the largest profit to shareholders. If that means welshing on a debt, then welsh they must. I personally believe it is time for consumers to understand that they have a similar responsibility to themselves and their families. If faced with a choice of enriching a bunch of lizard-eyed bankers or putting their kids through college, I hope more Americans do what is best for them and their family in the long run. I asked Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee Chris Dodd about this earlier this evening (I mistook JP Morgan for Morgan Stanley, please forgive the error). As Chairman of the Banking Committee, he was careful about what he said, but what he said was sensible: talk to counsel and determine what is best for you. Dodd’s response may very well send shock waves through the banking community. Wall Street’s biggest fear is that the cultural norm of “pay your mortgage (and other debts)” falters. But, as I said, bankers and other businesses walk away from sour deals all the time. If it makes sense for you, you should learn a lesson from the “Masters of the Universe” and do the same. Just be careful and, at a minimum, consult a lawyer that can walk you through the costs and benefits first.

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Sun Hung Kai Shares Advance After $540 Million of Hong Kong Property Sales

February 22, 2010

By John Duce Feb. 22 (Bloomberg) — Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd. shares jumped after the developer sold 900 homes in Hong Kong for HK$4.2 billion ($540 million) over the weekend, fueling speculation the city’s housing market is overheating. Shares of the world’s biggest developer by market value added 1.7 percent to HK$101.80 at 10:41 a.m. Hong Kong time after gaining as much as 2.5 percent. The apartments at the Yoho Midtown apartment complex in Yuen Long sold for an average HK$5,400 per square foot, Amy Teo, Sun Hung Kai project director, said in an interview. That compares with an average HK$3,000 per square foot for new homes in the area a year ago, according to Wong Leung-sing, an associate director at Centaline Property Agency Ltd. Hong Kong’s home prices surged 29 percent in 2009 as low interest rates and an increase in buying by mainland Chinese stoked demand. Norman Chan, chief executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, told lawmakers Feb. 1 that the city faces a “huge” potential risk of bubbles forming in its asset markets given high liquidity. “All the ingredients are in place for a property bubble in Hong Kong, including low interest rates and limited supply, but I don’t think we are in one yet,” said Buggle Lau, chief property analyst at Midland Holdings Ltd. “If more speculators enter the market then it could push prices up too high.” The city had the world’s fastest-growing major housing market last year, according to a survey compiled by real-estate agents Knight Frank LLP. Crowds Attracted Some 120,000 prospective buyers have flocked to the show homes since Feb. 19, Teo said, speaking at the display properties set up in a shopping center near the apartment complex in the city’s northern New Territories . Sun Hung Kai increased the number of apartments on sale to 900 from 700 because of demand, she said. The building complex has a total of 1,890 homes, according to Teo. “I’m excited to buy, but I think it’s a little overpriced,” said Nelson Ma, 36, a worker at an export company who had just put down a deposit on a HK$3.4 million, 650 square foot, two-bedroom apartment. “I think there is a bit of a bubble but I’m not too worried as I will be living in the apartment rather than buying it as an investment.” Sun Hung Kai estimates about 80 percent of the purchasers intend to live in the apartments, with the remainder acquiring the properties as an investment, company spokeswoman Vivian Kwok said. About 40 units were immediately advertised for resale at asking prices of as much as 20 percent more than the original costs of purchase, the South China Morning Post newspaper reported, citing property agents. “The property market in Hong Kong is still hot, especially for new properties,” said Ng Sinwa, an estate agent at Midland Realty, who joined the crowds queuing to view the show homes. “People are still keen to buy.” ‘Go Pop’ Not all prospective buyers were sold on the properties available. “It’s so expensive,” Ivy Sze said, looking at the show homes on display. “It’s a bubble. We just don’t know whether prices will go up more, or just go ‘pop.’ We want somewhere to live so we just have to keep looking.” The number of private homes completed in Hong Kong last year fell 18 percent to 7,200 units, the lowest since 1997, the government said in a report Jan. 22. The city’s government is holding its first land auction of the year today in the Tseung Kwan O area to try to ease the shortage of supply, with price estimates for the site ranging from HK$2.6 billion to HK$3.4 billion. The city’s home sales more than doubled in value in January from a year earlier to HK$36.2 billion, according to figures released by the government’s land registry. Sales gained 4.1 percent last month from December, the agency said. The authority, Hong Kong’s de facto central bank, raised deposit levels for luxury apartments in October to try to cool lending. The government also plans to raise stamp duty, or transaction tax, on homes selling for more than HK$20 million to 4.5 percent from 3.75 percent in a bid to rein in the property market, the Chinese-language Sing Tao Daily said Feb. 11. ‘Still Affordable’ “Government intervention could lead to higher interest rates, but I can’t see mortgages rates much above 2.5 percent this year, which is unlikely to deter some buyers,” said Midland Holdings’ Lau. Some buyers’ confidence that property values will rise is underpinned by the city’s economic recovery, Centaline’s Wong said. “There’s talk of maybe 2 percent growth in GDP this year and there’s a feeling that the economy is improving,” he said. “People seem able to spend more than ever before on property.” Prices may rise as much as 15 percent in the first quarter, Wong said. Hong Kong’s Chamber of Commerce forecasts the city’s economy may grow between 3 percent and 4 percent this year. Higher interest rates and more speculators moving into the market are among the risks that may lead to a decline in prices, or drive them to unrealistically high levels, according to Lau at Midland Holdings. “This could lead to a bubble in the property market,” he said. “But if a bubble means people are now paying prices for property they can’t afford, then we’re not in one,” he said. ‘Property is still affordable. People still seem confident in the market.” To contact the reporter on this story: John Duce in Hong Kong at jduce1@bloomberg.net

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Simon Properties bids $10b for General Growth

February 17, 2010

Simon Properties bids $10b for General Growth

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Andrew Reinbach: Claude M. Ballard, Jr. — Rest in Peace

February 15, 2010

Claude M. Ballard Jr. died on Friday, Feb. 11th . Why isn’t important; he had to go, and we are here. Those who knew him, and valued his friendship, will miss him. I will. Every journalist with an established beat has what they call in New York a rabbi — somebody who vouches for them, steers them in the right direction, and warns them when they’re heading for the rocks. When I was covering the big-time real estate business in the 1980s, Claude was mine. He opened doors for me, all over the world, that I might not have even have known of. I owe him. To people outside real estate, Claude’s name doesn’t mean much. But in that world, Claude was a great man — one of the handful of people who make things move. Attached to some project or idea, his name was all that was necessary to attract respectful attention. He earned that position by being a walking real estate computer, data base, and Rolodex. But what really earned him his place was…being Claude. A big six-foot-three, Claude was overwhelming. Nothing, and no one, could buffalo him. And in a business filled with over-sized personalities, that is a valuable commodity. Even sitting at a table, saying nothing, everyone knew he was there. That wasn’t his best quality, though; his best quality was that he knew that every one — and no one — is important. So he treated everybody the same — straight on, one to one. Claude never gave himself airs or acted like he was important — though he certainly was. He had the gift of meeting everyone straight-on. Maybe that was because he was a self-made man, son of a Memphis railroad traffic controller. Considering he’d survived at the pinnacle of the national and international commercial real estate industry for 50 years, I’m sure he’d had his share of knock-down meetings — probably more than his share. And I know that if he’d wanted to, he could have had me for breakfast, and not even known I was on the spoon. But in the 30 years I knew him, I never saw him push anybody around. The heights Claude reached, and lived in, never went to his head. It could have. He was a general partner of Goldman Sachs, back when it was a private partnership; chairman of Rockefeller Center Properties; in retirement, he owned interests in, among other things, 88 malls, plus other properties; served on many boards; and lectured at the nation’s top schools. But he had no appetite for luxury, excess, or display. In his days at Goldman he kept no limo. Taking the subway to work was good enough for him. If he said a deal was good, people didn’t question it. Sometimes, a project he sponsored was subscribed in an afternoon. And he was so good at what he did that the same people who’d sat across the table from him in a deal would hire his services after it closed — they knew nobody could possibly do a better job. Until he left Goldman, Claude had only worked for two companies — Prudential Insurance, and Goldman Sachs. After he retired, he served on the board of CBL& Associates, a major mall owner. He started at Prudential as an analyst in 1948, and when he left in 1981 he was senior vice president in charge of commercial real estate. Along the way he and a friend, Meyer Melnikoff, laid the foundation of pension fund investing in real estate. Before this, pension funds only invested in stocks, bonds, and U.S. Treasuries: Today, they’re the backbone of large-scale real estate investing and ownership. And it was Claude and his friendships that made Goldman Sachs the dominant real estate investment banking house in the 1980s. Those were the sort of things that made him, in his time, one of the acknowledged leaders of his industry. But that’s all to one side. Real estate will go on, and so will the world. What will take a pause, however, is the world Claude informed — the world of his wife, Mary, his daughters Karen, Melinda, and Robyn, his grandchildren, and his many friends. As I said, he had to go, and we are here. Those of us who knew Claude will know he is no longer among us.

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David Wayne Hoyle's Page – Commercial Real Estate Professional …

February 12, 2010

REO/ Distressed Assets Group is now The Commercial Real Estate Distressed Assets Association CREDAA with a new web portal opening in Sept. Stay Tuned Distressed Commercial Properties will be increasing through 2013 and we want to help …

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KBS Buys Pierre Laclede Office Park for $74.25M

February 10, 2010

KBS REIT II, a public, non-traded real estate investment trust, purchased the Pierre Leclede Center in the St. Louis suburb of Clayton, MO, from BPG Properties, Ltd., a private equity real estate fund manager, for $74,250,000. Located at 7701/7733…

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Priority Capital Group Announces Pacific Office Properties Senior Common Stock

February 9, 2010

SAN DIEGO, Feb. 9, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Priority Capital Group and Pacific Office Properties Trust, Inc. (NYSE Amex:PCE) today announced commencement of the public offering of $400 million of Pacific Office senior common stock. The senior common stock, priced at $10 per share, offers a cumulative dividend of 7.25%, declared daily and paid monthly, plus the potential for dividend increases that are triggered by increases in the Pacific Office listed common stock dividend.

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REIT National Retail Q4 FFO Down – Update

February 5, 2010

(RTTNews) – Friday, real estate investment trust National Retail Properties, Inc. (NNN: News ) reported a decline in Recurring Funds From Operations or FFO on higher operating expenses with a significant real estate impairment charge

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Easton Lynd to Manage Distressed Properties for Warren Buffet-Own…

January 29, 2010

Easton Lynd to Manage Distressed Properties for Warren Buffet-Owned Berkadia Commercial Mortgage SAN ANTONIO, TX, Jan 29, 2010 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) — Company: Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRK/A) Easton Lynd Management, the commercial property management

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Asia Properties Completes SEC Filings to Become Current

January 27, 2010

HONG KONG and BELLINGHAM, Wash., Jan. 27, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Asia Properties, Inc. (API) (Pink Sheets:ASPZ) confirmed today that it has completed its SEC filings and is now up-to-date and current with its required information.

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Father-son projects are tailor-made for veterans (San Diego Union-Tribune)

January 9, 2010

Housing investors may get a bad reputation for buying foreclosures, slapping on a coat of paint and flipping the properties a few months later at a huge markup.

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CRE Distressed Assets Association – Commercial Real Estate …

January 3, 2010

REO/ Distressed Assets Group is now The Commercial Real Estate Distressed Assets Association CREDAA with a new web portal opening in Sept. Stay Tuned Distressed Commercial Properties will be increasing through 2013 and we want to help …

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CRE Distressed Assets Association – Commercial Real Estate …

January 3, 2010

REO/ Distressed Assets Group is now The Commercial Real Estate Distressed Assets Association CREDAA with a new web portal opening in Sept. Stay Tuned Distressed Commercial Properties will be increasing through 2013 and we want to help .

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Growth Of Distressed Commercial Properties Slows, Hits $17.6 …

January 2, 2010

A report on distressed commercial real estate released in December by New York-based Real Capital Analytics, a research and consulting firm, showed Las Vegas held the No. 1 spot in the nation with 37 percent of its commercial properties …

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What We're Reading ~ 01/01/10 ~ market folly

January 1, 2010

A further look at the General Growth Properties situation [ Distressed Debt Investing] The worst SEC filing footnote of 2009 [footnoted] An interesting banking idea, a call to arms [MoveYourMoney] Hedge fund legend Julian Robertson …

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Advanced Distressed Debt Lesson #4: General Growth Properties …

December 31, 2009

By Hunter. It has been a few months since we had our last advanced distressed debt lesson The rest is here: Advanced Distressed Debt Lesson #4: General Growth Properties (Guru Focus). Read the original: Advanced Distressed Debt Lesson …

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Marin County and Most Advanced Real Estate Search Engine on Marinrealestate.net

December 29, 2009

has just gotten easier. Marinrealestate.net allows you to search all of the properties in the Marin County real estate market by zip code, map, school and MLS number. Marin County Real Estate of Marinrealestate.net FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE PR Log (Press

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Homeownership in U.S. May Fall as Slump Wipes Out Equity, Fed Study Finds

December 27, 2009

By Vivien Lou Chen Dec. 24 (Bloomberg) — The rate of homeownership in the U.S. may fall in coming years as households rebuild equity wiped out by the worst slump since the Great Depression, according to a study by economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. “The official homeownership rate will likely experience significant downward pressure in the coming years,” Andrew Haughwout, Richard Peach and Joseph Tracy wrote in a paper posted on the bank’s Web site. Owners whose mortgages are larger than the properties are worth “very likely will convert officially to renters,” assuming prices don’t climb in the next several years, they said. U.S. homes have lost about $5.9 trillion in value since the market’s peak in March 2006 as mounting foreclosures and the recession weighed on prices, according to Zillow.com. The homeownership rate peaked at 69 percent in 2006 and has since dropped to 67.3 percent, a level not seen since 2000, the authors wrote. A drop in homeownership would have broader implications for the economy, boosting the national savings rate, they said. Foreclosure filings in the U.S. are set to climb to a record for the second consecutive year with 3.9 million notices sent to homeowners in default, RealtyTrac Inc. said this month. This year’s filings will surpass 2008’s total of 3.2 million as record unemployment and price erosion batter the housing market, the Irvine, California-based company said. To contact the reporter on this story: Vivien Lou Chen in San Francisco at vchen1@bloomberg.net

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Video: Nolan Says General Growth to Consider Offers, Share Sale: Video

December 17, 2009

Dec. 17 (Bloomberg) — Thomas Nolan, president and chief operating officer of General Growth Properties Inc., talks with Bloomberg’s Matt Miller about the outlook for the company. Nolan says the mall owner, which is seeking to emerge from bankruptcy next year, will consider all offers for the company and may sell shares to the public to raise capital. (Source: Bloomberg)

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Morgan Stanley Surrenders Five San Francisco Office Towers Bought at Peak

December 17, 2009

By Dan Levy Dec. 17 (Bloomberg) — Morgan Stanley , the securities firm that spent more than $8 billion on commercial property in 2007, plans to relinquish five San Francisco office buildings to its lender two years after purchasing them from Blackstone Group LP near the top of the market. The bank has been negotiating an “orderly transfer” of the towers since earlier this year, Alyson Barnes , a Morgan Stanley spokeswoman, said yesterday in a telephone interview. AREA Property Partners will take over the buildings. Barnes declined to say when the transfer will occur. “This isn’t a default or foreclosure situation,” Barnes said. “We are going to give them the properties to get out of the loan obligation.” The San Francisco transfer would mark the second real estate deal to unravel this year for Morgan Stanley , which bet big on the property markets as prices were rising. The firm last month agreed to surrender 17 million square feet of office buildings to Barclays Capital after acquiring them for $6.5 billion in 2007 from Crescent Real Estate Equities. U.S. commercial real estate prices have dropped 43 percent from October 2007’s peak, Moody’s Investors Service said last month. “It’s not surprising this deal ran into trouble,” Michael Knott , senior analyst at Green Street Advisors in Newport Beach, California, said in an interview. “It was eye-opening among a group of eye-opening deals. There was almost no price too high in 2007 for office space in top gateway markets.” Lost Value The Morgan Stanley buildings may have lost as much as 50 percent since the purchase, he estimated. Morgan Stanley bought 10 San Francisco buildings in the city’s financial district as part of a $2.5 billion purchase from Blackstone Group in May 2007. The buildings were formerly owned by billionaire investor Sam Zell’s Equity Office Properties and acquired by Blackstone in its $39 billion buyout of the real estate firm earlier that year. The buildings Morgan Stanley is giving up are One Post, 201 California St., Foundry Square I, 60 Spear St. and 188 Embarcadero, Barnes said. The bank will continue to own the five other office buildings it acquired in the deal, Barnes said. Morgan Stanley, based in New York, was the biggest property investor among Wall Street firms at the time of the purchase. The transaction made the company one of the largest office landlords in San Francisco, with the purchase giving the bank 3.9 million square feet of office space there. Defaults Rise Commercial mortgage defaults more than doubled in the third quarter from a year earlier as occupancies fell, according to Real Estate Econometrics LLC. Office vacancies will reach a near-record 19 percent in the first quarter of 2011, broker CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. estimated. Property sales financed with commercial mortgage-backed securities plunged 95 percent from a record $237 billion in 2007, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. A lack of securitized debt is driving down values, which may fall 55 percent from their peak, Moody’s said. San Francisco prime office rents fell 37 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, the biggest decline since 2001, as companies cut jobs, Colliers International said. The vacancy rate rose to 14 percent, the highest since 2005. Almost 1.4 million square feet of space was returned to the market in the first nine months of the year. Morgan Stanley last month agreed to hand over Crescent to Barclays, ending the firm’s obligation on a $2 billion loan after taking almost $1 billion in losses. When Morgan Stanley acquired it, Crescent owned 54 office buildings in cities including Dallas, Houston, Denver, Miami and Las Vegas. It also owned the Canyon Ranch spa and resort, residential developments in Scottsdale, Arizona; Vail Valley, Colorado; and Lake Tahoe, California. The San Francisco Business Times earlier reported Morgan Stanley’s plans to transfer the five buildings. To contact the reporter on this story: Dan Levy in San Francisco at dlevy13@bloomberg.net

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Morgan Stanley to Transfer Five San Francisco Office Buildings to Lenders

December 16, 2009

By Dan Levy Dec. 16 (Bloomberg) — Morgan Stanley , the second-largest U.S. securities firm, will transfer five San Francisco office buildings it holds in a real estate fund to the lenders on the properties. The bank has been negotiating an “orderly transfer” of the properties since earlier this year, Alyson Barnes , a Morgan Stanley spokeswoman, said today in a phone interview. She declined to name the lenders. The buildings are held by Morgan Stanley’s MSREF V US Fund, she said. “This isn’t a default or foreclosure situation,” Barnes said. “We are going to give them the properties to get out of the loan obligation.” U.S. commercial real estate prices have dropped 42.9 percent from October 2007’s peak, Moody’s Investors Service said last month. Commercial mortgage defaults more than doubled in the third quarter from a year earlier as vacancies rose, according to Real Estate Econometrics LLC. Morgan Stanley acquired the buildings from Blackstone Group LP in May 2007. Blackstone, based in New York, picked up the properties in its $39 billion buyout of Equity Office Properties earlier that year. New York-based Morgan Stanley was the biggest property investor among Wall Street firms at the time of its San Francisco purchase. The bank will continue to own five other office buildings in the city that it acquired from Blackstone, Barnes said. San Francisco office rents fell 37 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, the biggest decline since 2001, as companies cut jobs, Colliers International said. To contact the reporter on this story: Dan Levy in San Francisco at dlevy13@bloomberg.net

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Trouble at Baymeadows office park: Freedom Commerce Center hurting as large tenants leave vacancies

December 14, 2009

The Freedom Commerce Center, a seven-building Southside office park, has been listed as a distressed property by a national commercial real estate data provider because the loan on the properties is delinquent. The center, south of Baymeadows Road and

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Duffys Rocks » Commercial and Residential Real Estate Investing …

December 13, 2009

Investors who are prepared to deal with the challenges of multi-family real estate investing can come to the rescue of multi-family property owners for whom commercial real estate investing has lost its luster, purchase the properties …

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Dan Agin: Book Review: Giant Molecules: From Nylon to Nanotubes

December 12, 2009

When the history of chemistry is written a thousand years from now, the 20th century will no doubt be marked as the century of giant molecules (macromolecules) in industry, the century in which the properties of giant molecules were first seriously studied and applied to technology and commerce. Most certainly, the importance of giant molecules in industry will be amplified in the present 21st century. In plain English, take giant molecules out of our lives and our present civilization would quickly collapse. But there’s another 20th century marker. Above all, in the 20th century giant molecules became the central feature of the application of chemistry to biological science. What happened in the 20th century was that the puzzle of life, which had passed from philosophers to theologians to zoologists, finally passed to chemists. Life, as we now understand it, is a phenomenon in the chemistry of giant molecules. It’s jarring, of course: so many millions of words in old books have become irrelevant. A giant molecule is not merely an arithmetic agglomeration of small molecules stuck together. Put a million monomers together to form a polymer, and you can easily have an entity whose properties are not predictable from the properties of the monomer–an entity with new properties of vast importance in chemistry, biology, physics, and technology. DNA is a giant molecule. The polymers of plastics are giant molecules. Nanotubes are giant molecules. There will be giant molecules in the 21st century that we haven’t even imagined yet. And after the 21st century, who knows? Science and technology do not stop. One provokes the other, new science provoking new technology that provokes new science that provokes new technology and so on, the interacting spiral unpredictable–and with unpredictable transformations of our daily life. One of the most fascinating properties of some giant molecules is their ability to self-organize–to form solid or hollow spheres, sheets, tubes, sol/gel transformers, thermoplastic structures, all of them with a whole variety of emergent chemical and physical properties. Self-organizing polymeric domains are of considerable interest in materials science, and are essential for the existence of biological systems. Biological materials exhibit special physical or chemical functions as a result of special shapes or conformations that result from self-assembly. To act as enzymes, for example, proteins require specific amino acid sequences that result in specific foldings and conformational arrangements, the end product providing a “docking” site whose interaction with a transition state entity catalyzes a particular reaction. Biological self-organizing polymers such as proteins and nucleic acids are much more complicated than the self-organizing polymers known to polymer chemists outside biochemistry, and a recent trend is for polymer chemists to look to the data on self-organizing biological macromolecules for hints about special synthetic innovations. Given the importance of giant molecules in science, medicine, technology, and commerce, accessible information about giant molecules is important to the public interest. Walter Gratzer, a British biophysicist, presents a fascinating new book about giant molecules–their history, their chemistry, their use in technology. It’s a fine introduction to giant molecules, but especially fine for people in the general business world. The book is readable and the author is fully aware that giant molecules have been transformative for commerce. In addition, the focus of the book is on giant molecules in present and future technology–which should make the book required reading for any serious enterprising industrialist. Walter Gratzer. Giant Molecules: From Nylon to Nanotubes. Oxford University Press, 2009.

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Maryland Developer Unveils Plans for 9,100-Acre ‘Green City’

December 2, 2009

First, there was Babcock Ranch, the planned 17,000-acre “solar city” near Ft Myers, FL, billed as the world’s first city powered wholly by the sun’s energy. This week, Maryland developer American Community Properties Trust (ACPT) announced plans to…

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Real estate: Our readers weigh in on walking away from a home (Arizona Daily Star)

November 29, 2009

Last Sunday’s column about the idea of underwater homeowners walking away from their properties generated such a wide variety of responses — from enthusiastic support to calls for personal responsibility — that I thought we would return to it for a follow-up.

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Greenspoon Marder Reveals 'Secret Weapon' in Attack on Distressed …

November 26, 2009

Finance); Greencrossing Real Estate Companies Re-Enters the Market for Distressed Properties (Marketwire via Yahoo! Finance); AllianceBernstein Builds a Presence in Commercial Real Estate (PR Newswire via Yahoo! Finance)

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Dubai World’s Nakheel May Need Further $2 Billion to Finish Developments

November 26, 2009

By Chris Bourke Nov. 26 (Bloomberg) — Nakheel PJSC, the Dubai-owned developer whose parent is seeking to delay debt payments, may need a further $2 billion to finish residential developments, according to an analyst based in the sheikhdom. Nakheel may be liable for about 20 percent of an estimated $11 billion required to build 40,000 homes that it and other Dubai developers have started, said Saud Masud , a real estate analyst at UBS AG . That amount represents the cost, or “funding gap,” required to complete and hand over the properties, on which investors are now defaulting, by the end of 2010. Dubai World, the company’s state-owned parent, will ask creditors for a “standstill” agreement on debt including $3.5 billion in Nakheel bonds that mature on Dec. 14. It’s the biggest maturity for a Dubai entity since credit markets froze last year. Dubai and its state-controlled entities amassed $80 billion of debt during a five-year property boom. “There may be a potential key risk stemming from Nakheel’s funding gap and I think it goes beyond the $3.5 billion that the company owes in three weeks,” Masud said by telephone. “That may be the least of what their liabilities look like.” No one at Nakheel nor Dubai World was immediately available when Bloomberg telephoned the companies for comment. Today is the start of Eid Al-Adha, a religious holiday in the United Arab Emirates. Worst Market Masud said in April that Dubai house prices might drop as much as 70 percent from their peak last year. They’ve already fallen by more than 50 percent, making the emirate the worst-hit market in the global real estate slump. Around half of the investors in the 40,000 unfinished homes may default by the end of next year, said Masud, who covers companies including Emaar Properties PJSC and Aldar Properties PJSC, the U.A.E.’s largest developers. The Dubai government said yesterday it borrowed $5 billion from state-owned banks based in Abu Dhabi, half the $10 billion Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum said he planned to raise by the end of this year. The debt raised yesterday may not be enough, said Masud. “One of the main off-balance sheet liabilities in Dubai’s property market is the funding gap to finish properties that are already started and which investors are defaulting on,” he said. “The fundamental liabilities are much larger.” There is no certainty that Dubai World will successfully postpone debt payments because creditors have to vote on the proposal, Masud said. To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Bourke in London at cbourke4@bloomberg.net .

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Monopoly Game Has A New Look

November 24, 2009

I suspect many a real estate mogul got their start playing the board game classic Monopoly. It has a new look this year. This time rather than just houses and hotels, players can also build industrial buildings, railroads and sports stadiums, many in 3D versions in the center of the board. This being a game, players can also put up bonus buildings that protect their properties or “hazard buildings” that lower the value of opponent’s properties. Not sure what the real world equivalent of those would be, maybe a night club. Parker Brothers launched Monopoly during the Great Depression and it was a huge hit in those tough times. This year though, going bankrupt and losing property seems a little too close to home.

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Homes `Underwater’ Reach 23% of Mortgaged U.S. Properties, Researcher Says

November 24, 2009

By Oshrat Carmiel Nov. 24 (Bloomberg) — The number of U.S. homes worth less than the debt owed on them reached almost 10.7 million, or 23 percent of all mortgaged properties, at the end of the third quarter, according to a report from First American CoreLogic. An additional 2.3 million mortgages are approaching “negative equity” as loan defaults mount nationwide, the Santa Ana, California-based real estate research company said today. “Negative equity continues to be pervasive and to impact almost every segment of the housing market,” Mark Fleming , chief economist at First American CoreLogic, said in a statement. “It will take a significant rebound in home prices, which we are not expecting, to offset the dampening effects of negative equity in the most depressed states.” Job cuts and declining property values have increased mortgage defaults during the past three years. Freddie Mac , the mortgage-finance company under government control, said today that defaults among its loans rose to a record 3.54 percent last month, while its portfolio of residential assets fell at an annualized rate of 21.6 percent. First American CoreLogic said its third-quarter figures weren’t comparable to previous quarters because of a recent change in its methodology. It now includes only the debt actually incurred by borrowers against home equity lines of credit, rather than the full value of the credit line. The bulk of the so-called underwater borrowers financed their properties between 2005 and 2008, First American CoreLogic said. Forty percent of homeowners who borrowed in 2006 are underwater, the company said. Of those who took out mortgages in 2009, 11 percent are in negative equity and 5 percent are approaching it. In Nevada, 65 percent of homeowners are in negative equity, the highest rate in the nation, according to the report. Arizona ranked second, at 48 percent, followed by Florida, Michigan and California. To contact the reporter on this story: Oshrat Carmiel in New York at ocarmiel1@bloomberg.net .

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Asia Properties Signs MOU to Acquire Macau Casino

November 19, 2009

HONG KONG and BELLINGHAM, Wash., Nov. 19, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Asia Properties, Inc. (API) (Pink Sheets:ASPZ) announced today that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding “MOU” to acquire 50.13% of a Macau casino VIP club.

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Search Auctions, Price Reductions, Distressed & Green Properties

November 18, 2009

Commercial Real Estate is changing quickly these days, and we’ve added support for several highly requested searches: Search Property Auctions — View properties being sold by auction. Search Distressed Property — Find properties …

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UPDATED: Simon Hires Advisers to Consider General Growth Acquisition Possibilities

November 17, 2009

The country’s largest retail REIT, Simon Property Group (NYSE:SPG), is considering a bid for its bankrupt competitor, General Growth Properties. Simon media representative, Les Morris, confirmed for CoStar Group this morning that Simon hired investment…

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Trading Outlook for General Growth Properties Inc. Issued by InvestorSoup.com

November 9, 2009

DALLAS, Nov. 9, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — InvestorSoup.com announces an investment report featuring General Growth Properties Inc. (Pink Sheets:GGWPQ). The report includes financial, comparative and investment analyses, and pertinent industry information you need to know to make an educated investment decision.

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Fewer U.S. Homeowners Owe More Than Properties Are Worth, Zillow Reports

November 9, 2009

By Daniel Taub Nov. 9 (Bloomberg) — The number of U.S. homeowners who owe more than their properties are worth fell in the third quarter as values stabilized and some homes were lost to foreclosure, Zillow.com said. About 21 percent of owners of mortgaged homes were underwater, down from 23 percent in the second quarter, the Seattle-based real estate data provider said today in a report. “The decline in the percentage of homeowners with negative equity is a positive sign, and is directly attributable to the stabilization of home values from the second quarter to the third,” Zillow Chief Economist Stan Humphries said in a statement. “It is also attributable to many homeowners who were previously underwater on their mortgage losing their homes to foreclosure.” U.S. foreclosure filings climbed to 937,840 in the third quarter, a 23 percent increase from a year earlier, Irvine, California-based RealtyTrac Inc said Oct. 15. Zillow estimated that the median value of single-family houses, condominiums and cooperative apartments declined 6.9 percent in the same period. The rate of decline slowed, as home values dropped 0.4 percent from the second quarter to a median of $190,400, Zillow said. Bank sales of foreclosed properties accounted for 21 percent of all U.S. home sales in September, Zillow said. Such transactions made up 74 percent of sales in Merced, California; 69 percent in Stockton, California; and 68 percent in the Las Vegas area. About 27 percent of homes sold nationwide went for less than the sellers originally paid for them, Zillow said. Credit, Unemployment Rising foreclosures that began with defaults on subprime mortgages, a global recession and increasing unemployment have hurt the U.S. housing market. Unemployment surged to a 26-year high of 10.2 percent in October, the Labor Department said last week. Payrolls fell by 190,000 workers. Housing will hit bottom by March 2010, with lower-priced properties recovering value more quickly than expensive homes, First American CoreLogic said last month. U.S. home values have dropped 21 percent from their peak, Zillow said. The closely held company uses data from public records going back to 1996. Its mortgage figures come from information filed with individual counties. To contact the reporter on this story: Daniel Taub in Los Angeles at dtaub@bloomberg.net .

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Felipe Manzanares's Page – Commercial Real Estate Professional …

November 6, 2009

REO/ Distressed Assets Group is now The Commercial Real Estate Distressed Assets Association CREDAA with a new web portal opening in Sept. Stay Tuned Distressed Commercial Properties will be increasing through 2013 and we want to help …

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Immigrants Still See Real Estate As A Path To Wealth

November 5, 2009

Waiting for a bus on my way to work I picked up a copy of the real estate sections of The Korea Times , a local newspaper serving the Korean community in Los Angeles. That’s right the real estate sections. There were two, a total of 32 pages of real estate coverage and advertisements in one day’s newspaper. This at a time when falling circulation and ad revenue forced the Los Angeles Times to fold its separate real estate coverage into the business section. From the ads it seemed the target was real estate investors. There were advertisements from agents that highlighted the income the properties throw off. That’s something you don’t typically see in mainstream newspapers. There were also brokers pitching 1031 exchanges, a way for real estate investors to defer taxes on sales. I used to live in LA’s Koreatown neighborhood so I know a lot of money flowed into real estate development during the boom, some of it from South Korea. I’m sure a lot of folks lost money in the past few years. But those fat real estate sections—even though I couldn’t read most of what was in them—reminded me how entrepreneurial immigrants can be, particularly those from Korea. Lacking in many cases the language skills to get jobs in Corporate America, Korean-Americans start their own businesses. LA has recently seen an explosion in Korean BBQ taco trucks, for example. Others still see real estate as a way to get their piece of the American Dream.

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Singapore REIT Defaults on $88m CMBS Loan : HousingWire …

November 3, 2009

YK Shintoku, one of Saizen REIT’s nine tokumei kumiai (TK), or silent partnership operators, held the now-defaulted CMBS loan . While based in Singapore, Saizen REIT’s investments are comprised solely of regional residential properties …

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Islamic Debt to Rally on Nakheel Recovery, GE Sukuk (Update1 …

October 26, 2009

Commercial Real Estate – Distressed Debt & Properties – Private Equity – Fund Management – Hedge Funds – Family Office – Banking – Finance – Green – Legal. InstitutionalPartners.com is part of the Industry-Partners.org Platform …

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REITs get ready to buy (The Globe and Mail)

October 25, 2009

It’s an interesting time to be a real estate investment trust – money has been easy to come by on the capital markets, and the value of the properties so coveted in the industry have been driven lower by a sharp recession.

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Yankees-Angels American League Playoff Game Postponed to Tomorrow …

October 24, 2009

The Distressed Assets Coalition Provides Educational Outreach, Research Information and Industry Governance For Distressed Properties, Loans & Funds Community. Distressed Assets Coalition was formed by industry professionals to provide the latest and most … Capmark Financial Group, the big commercial real estate finance company cobbled together from pieces of GMAC, may file for bankruptcy as soon as this weekend, a person briefed on the matter told DealBook on Saturday. …

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Dubai Index Falls Most in a Week, Led by Emaar, Saudi’s Tadawul Declines

October 18, 2009

By Vivian Salama Oct. 18 (Bloomberg) — Dubai’s benchmark index lost the most in almost three weeks, leading a drop in the region, as Gulf companies’ earnings fell and Emaar Properties PJSC denied it was writing off debt at its Indian unit. Emaar , the United Arab Emirates’ biggest developer, slid the most in two months. RAK Properties , the developer that built Ras Al Khaimah’s first man-made islands, declined the most since Oct. 4 after posting a 63 percent slump in third-quarter profit. National Bank of Oman SAOG had its biggest one-day loss in five months after reporting a 44 percent drop in profit. “There are still more hurdles to look at including earnings and also the deadline on payments of debt, the restructuring story in Dubai,” said Rabih Sultani , a fund manager at Duet Mena Ltd. in Dubai. “We’re seeing some profit- taking. Oil continues to be strong and that is holding up the markets a bit.” Crude closed at a 2009 high on Oct. 16. Dubai needs to repay $6.8 billion in debt during the fourth quarter, according to Deutsche Bank AG. The emirate, the second- biggest of seven sheikhdoms that make up the U.A.E., and its companies earlier borrowed more than $80 billion to transform the economy into a tourist and financial services hub. ‘Incorrect’ Report The Dubai Financial Market General Index lost 2.5 percent to 2,292.33, the biggest decline since Sept. 28. Abu Dhabi’s measure and Oman’s MSM30 Index each declined 1 percent. Emaar tumbled 4.8 percent to 4.61 dirhams, the biggest drop since Aug. 17. The developer said a report by India’s Financial Chronicle about restructuring and writing off debt of Emaar MGF is “incorrect.” Rak Properties lost 2.3 percent to 0.84 dirham. The developer said profit shrank to 38.2 million dirhams ($10.4 million) on declining income from operations. National Bank of Oman slid 4.3 percent to 0.335 rial, the biggest slump since May 11. Net income fell to 19.6 million rials ($51 million). Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul All Share Index declined 0.6 percent to 6,396.10 while the Kuwait Stock Exchange lost 0.4 percent. Qatar’s DSM 20 Index advanced 0.4 percent, while Bahrain’s measure was little changed. To contact the reporter on this story: Vivian Salama in Dubai vsalama@bloomberg.net

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Lorre White, The Guru of Luxury: Commercial Real Estate News In …

October 18, 2009

Sam Zell has put together a $625 million fund to buy distressed securities, including those backed by commercial real estate . He sold his real estate empire, Equity Office Properties Trust, to Blackstone Group for $39 billion in 2007, …

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Lorre White, The Guru of Luxury: Commercial Real Estate News In …

October 18, 2009

Sam Zell has put together a $625 million fund to buy distressed securities, including those backed by commercial real estate . He sold his real estate empire, Equity Office Properties Trust, to Blackstone Group for $39 billion in 2007, …

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Dubai Index Falls Most in a Week on Earnings, Saudi Arabia Shares Advance

October 18, 2009

By Vivian Salama Oct. 18 (Bloomberg) — United Arab Emirates shares declined, with Dubai’s index heading for its biggest one-day loss in almost a week, as earnings missed analysts’ expectations and U.S. stocks fell from a one-year high. Emaar Properties PJSC , the U.A.E.’s biggest developer, slid the most in three weeks after dismissing a report that it plans to restructure the debt of its Indian unit. RAK Properties , the developer that built Ras Al Khaimah’s first man-made islands declined the most in two months after posting a 63 percent slump in third-quarter profit. National Bank of Oman SAOG lost the most in five months after reporting a 44 percent drop in profit. “There are still more hurdles to look at including earnings and also the deadline on payments of debt, the restructuring story in Dubai,” said Rabih Sultani , a fund manager at Duet Mena Ltd. in Dubai. “We’re seeing some profit- taking. Oil continues to be strong and that is holding up the markets a bit.” Dubai, the Persian Gulf emirate which borrowed $80 billion to fund an economic boom, is attempting to raise a second $10 billion by selling bonds to help state-related companies through the credit crisis. The global credit crunch and the decline in oil prices from the July 2008 high of $147.27 a barrel sent Dubai’s property prices plummeting by 47 percent in the second quarter from one year ago, the steepest market Knight Frank LLC said. Crude closed Friday at a 2009 high of $78.53 a barrel. The Dubai Financial Market General Index lost 1.7 percent at 1:28 p.m. in the emirate, and was poised for the biggest loss since Oct. 13. Abu Dhabi’s measure fell 0.9 percent. U.S. stocks dropped on Friday, pulling benchmark indexes down from a one-year high, as General Electric Co. and Bank of America Corp. reported disappointing results and a gauge of consumer confidence trailed economists’ estimates. GE, the world’s biggest maker of jet engines, reported a profit $1.9 billion less revenue than analysts forecast, while Bank of America posted a $1 billion loss. Emaar fell as much as 3.9 percent, to 4.65 dirhams, its biggest decline since Sept. 28, and last traded at 4.68 dirhams. The developer said a report by India’s Financial Chronicle that it is planning to restructure the debt of its Emaar MGF unit is “incorrect.” Rak Properties lost 3.5 percent to 0.83 dirham, heading for its biggest decline since Aug. 17. The developer said profit shrank to 38.2 million dirhams ($10.4 million) on declining income from operations. National Bank of Oman slid 4.3 percent to 0.335 rial, the biggest retreat since May 11. Net income fell 44 percent to 19.6 million rials ($51 million), the company said after markets closed on Oct. 15. Oman’s MSM30 Index declined 1 percent, while the Kuwait Stock Exchange lost 0.4 percent. Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul All Share Index gained slumped 0.5 percent to 6,401.79 at 12:34 p.m. in the kingdom. Qatar’s DSM 20 Index advanced 0.4 percent and Bahrain’s measure was little changed. To contact the reporter on this story: Vivian Salama in Dubai vsalama@bloomberg.net

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Incinerator debt could continue to haunt Harrisburg (The Patriot-News)

October 17, 2009

Commercial Real Estate – Distressed Debt & Properties – Private Equity – Fund Management – Hedge Funds – Family Office – Banking – Finance – Green – Legal. Incinerator debt could continue to haunt Harrisburg (The Patriot-News) …

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USA Properties Owner Convicted of Mortgage Fraud

October 14, 2009

After a five-day trial, the owner of USA Properties, William E. McKanry of Warrenton, Mo., was convicted of multiple conspiracy and fraud charges involving the multimillion-dollar sale of 12 local properties.

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