At Facebook.com’s new Silicon Valley headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., employees roam the halls with laptops, discuss the company’s newest features from comfy sofas scattered throughout the building and even draw diagrams on the walls on the complex. The building, which was recently renovated for $250 million in a “hacker” style, may provide an inspiring model for new “cool” and “creative” office complexes across the country, Bloomberg News reported, and even in New York.

Nondescript properties with tall ceilings and few interior walls are ideal for Internet firms to take over, Bloomberg said, and are becoming increasingly popular in gateway U.S. cities.

“Creative space” is outperforming other property types, said Dan Fasulo, managing director of Real Capital Analytics.  [more]

The total dollar amount of Manhattan assets classified as distressed has halved since 2008, Crain’s reported, a sign that the market is rebounding at a healthy pace.
Three years ago, $30.6 billion of assets in Manhattan was in foreclosure, bankruptcy or in the process of having its loans modified. The figure has dropped to $15.2 billion, and 30 percent of that dollar amount is tied to apartment complex Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village.
“This happened faster than we would have imagined,” said Dan Fasulo, managing director of Real Capital Analytics.
The drop in distressed properties can be attributed to an accumulation of single transactions, Crain’s said, and bigger landlords buying up distressed loans. Vornado Realty Trust, for example, bought up three of the eight large distressed assets sold in the first half of 2011, including a stake in 280 Park Avenue.  [more]

Chinese banks have quietly invested more than $1 billion into New York real estate in the past year, the New York Times reported, as investors pick up luxury apartments and get involved with commercial and residential projects in an effort to diversify their holdings and develop international business relationships.

In the last 12 months, Chinese companies have inked significant leases at the Empire State Building, at 1 World Trade Center, and invested heavily — around $249 million — in Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards. Bank of China also lent $800 million in late 2010 to refinance a building on Park Avenue, the Times said, and doled out $250 million to refinance an office tower at 3 Columbus Circle.

All of these investments seem to pass by without much press attention.  ”It’s truly amazing how much they’ve been able to do without being highlighted in public,” said Dan Fasulo, managing director of Real Capital Analytics. [more]

A pre-war Upper East Side rental building that just hit the market could draw $220 million, real estate experts predict, because of its potential to be turned into condominiums and the value of its prime 10,000 square feet of Madison Avenue retail space, according to Crain’s.
“There is a limited amount of properties on the market in general so investor interest should be through the roof for something like this,” Dan Fasulo, managing director at Real Capital Analytics, said of the 11-story property at 11 East 68th Street, which is owned by Abro Management. The building is considered a perfect target for conversion given the lack of pre-war condos in the city. [more]

Having just leased the first 10 apartments at 25 Broad Street last month, Lehman Brothers Holdings lives on and is looking to make some profit from prime New York properties, and perhaps pay off some creditors, according to the New York Observer.
Set to update a bankruptcy court on plans next week, Lehman has apparently shifted its tactics. The firm is moving to sell its share of key Manhattan assets such as the old International Toy Center at 200 Fifth Avenue and 1107 Broadway, and is quietly considering a new development at 235 West Broadway in Soho, the Observer reported. [more]

Financing for New York City real estate projects is back. Of the top 35 deals done in the last 12 months, 24 were refinancing and nine were new loans taken out of acquisitions, according to Crain’s. The largest deal was an $800 million refinancing of 245 Park Avenue, between 46th and 47th streets, for which Brookfield Asset Management and ING Clarion tapped the Bank of China in September 2010. It was followed closely by Boston Properties’ $700 million loan from MetLife for the Citigroup Center at 153 East 53rd Street, between Third and Lexington avenues, in March 2011, and a $650 million refinancing of One Bryant Park between 42nd and 43rd streets in June last year by Bank of America. [more]

From left: Dan Fasulo, Jahn Brodwin, Simon Ziff and Daniel Alpert

From the April issue: While those in the industry have been relieved to see the New York City commercial real estate market bounce back over the past year, the resulting price increases have prompted many investors and developers to look elsewhere for deals.

Instead of searching for properties to buy in the Big Apple, they are, in many cases, turning to other markets — from prime locations like San Francisco and Los Angeles to secondary markets like Austin, Tex.

“People need to realize that the number of assets truly available for a sales price that makes sense is very few in New York City,” said Daniel Alpert, managing partner of Westwood Capital, a Manhattan-based real estate investment bank. [more]

U.S. commercial property deals may double this year as confidence builds among investors who believe those values will rebound, Bloomberg News reported. Blackstone Group’s planned $9.4 billion purchase of U.S. shopping centers and Ventas’ proposed $5.7 billion buyout of a healthcare real estate investment trust may be a sign that a wave of commercial real estate acquisitions is coming as buyers regain confidence in the market. “Both these deals are a great signal that liquidity has returned to the commercial real estate space,” Dan Fasulo, managing director of Real Capital Analytics, said. [more]

Trevor DavisFrom the February issue: Trevor Davis could hardly be called shy, but the last few months have probably tested his stomach for public scrutiny. The down market hasn’t been kind to the gregarious, South African-born developer, known for hunting big game and taking on big, controversial projects. “He’s been a little quiet, actually,” said Dan Fasulo, managing director of research at Real Capital Analytics. “This downturn has been difficult for many local developers that didn’t have access to big institutional capital.” Much of Davis’s turmoil of late has sprung from 1055 Park Avenue, a luxury glass condo surrounded by rows of stately prewar co-ops. Its five apartments feature floor-to-ceiling glass enclosures that seem better fit for Soho or Chelsea than its neighborhood of Carnegie Hill. After a series of cuts, apartment prices range from $4.3 million to $7.5 million. [more]

The U.S. commercial property market is on the upswing after a predicted collapse that never quite happened. According to Bloomberg News, commercial properties sold by institutional investors last year rose in price by 19 percent, which, according to the MIT Center for Real Estate, is the second-largest price gain ever for those types of sales. Meanwhile, Real Capital Analytics recorded investments in office properties last year at $41.6 billion, more than double what was invested in that sector in 2009, and the commercial mortgage-backed securities market is also beginning to rebound. Comments

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