The Seattle skyline
Seattle
Real estate professionals believe the Seattle housing market has finally stopped declining, the Seattle Post Intelligencer reported. “It feels like we have hit the bottom,” said Lennox Scott, chairman and chief executive officer of John L. Scott Real Estate. “Buyer confidence has definitely returned.” Sales in King County rose 0.6 percent in June from the same period of 2010, and increased 12 percent from May, the paper reported. Meanwhile, pending sales were up 35.6 percent from a year earlier, but down 3.4 percent from May. The median sales price for a Seattle home was $345,000, down 8.2 percent from May and 4.7 percent from the prior year.
Los Angeles
Crystal Cathedral Chapman University has offered to pay $46 million for the site of bankrupt Crystal Cathedral, the Los Angeles Times reported. Chapman would use the 40-acre site as a satellite campus, according to the Times. The proposal would allow the landmark Protestant church, which filed for bankruptcy last October, to lease back its buildings and repay debts sooner than a previous exit plan put forward a few months ago, the Times said. The church is about $50 million in debt to creditors. “The offer is consistent with the Crystal Cathedral’s vision of hope and ambition,” university president James Doti said. “I like to think those are the same characteristics we have here at Chapman.” The initial reorganization plan, filed in May, called for the sale of the property for $46 million to Orange County-based developer Greenlaw Partners, which would transform segments of the property into apartment complexes. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange said it was also considering buying the property.
Washington, D.C.
Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing and the homebuilder NVR teamed up to acquire a portfolio of 5,600 residential building lots in nine separate Washington-area communities, according to the Washington Business Journal. “The purchase provides our partnership with a sizable portfolio of well-located residential lots in the Washington, D.C., area, one of the strongest and more supply-constrained residential markets in the United States,” said John Klopp, co-CEO of Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing. Financial terms of the deal and specifics about the locations were not disclosed. NVR, which builds in 25 metropolitan areas but concentrates mostly on Washington and Baltimore, reported a net income of $15.2 million for the first quarter.
Las Vegas
Ed Roski Jr.Despite the legislative failure of financing for the project, developers are forging ahead with plans to build a new stadium for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, according to the Las Vegas Sun. California developer Ed Roski Jr. and his Las Vegas-based partner, Craig Cavileer, are planning a $600 million expandable stadium designed by Dan Meis, the architect behind Los Angeles’ Staples Center. The plan also calls for up to 10,000 units of student housing and 600,000 square feet of retail space along Maryland Parkway and Tropicana Avenue. A bill that would have allowed local developers to compete for public financing of arena projects lost momentum in the final hours of the legislative session, the Sun said. Cavileer has reportedly spoken with Goldman Sachs about raising debt financing to fund the project.
Boston
The Abbey Group, a Boston-based developer, has unveiled plans to replace a former McDonald’s at 1282 Boylston Street with a 16-story multi-use development, the Boston Globe reported. Abbey acquired the Fenway Park-area site two years ago, and plans to start development next year. The complex will include 210 apartments, as well as office and retail space, and will leave room for outdoor cafés and a courtyard. “We’re trying to create a building that fits with the urban village objective and really targets a multigenerational group of people,” said David Epstein, president of the Abbey Group. The neighborhood around Fenway Park, once populated by gas stations and fast-food outlets, is increasingly occupied by stylish restaurants and clubs, the Globe said.
Miami
Nearly a third of Florida’s homebuyers are international purchasers, up from 10 percent in 2007, according to a survey by the National Association of Realtors. “International buyers have been the fuel for the Miami recovery,” Ronald Shuffield, president of Esslinger-Wooten-Maxwell Realtors in Coral Gables, told USA Today. In fact, sales volume is so high in the Miami region that house and condominium sales this year may outpace 2005, said Shuffield, who estimated that 40 percent of buyers in the area are from outside the U.S., up from around 35 percent before the recession. In downtown Miami, the percentage of foreign buyers is even higher, he said. Most buyers are investors from South America picking up condos to rent out, said Peter Zalewski of market researcher Condo Vultures.
San Francisco
555 California Street Vornado Realty Trust is close to securing a loan on its 52-story tower at 555 California Street, according to Bloomberg News. Lenders Pacific Life Insurance and MetLife are on track to win the assignment, beating out Wall Street banks competing to package the loan for sale. The 1.5 million-square-foot tower, home to Bank of America’s San Francisco headquarters, was built in 1969 and featured in the 1974 film “Towering Inferno,” starring Steve McQueen. It is the fifth-tallest building on the West Coast, according to data from Emporis. Banks have been competing for loans on top-tier buildings to bundle into bonds, Bloomberg said. “We’re going to focus on high-quality assets,” said Robert Merck, senior managing director and head of retail investments at MetLife. “There’s a real difference between the core primary markets like New York, D.C., San Francisco, L.A.,” and properties in other cities. Virtually every big Wall Street bank was competing for the loan on this particular building, said Wendy Silverstein, executive vice president at Vornado. They were willing to lend close to $650 million against the building, which is valued at around $1 billion, she said.
Compiled by Katherine Clarke