Wood Partners, which sold the 332-unit Alta Phoenix Lofts for $59.5 million, or $179,217/unit, was represented in the transaction by CBRE Capital Markets. As reported, the property, an eight-story building at 600 North Fourth St. in Phoenix, was...

Following is a list of recent downgrades by Fitch Ratings: Deal Name Current Pool Bal. $mln Orig. Pool Bal $mln DXMark (collateral value, % of par)* Class Size $mln Fitch's New Rating Fitch's Old Rating Notes Wachovia Bank...

Dexus Property Group, an Australian property trust, said it has entered into exclusive talks with a prospective buyer for its portfolio of 69 industrial properties in the United States. The company did not identify the proposed buyer, but...

Commercial Real Estate Direct Staff Report Apartment owners and managers were involved in almost $54 billion of property sales transactions in 2011, up 54 percent from 2010 and more than triple the amount in 2009, according to a...

Commercial Real Estate Direct Staff Report Capstone Equities has orchestrated the recapitalization of 14 Wall St., a 1 million-square-foot office building in lower Manhattan, by bringing in Alex Rovt, a billionaire from Ukraine, as a partner. Rovt, who...

UDR Inc. expects to generate $610 million from the sale of 21 apartment properties. The Denver REIT has completed the sale of six properties with 1,576 units and has agreed to sell another 15 properties containing 4,931 units....

Commercial Real Estate Direct Staff Report The national office market continued its lackluster recovery in the first quarter when the vacancy rate dropped a scant 10 basis points to 17.2 percent. Meanwhile, the 6 million square feet of...

Corporate Office Properties Trust has sold 9 office properties in Maryland and San Antonio for $61 million. Seven of the properties, with a total of 219,000 square feet, have an occupancy rate of about 80 percent. Five of...

Commercial Real Estate Direct Staff Report The number of banks taken over by the FDIC continued to decline in the first quarter, continuing a trend that started last year. In the first quarter, the government agency took over...

A venture of Greenfield Partners and Somerset Properties Inc. has paid Liberty Property Trust $146 million for 34 office and industrial properties with 1.9 million square feet. That comprises the bulk of a 49-property portfolio that Liberty, a...

Commercial Real Estate Direct Staff Report CBL & Associates has lined up $195 million of financing for two of its shopping center properties, allowing it to address some of the $729 million of debt maturities it faces this...

American International Group has provided $90 million of financing for the Hunt Valley Towne Center, a former enclosed mall in Hunt Valley, Md., that was converted to an open-air lifestyle center seven years ago. The eight-year loan requires...

Commercial Real Estate Direct Staff Report Ethan Penner, who joined CBRE Investors in 2008 and formed two debt-investment vehicles, has resigned as president of CBRE Capital Partners, the debt-origination platform he formed. Penner's decision to leave CBRE was...

Commercial Real Estate Direct Staff Report Tishman Speyer Properties in a partnership with an undisclosed institutional investor has paid $730 million for a majority interest in Tishman Speyer Office Fund, an Australian property trust managed by the New...

Following is a list of recent downgrades by Fitch Ratings: Deal Name Current Pool Bal. $mln Orig. Pool Bal $mln DXMark (collateral value, % of par)* Class Size $mln Fitch's New Rating Fitch's Old Rating Notes LB-UBS Commercial...

Following is a list of recent downgrades by Moody's Investors Service: Deal Name Current Pool Bal. $mln Orig. Pool Bal $mln DXMark (collateral value, % of par)* Class Size $mln Moody's New Rating Moody's Old Rating Notes Credit...

Commercial Real Estate Direct Staff Report Capmark Bank will soon start offering for sale a portfolio of some 60 loans on a mix of commercial properties, including hotels and golf courses, with a balance of about $1 billion....

Commercial Real Estate Direct Staff Report The vacancy rate for the country's apartment inventory dropped 30 basis points during the first quarter to 4.9 percent, according to Reis Inc. The rate is down 130 bp from a year...

Some 100 prospective investors are kicking the tires of a $740 million portfolio of performing mortgages against commercial properties in the United States that is being offered by Eurohypo, according to a report by Reuters. The portfolio is...

Liquid Realty Partners, a San Francisco investment manager that pursues the acquisition of partnership and other interests in real estate funds, is laying off its investment staff, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. The newspaper,...

DDR Corp. has bought out DRA Advisor's 50 percent stake in a pair of shopping centers in a deal that resulted in the extinguishment of $103.8 million of CMBS debt that was set to mature in August. The...

Commercial Real Estate Direct Staff Report UBS has launched a CMBS transaction that will fund a $412 million mortgage against Miami's Fontainebleau hotel. The transaction, Fontainebleau Miami Beach Trust, 2012-FBLU, along with an additional $168 million of mezzanine...

CommonWealth REIT has completed its $99 million, or $111.90/sf, purchase of the UnitedHealthcare Center in Hartford, Conn. The 884,669-square-foot office building, at 185 Asylum St., was sold by the partnership that developed it in 1983. Jones Lang LaSalle...

Commercial Real Estate Direct Staff Report Manhattan office-market landlords can look forward to having the upper hand in negotiating leases with tenants in the months ahead, says Cushman & Wakefield. The market's average rent rose 3 percent to...

STAG Industrial Inc. has paid $13.1 million, or about $32/sf, for a 414,043-square-foot warehouse and distribution facility in Portland, Tenn. The property at 3150 Barry Drive is fully leased to RB Distribution Inc., a subsidiary of Dorman Products...