January 12, 2001 (NewsTraders.com) – Mall-focused real estate investment trusts, which are up 6.5 percent since mid-December, will continue to outperform through mid-May, a UBS Warburg analyst said today.May is an important month to mark on the calendar...

January 12, 2001LAS VEGAS – Vestin Group Inc. (Nasdaq: VSTN) has tapped NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Namath to be the firm's new spokesman.Namath will soon be accompanying Vestin CEO Michael V. Shustek on a 41-city national...

January 11, 2001McDONOUGH, Ga. – Shoptaw & Garrard, a pension fund adviser, has purchased the fully leased, 352-unit, Amber Chase Apartments for more than $22 million in this Atlanta suburb.Grubb & Ellis Co. (NYSE:GBE) represented the seller, Moore...

January 11, 2001 PALO ALTO, Calif. – Essex Property Trust Inc. (NYSE:ESS) has acquired two apartment communities for $66.9 million.Essex paid $56.8 million for The Crest at Phillips Ranch, a 501-unit community in Pomona. It paid $10.1 million...

January 11, 2001 MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Mid-America Apartment Communities Inc. (NYSE:MAA) reduced its outstanding conventional floating-rate debt by executing a $25 million five-year swap arrangement.MAA locked the rate at 6.25 percent for the next five years through a...

January 11, 2001 NEW YORK – Reaxon Net Technologies Corp., which is preparing to launch its eMortgageDesk platform during the first quarter, has adopted Commercial Real Estate Direct as its news and information source.Under the arrangement, Commercial Real...

January 11, 2001 DALLAS – Ameri-First Financial Group Inc. (OTCBB:AMFR.OB), an investment banking and trading firm, intends to sell all of its real estate holdings by selling the subsidiaries that own the 10 hotels purchased from June through...

January 11, 2001 SUNRISE, Fla. – American Classic Voyages Co., a cruise ship company, has signed a 130,000-square-foot lease in Duke-Weeks Realty Corp.'s Sawgrass Commerce Center.The 240,000-sf building will be at the corner of NW 136th Avenue and...

January 11, 2001 HOUSTON – Weingarten Realty Investors (NYSE:WRI ) purchased five properties in the last two weeks of 2000, investing about $80 million and adding over 1 million square feet to its portfolio.The purchases and new developments...

January 11, 2001 AUSTIN, Texas – SiteStuff Inc. has acquired RexOffice.com in a stock-for-stock exchange transaction. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.Through the acquisition, Austin, Texas-based SiteStuff, a procurement site for owners and operators of commercial...

January 11, 2001 By Susanna Potter, Commercial Real Estate Direct Staff WriterSidney Fetner Associates began construction yesterday for The Victory, a 417-unit housing complex at the southwest corner of 10th Avenue and 42nd Street.Developer Hal Fetner, president of...

January 11, 2001 CHICAGO – Goldie B. Wolfe is resigning as executive managing director of Insignia/ESG Inc. to become a developer, the Chicago Tribune reported today.Wolfe is joining developer Millbrook Properties LLC, which is co-owned by her husband,...

January 11, 2001 BILLERICA, Mass. – A newly formed subsidiary of McCracken Financial Software Inc. has purchased all of the assets of Univest Financial Services LLC.Terms of the deal were not disclosed.The Univest name will be used by...

January 11, 2001 NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. – Health Care Property Investors Inc. (NYSE: HCP) has sold seven assisted living facilities, consisting of 774 units, for $51.6 million in two separate transactions.The facilities were sold to undisclosed operators who...

January 10, 2001 SAN FERNANDO, Calif. – Clarion Partners has purchased the San Fernando Business Center , on behalf of the Clarion Properties Lion Fund from a group of funds managed by CB Richard Ellis Investors for $42...

January 10, 2001 The deadline for submitting final bids for the 99-year lease on the World Trade Center in Manhattan arrives at the end of the month.Four companies are still vying for the lease on the 11-million-square-foot office...

January 10, 2001 (NewsTraders.com) – Michael Walker, chairman of ElderTrust (NYSE:ETT), has increased his stake in the REIT to 12 percent from 6.9 percent, according to a regulatory filing Wednesday.Walker, who currently owns 915,010 common shares, up from...

January 10, 2001 HOUSTON – EastGroup Properties (NYSE:EGP) has acquired the World Houston 10 building for $5.7 million.The 107,000-square-foot building is 100 percent leased to a single air freight tenant for an additional eight years. Additionally, the company...

January 10, 2001 NEW YORK – James DiCicco and Thomas Farrell have resigned their executive-level positions with New Plan Excel Realty Trust Inc. (NYSE:NXL).DiCicco was executive vice president of asset management while Farrell was senior vice president, acquisitions....

January 10, 2001 HORSHAM, Pa. – GMAC Commercial Mortgage Corp. is providing EQI Financing Partnership V LP with $36 million in fixed-rate financing for the partnership's eight-property Equity Inns hotel portfolio.The fixed-rate loan bears interest at 8.25 percent...

January 10, 2001 MINNEAPOLIS – Brookfield Properties Corp. (NYSE:BPO) has leased 74,500 square feet of space at its Dain Rauscher Plaza at 60 S. Sixth St.The company renewed its lease with Marquette Bancshares for 55,256 sf, while Dain...

January 10, 2001 LOS ANGELES – AMB Property Corp. (NYSE:AMB) and RREEF, an industrial REIT and a pension fund manger, respectively, have chosen PropertyFirst.com to provide them with online property marketing technology.Both companies, which together add more than...

January 10, 2001 HOUSTON – AMLI Residential Properties Trust (NYSE:AML) and BPMT, a European pension fund, have purchased the 314,292-square-foot West Dallas Place in Houston, Texas.The development, renamed AMLI Towne Square, is located on 7.4 acres next to...

January 10, 2001 (NewsTraders.com) – Gaming concern Station Casinos (NYSE:STN), which recently closed on its purchase of Fiesta Casino Hotel, revealed in a Tuesday filing that it paid $170 million in cash for the North Las Vegas, Nev.,...

January 10, 2001 By Brad Berton, Commercial Real Estate Direct Contributing WriterSBC Services has leased a 150,000-square-foot industrial telecom property in Irvine, Calif., for 10 years in a deal valued at $27 million, or $18/sf annually.SBC, a San...