December 23, 1999VertiNews.com's Commercial Real Estate News will not be publishing tomorrow, in observance of the Christmas holiday. See you again on Monday, Dec. 27

December 23, 1999 Associated Press, ASIA WorldSources Inc.BANGKOK – A false sense of optimism has crept into the Bangkok property market, warns Martello Holdings, the international real estate restructuring and investment advisory group. "What we need is realism...

December 23, 1999 Seattle Coffee Co. eyeing Second CupThe National Post, December 23TORONTO – AFC Enterprises Inc., one of the world's largest private food services Conglomerates, is considering a bid to purchase Toronto-based Second Cup Ltd. as part...

December 23, 1999 A group led by Brickman Associates paid Cigna $10.5 million for 900 King Street, a 207,000-square-foot office building in Rye Brook, N.Y.Brickman, a New York real estate firm, will serve as leasing agent and property...

December 23, 1999 In a statement issued today, the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts enthusiastically quoted former Vanguard Group portfolio manager John Neff, who anticipates solid REIT performances "when the market shakes off its high-tech stupor."Neff...

December 23, 1999 NEW YORK – Carey Diversified LLC (NYSE:CDC) has purchased an office and call center facility that is leased to BellSouth Telecommunications under a ten-year, two month net lease.The acquisition was structured as a property-for-stock swap,...

December 23, 1999 LOS ANGELES – Kilroy Realty Corp. (NYSE:KRC) has signed an 11-year lease agreement with eToys for the entire four-story, 151,000-square-foot office building currently under construction at KRC's Westside Media Center in West Los Angeles.Under the...

December 23, 1999 ST. CHARLES, Md. – American Community Properties Trust's (AMEX:APO) subsidiary, Interstate General Properties, has completed the sale of six acres of commercial land in San Juan, Puerto Rico, for $6.5 million.Caribe Ford, a Ford Motor...

December 23, 1999 DENVER – ProLogis (NYSE:PLD) has obtained a 325 million Euro (US$330 million) revolving line of credit through a syndicate of 17 banks.The company plans to use the line of credit to finance the development of...

NEW YORK – Investcorp and Crow Holdings of Dallas have paid more than $40 million for Essex Green Shopping Center – a 325,000-square-foot shopping center in West Orange, N.J.The anchor tenants of the property, which was built in...

December 22, 1999 RALEIGH, N.C. – Highwoods Properties Inc. (NYSE:HIW) has completed the sale of 36 central Florida office properties in an all-cash transaction valued at $165.3 million. In November, the company estimated the capitalization rate on the...

December 22, 1999 MOUNT KISCO, N.Y. – American Real Estate Partners LP (NYSE:ACP) has reached an agreement in principle to acquire Bayswater Realty and Capital Corp. from its chairman, Carl C. Icahn, for $90 million in cash.The acquisition...

December 22, 1999 NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. – Brandywine Realty Trust (NYSE:BDN) has sold 100 West Road, in Towson, Md., to Maryland State Retirement and Pension Systems for $16.3 million, or $136 per square foot.The 119,980-sf, five-story office building...

December 22, 1999 Criimi Mae Inc. (NYSE:CMM) has filed Form 8-K with the SEC.

December 22, 1999 ARLINGTON, Va. – Charles E. Smith Residential Realty Inc. (NYSE: (NYSE:SRW) is buying a portfolio containing 2,669 apartment units in Southeast Florida from a partnership of institutional investors for $178 million, or $66,700/unit.The portfolio includes...

December 22, 1999 Franchise Finance Corp. of America (NYSE:FFA) has filed a Form 8-K with the SEC.

December 22, 1999 Chase picks Dallas, Tampa over AtlantaAtlanta Journal-Constitution, December 22ATLANTA – Chase Manhattan, which had been looking in Atlanta's northern arc to build up to one million square feet of office space, has decided to relocate...

December 22, 1999 KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Aventis Pharmaceuticals has signed a long-term lease for 620,000 square feet at the Somerset Corporate Center in Bridgewater.The pharmaceutical company will house its North American Commercial Operations at the site, which...

December 22, 1999 Starwood Hotels & Resorts (NYSE: HOT) has filed a Form 8-K (Current Report) with the SEC.

December 22, 1999 (NewsTraders.com) -- Investor Peter Kross, who in the past has evolved from a passive to an active shareholder of Malan Realty Investors (NYSE:MAL), no longer plans to nominate a slate of directors for Malan's board,...

December 22, 1999 (NewsTraders.com) -- Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. (NYSE:HOT) subsidiary ITT Sheraton Corp., a defendant in litigation relating to Sheraton's management of a hotel, was hit with a 'guilty' verdict earlier in December and is...

December 22, 1999 Westfield America Inc. (NYSE:WEA) has filed a Form S-3 with SEC. The filing relates to the possible issuance of 1,185,854 shares of the company's common stock to holders of Westfield America's operating partnership units.

December 22, 1999 Keystone Property Trust (NYSE: KTR) has filed a Form 424B4 (Prospectus Filed Pursuant to Rule 424) with the SEC.

December 22, 1999 Highwoods Properties Inc. (NYSE:HIW) has filed Form 8-K with the SEC.

December 22, 1999 (NewsTraders.com) -- Sutro & Co. analyst Craig Silvers initiated coverage of Arden Realty (NYSE:ARI) with a "buy" recommendation.Silvers called the stock undervalued on several measures and pointed out that it is well positioned to post...