Power Tools for Commercial-Investment Practitioners

According to Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the megastore retail giant will be expanding its global square footage by 7.5 percent in 2008 and "plans to open more than 600 locations in the U.S. and abroad." The expansion will add roughly 60 million square feet to the company's total square footage and will primarily consist of large Supercenters in the States, while expansion abroad will be comprised of various store formats -- Supercenters, as well as smaller, region-specific retail locations.

According to Asian retail sources, "Wal-Mart is more than doubling its presence in China by spending $1 billion to acquire Trust-Mart, a Taiwanese-owned chain of more than 100 big-box stores in 20 Chinese provinces." What could possibly be next? A Chinese Wal-Mart credit card, of course.

Posted on October 23 at 02:13 PM | Permanent Link | Add a Comment (0)

Silicon Valley commercial real estate is hot again thanks to what some brokers are calling the "Google Effect." After the dot-bomb a few years ago, a steady demand for commercial space has been on the rise since 2003 in California's hotbed of technology. The market's prime office space has already been snatched up and now "the focus has shifted to less-desirable real estate" because it's still less expensive to rehabilitate buildings than it is to build new structures.

Posted on October 17 at 02:43 PM | Permanent Link | Add a Comment (0)

Five hundred acres of the former Fort Ritchie U.S. Army Base in Cascade, Maryland were purchased by Corporate Office Properties Trust this week for $5 million. The company is planning a $300 million redevelopment project which will contain "1.7 million square feet of office space, 673 residential units including a mix of apartment, duplex, condominium, townhouse and single-family units" over the next 10 to 15 years. The majority of the base's historic buidings will be renovated. According to the CEO of Corporate Office Properties Trust, the new development will create jobs, bolster the economy, and increase tax revenue for the city.

Posted on October 6 at 10:13 AM | Permanent Link | Add a Comment (0)

Chicago's Lord & Taylor Department store, located at Water Tower Place since 1975, will be closing early next year due to lease expiration. General Growth Properties, owners of Water Tower, wanted "tenants who would pay higher rents." According to a 2004 loan document, Lord & Taylor's annual base rent was $7.90 a square foot for roughly 140,000 square feet. General Growth now has an opportunity to sign a tenant at the average asking price for Michigan Avenue -- $55 a square foot, according to an industry survey.

Posted on October 4 at 11:32 AM | Permanent Link | Add a Comment (0)