NEW YORK (Reuters) – Luxury hotel owner Strategic Hotels and Resorts Inc (BEE.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) has hired investment bank Eastdil Secured to explore a possible sale of the real estate investment trust, two sources familiar with the matter said this week.

The process is in the early stages and materials have not gone out to prospective buyers, one of the sources said, declining to be named because the sale process is private.

NEW YORK, June 13 (Reuters) – Luxury hotel owner Strategic
Hotels and Resorts Inc has hired investment bank Eastdil
Secured to explore a possible sale of the real estate investment
trust, two sources familiar with the matter said this week.

The process is in the early stages and materials have not
gone out to prospective buyers, one of the sources said,
declining to be named because the sale process is private.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Mall owner General Growth Properties Inc (GGP.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) is considering buying urban retail property, but the real estate would have to be of the highest quality and be big enough to attract the type of luxury tenants that occupy the company’s top malls, Chief Executive Sandeep Mathrani said on Thursday.

General Growth may be interested in one or two city properties in the United States that could meet that criteria, should they come up for sale, Mathrani said.

NEW YORK, June 2 (Reuters) – A group of investors, including
Chinese real estate tycoon Zhang Xin, paid about $1 billion for
a 40 percent stake in a landmark New York office building, a
person familiar with the deal said on Sunday, in the latest sign
of how foreign investors are fueling a U.S. commercial real
estate market recovery.

The deal, which closed on Friday, comes in the same week
that food company Shuanghui International Holdings Inc
agreed to buy pork producer Smithfield Foods for $4.7
billion. That purchase, if approved, would be the largest ever
acquisition of a U.S. company by one from China.

By Ilaina Jonas

(Reuters) – A plan to include the Empire State Building in a publicly traded company has cleared a critical investor hurdle that will allow the IPO to move forward.

Holders of more than 80 percent of the units that own the landmark skyscraper approved the plan to fold it into a newly created real estate investment trust called Empire State Realty Trust Inc. The green light came after more than a year of fighting between Malkin Holdings Plc, which has spearheaded the plan, and a small group of investors.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – General Growth Properties Inc (GGP.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) has paired with Brookfield Office Properties Inc (BPO.TO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) to bid for an expensive New York building in what could mark the No. 2 U.S. mall owner’s entry into a new segment of the retail real estate market, according to two sources familiar with the deal.

Bids for the 27-story office and retail building at 650 Madison Avenue, one of the toniest shopping and office districts in Manhattan, could exceed $1.3 billion, the sources said.

NEW YORK, May 24 (Reuters) – General Growth Properties Inc
has paired with Brookfield Office Properties Inc
to bid for an expensive New York building in what could
mark the No. 2 U.S. mall owner’s entry into a new segment of the
retail real estate market, according to two sources familiar
with the deal.

Bids for the 27-story office and retail building at 650
Madison Avenue, one of the toniest shopping and office districts
in Manhattan, could exceed $1.3 billion, the sources said.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Blackstone Group LP (BX.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Prologis Inc (PLD.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) have agreed to buy a portfolio of 17 million square feet of warehouse and distribution centers whose majority owner is Lehman Brothers for about $960 million, two sources familiar with the deal said on Wednesday.

Under the deal, Blackstone’s IndCor Properties Inc will operate about 9.5 million square feet of properties in Reno, Nevada. Prologis will buy the remaining properties that are chiefly in Pennsylvania and some in Las Vegas, the sources said.

NEW YORK, May 22 (Reuters) – Blackstone Group LP and
Prologis Inc have agreed to buy a portfolio of 17
million square feet of warehouse and distribution centers whose
majority owner is Lehman Brothers for about $960 million, two
sources familiar with the deal said on Wednesday.

Under the deal, Blackstone’s IndCor Properties Inc will
operate about 9.5 million square feet of properties in Reno,
Nevada. Prologis will buy the remaining properties that are
chiefly in Pennsylvania and some in Las Vegas, the sources said.

NEW YORK, May 16 (Reuters) – A plan to roll the Empire State
Building into a real estate investment trust is a whisker away
from obtaining the necessary investor approval for a stock
offering allowing the public to own a piece of the iconic
skyscraper, according to a regulatory filing on Thursday.

Investors holding 99.3 percent of the Empire State Building
units needed to approve the plan for an initial public offering
have voted for it, according to the filing with the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission.