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.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – DDR Corp (DDR.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), owner of shopping centers where big-box retailers are located, said on Wednesday it had agreed to buy from Blackstone Group LP (BX.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) the portion of 30 centers it does not already own for $1.46 billion.

The joint venture between Blackstone Real Estate Partners VII and DDR owns 44 shopping centers. Under the deal, which is expected to close in the fourth quarter, DDR will acquire the Blackstone fund’s 95 percent equity ownership in 30 of the shopping centers. Blackstone will retain 95 percent interest in the 14 properties not being acquired, while DDR will keep its 5 percent stake, DDR said.

NEW YORK, May 13 (Reuters) – Brixmor Property Group,
Blackstone Group LP’s neighborhood shopping center
business, on Monday said it named Michael Pappagallo, the former
president of rival Kimco Realty Corp, as its president
and chief financial officer, potentially setting the company up
for an initial public offering.

The position will become effective May 20.

Pappagallo, who also was chief operations officer at Kimco
and was chief financial officer before that, will play an
integral role in executing Brixmor’s long-term business and
capital markets strategies, the company said in a statement.

NEW YORK, May 10 (Reuters) – There’s expensive and then
there’s Hong Kong.

The Asian shopping haven in the first quarter kept its crown
as having the world’s highest rent for prime retail properties,
at nearly 50 percent more than for similar districts such as
upper Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Rents were more than four times
the rate in similar areas in London and Paris, according to a
report by global property advisor CBRE Group Inc.

NEW YORK, May 8 (Reuters) – Two deals to sell two prime
midtown Manhattan office buildings for more than $1 billion
combined were reached on Wednesday – signaling another hike in
New York City’s commercial property values.

The pending sales by Hines, an international real estate
firm, offer further evidence of the high prices U.S. commercial
real estate are now commanding.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Lehman Brothers Holdings LEHRG.UL has put the Ritz-Carlton, Kapalua Resort, a 54-acre luxury condo and hotel resort in Maui, Hawaii, on the block as it continues to sell off its real estate holdings to pay off creditors, said two sources familiar with the deal.

The sale is expected to fetch more than $200 million, said one source who was not authorized to speak on the record.

NEW YORK, May 7 (Reuters) – Lehman Brothers Holdings
[LEHRG.UL] has put the Ritz-Carlton, Kapalua Resort, a 54-acre
luxury condo and hotel resort in Maui, Hawaii, on the block as
it continues to sell off its real estate holdings to pay off
creditors, said two sources familiar with the deal.

The sale is expected to fetch more than $200 million, said
one source who was not authorized to speak on the record.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The three partners that own Edens, a shopping center landlord and developer with $3.5 billion in assets, are negotiating its future as one of them considers exiting, people with knowledge of the situation said.

The State of Michigan Retirement System is contemplating a departure, while a $20 billion open-ended fund run by JPMorgan Investment Management wants to remain a partner, according to the sources, who are not authorized to speak on the record. It could not be determined what the third partner, the New York State Teachers’ Retirement System (NYSTRS), wants to do.

NEW YORK, May 3 (Reuters) – The three partners that own
Edens, a shopping center landlord and developer with $3.5
billion in assets, are negotiating its future as one of them
considers exiting, people with knowledge of the situation said.

The State of Michigan Retirement System is contemplating a
departure, while a $20 billion open-ended fund run by JPMorgan
Investment Management wants to remain a partner, according to
the sources, who are not authorized to speak on the record. It
could not be determined what the third partner, the New York
State Teachers’ Retirement System (NYSTRS), wants to do.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A New York judge signaled on Monday he would probably allow the group that controls the Empire State Building to include the fabled New York landmark in a public stock offering, despite objections of dissident investors.

Malkin Holdings wants to roll the 102-story tower in midtown Manhattan into a real estate investment trust with 18 other properties and launch shares on the New York Stock Exchange through an IPO that could generate $1 billion. The REIT, Empire State Realty Trust Inc, is estimated to be valued at about $4.2 billion.