NEW YORK, July 16 (Reuters) – Delta Air Lines Inc
said it was working with federal authorities after what appeared
to be sewing needles were found in food on four U.S.-bound
flights that left Sunday from Amsterdam, injuring one passenger.

The needles were found in sandwiches made by the airline’s
Amsterdam caterer, Gate Gourmet, Delta spokeswoman Chris Kelly
said in an email Monday. The FBI and Netherlands officials are
investigating, as are officials from Gate Gourmet, Delta said.

NEW YORK, June 29 (Reuters) – Demand for office space in
markets where technology and energy drive employment has helped
steer the overall U.S. office vacancy rate down to its lowest
level since early 2009, a report by Jones Lang LaSalle Inc
released on Friday showed.

In the early days of the recovery from the recession, the
East Coast markets such as Washington D.C. were the strongest,
while the rest of the country lagged. But governmental cutbacks
and ongoing problems and uncertainty in the financial markets
have put pressure on those office markets. Meanwhile, the high
growth private sector industries of energy and technology have
increased the demand for space where those companies are
located.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Blackstone Group LP (BX.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) has raised more than $12 billion for its latest real estate fund, its biggest yet, putting it within reach of its $13 billion fundraising target, two people familiar with the matter said on Friday.

Blackstone declined to comment.

The fund, Blackstone Real Estate Partners VII, is the largest buyout fund by capital targeted globally, according to market research firm Preqin. It has proved to be one of the private equity firm’s most popular offerings with investors.

NEW YORK, June 29 (Reuters) – Blackstone Group LP has
raised more than $12 billion for its latest real estate fund,
its biggest yet, putting it within reach of its $13 billion
fundraising target, two people familiar with the matter said on
Friday.

Blackstone declined to comment.

The fund, Blackstone Real Estate Partners VII, is the
largest buyout fund by capital targeted globally, according to
market research firm Preqin. It has proved to be one of the
private equity firm’s most popular offerings with investors.

June 20 (Reuters) – Deutsche Bank AG and
Guggenheim Partners have ended negotiations on the potential
sale of RREEF, the German bank’s global alternative asset
management business, after failing to agree on terms, Deutsche
Bank said on Wednesday.

The RREEF business, which has around 47 billion euros
($59.70 billion) in assets under management, was the last one of
a range of businesses Deutsche Bank tried but failed to sell to
U.S.-based institutional asset manager Guggenheim.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Google Inc, which spent nearly $2 billion for one of Manhattan’s largest office buildings, is in the market to rent a bit more space as the company grows and is unable to get some of its tenants out, according to three sources familiar with the matter.

Google is looking to lease between 60,000 square feet to 100,000 square feet of office space, which depending upon the building, could be a floor or two, one source said on Tuesday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Thomas Properties Group Inc (TPGI.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) has put a 24-acre development parcel of fully permitted land next to the Los Angeles International Airport up for sale, exiting the development business as it becomes a real estate investment trust.

Thomas, based in Los Angeles, has hired Jones Lang LaSalle Inc (JLL.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) to market the property, known as Campus El Segundo. The property has been subdivided to allow for the construction of a mixture of commercial real estate, such as hotel, retail, research and development, or office buildings.

NEW YORK, June 13 (Reuters) – More than 2,100 investors,
analysts and executives of U.S. real estate investment trusts
were left in the dark most of the afternoon on Wednesday after
an accident in an electric room under construction at the Hilton
New York hotel in midtown Manhattan caused a power failure.

“There were some announcements on loudspeakers and the
lights were flashing,” said Ian Goltra, a portfolio manager at
Forward Management who was attending the National Association of
Real Estate Investment Trusts annual REITWeek2012.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Vornado Realty Trust (VNO.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) could sell more than $1 billion in assets this year, its chief executive said on Tuesday.

“We have the best part of a billion dollars in aspirations to sell by the end of the year, maybe even far more than that,” Vornado CEO Michael Fascitelli told investors attending the National Real Estate Investment Trusts’ Investor Forum called REITWeek 2012.

NEW YORK, June 7 (Reuters) – Facebook Inc and
Microsoft Corp are shopping for more office space in
Manhattan, sources say, underscoring New York’s stature as a
must-have location for top tech companies who need to be
“book-ended” on both the west and east coasts.

Facebook, based in Menlo Park, California, has browsed
several locations in the city including the former New York
Times Building at 229 West 43rd Street, two people familiar with
the search said.