NEW YORK, June 5 (Reuters) – Blackstone Group LP
could be days away from gaining control of 23.8 million square
feet of warehouse and distribution centers from Walton Street
Capital LLC if Walton defaults on loans used to buy the
properties, three sources familiar with the matter said on
Tuesday.

Friday is the deadline for real estate private equity
company Walton Street to repay some $2.45 billion of maturing
senior and junior debt it used in 2007 to buy West Coast
Industrial Portfolio (formerly known as CalWest) for $2.75
billion, the sources said. The portfolio is comprised of about
95 properties mostly in California, Washington and Arizona.

NEW YORK, June 4 (Reuters) – Starwood Capital Group said
Monday that it hired the former head of big-box mall owner
Developers Diversified, now called DDR Corp, to be chief
executive officer of its new mall company.

Scott Wolstein was named CEO of Starwood Retail Partners,
Starwood’s new business to be based in Chicago that will operate
at least seven malls.

NEW YORK, May 31 (Reuters) – Deutsche Bank AG
said on Thursday it was the winning bidder of a portfolio of
loans with a face value of $911 million sold by Capmark
Financial Group Inc, ending a fiercely competitive
auction process that attracted hedge funds and private equity
players.

The collection of mostly performing loans are to be sold to
Deutsche Bank’s Special Situations Group, which deals in more
complex real estate financing and buying distressed commercial
mortgage debt.

NEW YORK, May 25 (Reuters) – New commercial real estate
brokerages are launching in the United States, in what may be a
sign that the market’s recovery is durable.

Australia’s UGL Ltd, a huge property manager, plans
to expand in the Americas. BGC Partners Inc, which
brokers bonds among investment banks, built real estate
brokerage Newmark Grubb Knight Frank from acquiring and
combining smaller companies.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc, one of three owners of Archstone, has reached a deal to buy the last portion of the apartment company it does not own for $1.58 billion, said a source familiar with the deal on Thursday.

Lehman will buy the 26.5 percent of Archstone that it already does not own from Bank of America Corp (BAC.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Barclays Plc (BARC.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

NEW YORK, May 23 (Reuters) – Commercial real estate owner
Vornado Realty Trust has put interests in two of its
malls and one shopping center on the block, according to a
person familiar with the deal.

The move comes after Vornado Chairman Steven Roth said last
month that the company was too complex and might sell some of
its businesses to get its share price moving.

LAS VEGAS, May 21 (Reuters) – The first shops could throw
open their doors in the redeveloped World Trade Center by March
2015, Australian mall operator Westfield said on Monday,
13-and-a-half years after the New York landmark was destroyed in
the Sept. 11 attacks.

The redevelopment of the World Trade Center is years behind
schedule and billions of dollars over budget.

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) – The first shops could throw open their doors in the redeveloped World Trade Center by March 2015, Australian mall operator Westfield said on Monday, 13-and-a-half years after the New York landmark was destroyed in the September 11 attacks.

The redevelopment of the World Trade Center is years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget.

NEW YORK, May 18 (Reuters) – The price for staking ground on
Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue jumped 22 percent in the past year,
spurred by a record number of tourists spending their dollars at
top U.S. and international retailers on America’s most coveted
shopping ground.

The asking rent for street-level stores on Fifth Avenue
between 50th and 59th streets rose to $2,750 per square foot
this spring, the Real Estate Board of New York said in a report
released Friday.

May 16 (Reuters) – A U.S. developer and a Canadian pension
fund o n W ednesday announced plans to build a 45-story office
tower in the West Loop in downtown Chicago, even though they
have no tenants yet for the building, a $300 million project.

Ivanhoé Cambridge, the investment arm of Canadian pension
fund Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, and Houston-based
developer Hines unveiled plans for a 900,000 square-foot
skyscraper, one of the rare speculative buildings planned in the
United States.