NEW YORK, Jan 7 (Reuters) – The United States dominates the
list of places that global commercial real estate investors
would prefer to put their money this year, while China has lost
some luster and Turkey has added sparkle, according to a survey
of international investors.

For the first time since 2001, four of the top five cities
that investors said they favor were in the United States,
according to an annual survey that the Association of Foreign
Investors in Real Estate (AFIRE) released Monday.

NEW YORK/OSLO (Reuters) – Norway’s sovereign wealth fund has agreed to buy a 50 percent stake in a portfolio of European warehouses for 1.2 billion euros ($1.6 billion) from U.S.-based Prologis (PLD.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) as it ramps up its still-small property investments.

The deal announced on Thursday for a stake in 195 properties spread across 11 European countries represents the first steps of what could be large global investments of real estate by the $685 billion Norwegian wealth fund, which has been built up from surplus oil and gas revenue.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – MacKenzie Capital Management LLC is offering to buy up to 170 ownership units in Empire State Building Associates LLC, which owns the iconic New York skyscraper, for $110,000 a unit, and said it would support a plan to fold the building into a proposed real estate investment trust (REIT), according to regulatory documents filed on Monday.

MacKenzie’s offer comes at a time when Malkin Holdings LLC is trying to persuade investors in Empire State Building Associates to back its plan to make the Empire State Building the centerpiece in a publicly traded REIT. The proposed REIT, to be called Empire State Realty Trust Inc (ESB.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), would contain more than 18 other properties, with most located in Manhattan.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – MetLife Inc (MET.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and an undisclosed joint-venture partner have bought Washington, D.C.’s largest, privately-owned office building, the insurance company said on Thursday.

The purchase price for Constitution Center at 400 7th Street SW was about $730 million, a person familiar with the transaction said. The price would be a record for an office building in the district, according to real estate information provider Real Capital Analytics.

NEW YORK, Dec 7 (Reuters) – Macerich Corp has put 17
non-core malls on the block, according to sources familiar with
the matter, a move already taken by other mall owners selling
centers producing lower sales.

The properties are so-called Class B malls, as opposed to
Class A, which differ based on the sales per square foot the
specialty store tenants generate.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – When it comes to the internet, David Simon’s kids can look but not buy.

“They are not allowed to shop on the Internet or I won’t pay for their room or board,” Chief Executive and Chairman of Simon Property Group Inc, the largest U.S. owner of malls and outlet centers joked at a the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts investor forum in June.

NEW YORK, Nov 29 (Reuters) – The owners of Stuyvesant Town
and Peter Cooper Village have reached a $147 million settlement
to resolve claims by thousands of tenants who said they were
overcharged on rent, removing the biggest hurdle to a sale of
the huge Manhattan apartment complexes, attorneys for both sides
said o n Thursday.

About 25,000 people live in Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper
Village, a sprawling complex of 56 high-rise brick buildings
with a private park on 80 acres on Manhattan’s East Side. The
co m plex – known for its spacious apartments – was built in two
stages beginning after World War II with the intention of
providing homes for returning veterans and later for
middle-class residents. Last month, the property sustained tens
of millions of dollars of flooding damage from Superstorm Sandy.

NEW YORK, Nov 29 (Reuters) – The owners of Stuyvesant Town
and Peter Cooper Village have reached a $147 million settlement
to resolve claims by thousands of tenants who said they were
overcharged on rent, removing the biggest hurdles to a sale of
the huge Manhattan apartment complexes, attorneys for the
tenants said on Thursday.

CWCapital Asset Management LLC, which has controlled
Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village since 2010, and past owner
MetLife Inc will pay $68.75 million to reimburse 21,250
tenants for past overcharges under the agreement. CWCapital also
agreed to end any effort to recover $78.1 million in rent
reductions it has provided since the lawsuit was filed in 2009.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Macerich Co (MAC.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) isn’t usually in the business of hosting religious processions in its mall parking lots.

But when it allowed a Good Friday event featuring a costumed Jesus, prisoners and Roman guards at a Phoenix mall last year, hundreds of shoppers turned out from the heavily Hispanic community, where re-enactments of the Stations of the Cross are a major occasion.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc agreed to sell property group Archstone to two real estate investment trusts for about $6.5 billion, taking advantage of a strong market for apartments and marking an end to a 2007 gamble that helped push the investment bank into bankruptcy.

The buyers, Equity Residential (EQR.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and AvalonBay Communities Inc (AVB.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), will split the assets 60-40 and will also take on Archstone’s debt, for a total transaction value of $16 billion.