As per an article from the Wall Street Journal on January 26, 2010, “Capitalization rates, a calculation real-estate investors use to measure the annual return of income-producing properties, continue to rise. The average cap rate for office properties in central business districts jumped to 8.8% in December from 8.56% in November. The December number was the highest rate for that category since May 2003. Meanwhile, average cap rates for apartment buildings was 7.36% in December, up from 7.09% in November. The cap rate is rental income in the first year of ownership divided by the purchase price.”

The world’s largest bottling company will move its local vending machine operation and 85 employees from northwest Orlando to a larger warehouse on the southeast side of town in June.

Atlanta-based beverage maker Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc. (NYSE: CCE) signed a seven-year lease last month for a 70,000-square-foot industrial building in Airport Distribution Center.

To view the entire article please Click Here

In last year’s review and projection of industrial property market health, we focused on the historically low US consumer demand and its impact on demand for industrial space.  One year later, we observe that consumer demand remains a primary concern for industrial sectors.  In February of 2009, the US Consumer Demand Index (CDI) reached a historic low.  While the second and third quarters of 2009 sparked hope that consumer confidence and spending would return thanks to such nationwide stimulus programs as “cash-for-clunkers,” data for the fourth quarter has indicated a retrenching of the recessionary trends that have dominated the last two years.

To view the entire article please click here.

While the pace of commercial real-estate sales remains anemic, a few gutsy real-estate experts are saying prices have stabilized and are even, in some cases, rising from their lows of the recession.

Backers of this theory point to the loosening in the public capital markets, which has allowed dozens of real-estate investment trusts and to raise debt and equity financing to fix up their balance sheets. The bulls also say investors who had been sitting on the sidelines are becoming more active, especially foreign buyers like HSBC Alternative Investments Ltd., which is buying 1625 I St. in Washington D.C. in a deal that values the office building at a respectable $203.4 million.

To view the entire article please click here

2009 took the commerce out of commercial real estate, and local experts don’t expect that to change much in 2010.

Regardless of the sector — industrial, office or retail — there is little indication of a quick turnaround this year.

To view the entire article please Click Here

Big-name investors have swooped in on two high-profile commercial real-estate assets in a sign that activity is returning to the investment-property market.

Private-equity firm CIM Group has teamed up with New York developer Harry Macklowe to help him regain control of what is regarded as one of the most valuable vacant lots in the world, according to people familiar with the matter. The site of the old Drake Hotel, in Midtown Manhattan at Park Avenue and 56th Street, has been under the cloud of foreclosure for about five months after the collapse of Mr. Macklowe’s empire.

To view the entire article, click here click here

Real estate, which sparked the global economic downturn in 2008, struggled to recover in 2009. But the path to a full return to health is littered with land mines that could send the sector spiraling downward again, possibly upending the nascent economic revival.

To view the entire article, please Click Here