February 1, 2005

Cover Feature

Is Senior Housing the Next Comeback Kid?

Feb 1, 2005 12:00 PM, by Stan Luxenberg

John Erickson is on a roll. He just completed a 1,700-unit senior housing project in Springfield, Va. By the end of 2005, he expects to finish Ryderwood...

Special Research Reports

Lean, Mean and Ready to Expand

Feb 1, 2005 12:00 PM

Corporate America has become highly adept at squeezing more productivity from existing resources. Annual output per hour increased 4.4% in both 2002 and...

Insatiable Appetite For Debt Financing

Feb 1, 2005 12:00 PM

The prospect of higher interest rates shows no sign of dampening borrower demand for commercial real estate debt, according to an exclusive survey of...

Developments

HEI Once Again Embarks on Hotel Buying Spree

Feb 1, 2005 12:00 PM, Robyn Parets

HEI Hospitality, which targets full-service hotels and resorts with 200 to 500 rooms, is in the beginning stages of a buying binge, powered by a $275...

Comcast Takes Philly to New Heights

Feb 1, 2005 12:00 PM, Parke Chapman

In 2007, a 975-ft. tall office tower will take center stage as Philadelphia's tallest skyscraper. Malvern, Pa.-based Liberty Property Trust is developing...

$2.5 Billion St. Louis Facelift

Feb 1, 2005 12:00 PM, Heather Cole

In the mid-1990s, downtown St. Louis was hemorrhaging jobs, and a vacant garment district in its central corridor only accentuated the blight. Over the...

Sizing Up the Supermarket Industry

Feb 1, 2005 12:00 PM, Patricia Kirk

Growing segmentation in the grocery industry brought the average size of new stores in 2004 under 40,000 sq. ft. for the first time in a decade, reports...

Q & A

Feb 1, 2005 12:00 PM, Michael Wagner

The poet Robert Frost said the road less traveled made all the difference. Heitman LLC, a $12 billion real estate investment management firm, would probably...

Columns

Borrower Trends Survey Yields Surprising Results

Feb 1, 2005 12:00 PM, Matt Valley Editor

Twenty-years from now, when commercial real estate lenders reflect on today's financing climate, they will likely describe it as a golden era punctuated...

High Expectations for CMBS Market

Feb 1, 2005 12:00 PM, By John B. Levy

We're hard-pressed to envision the commercial real estate crowd being any happier than it was in 2004. Commercial mortgage originations were up on both...

Assessors Exploit Their Advantage

Feb 1, 2005 12:00 PM, By Joel R. Marcus, Esq.

In the late 1970s, property owners were on an equal footing with the local assessor. In those days it was almost impossible to obtain important information...

Avoid Traps In Government Leases

Feb 1, 2005 12:00 PM, By David Cunningham

The General Services Administration (GSA) leases more than 150 million sq. ft. of space from private owners in over 2,000 communities, making it one of...

Where Are We Exactly in the Cycle?

Feb 1, 2005 12:00 PM, By Tony Downs

As the current economic expansion moves ahead in 2005, the key issue for real estate is simply this: Will the normal relationships between overall economic...

How to Minimize Investment Risk in Latin America

Feb 1, 2005 12:00 PM, by Carlos Treistman

Imagine your company is given an incredible opportunity to enter into a significant joint venture involving prime commercial real estate in the heart...

Features

Cracking the Forbidden Market

Feb 1, 2005 12:00 PM, By Bennett Voyles

China tops most corporate agendas these days no one ignores a country that's just become the third-largest exporter in the world. That is, unless you're...

Reversing Course, Institutional Investors Assume More Risk

Feb 1, 2005 12:00 PM, by Nicholas Yulico

As institutional dollars continue to flood the commercial real estate market, large pension funds that have been in the game for some time are seizing...

Area Review

Chicago is Back on the Upswing

Feb 1, 2005 12:00 PM, By Paula Widholm

Live, work, play has been downtown Chicago's catchphrase since 2000. In recent years it's been amplified by a surge in new high-rise condo projects, office...

Strategies

Lenders Draw Up Plays to Land Big Deals

Feb 1, 2005 12:00 PM, By Joe Gose

Aggressive. Innovative. Creative. Those are all fitting words to describe today's lenders as they stretch underwriting terms in ways that were unheard...

DataPoints

A MONTHLY METER OF INDUSTRY TRENDS

Feb 1, 2005 12:00 PM

MALL REITS - ENDING 2004 ON A HIGH NOTE Despite an industry downturn in April and May, both the SNL Enclosed Mall REIT Index and the broader SNL Equity...