U.S. firms continue hopping on the global express Last month was one of the busiest in recent memory as far as international property activity by U.S. firms is concerned. The list of active participants in global real estate reads like a who's who of the industry - Prudential, Binswanger, Draper & Kramer, Grubb & Ellis, Cushman & Wakefield - plus the firms listed elsewhere on this page.
And equally as interesting as the quality of the players is the geographic diversity of their dealings. Here is a compendium of the latest highlights:
* New York-based Cushman & Wakefield is expanding into Ireland with its association with Lisney, one of Ireland's leading real estate services firms.
* Chicago-based Grubb & Ellis is the new exclusive representative of an asset value recovery service which enables corporations to sell their surplus real estate at full value, for cash. The deal is set through trade facilitators including Active International and Marsh Inc., now the world's leading insurance broker.
* Newark, N.J.-based Prudential Real Estate Investors has raised $430 million from a select group of U.S. and international institutional investors for its Asian Property Partners fund. The fund will be managed by PREI's Asian investment arm, Global Realty Advisors, and seeks opportunistic real estate investments in East and Southeast Asia.
* Philadelphia-based Binswanger/CBB is entering Korea with the formation of Binswanger Korea, a joint venture co-founded with the Pacific Appraisal Corp., which is the country's largest non-governmental corporate consulting firm. The joint venture is setting up offices in five cities and already employs 186 people.
* Chicago-based Draper & Kramer Realty Advisors has formed CAPITAL Consultores Inmobiliarios S.A., a Chilean real estate company. The new company includes principals from two of Chile's leading real estate firms based in Santiago.