Thoughts on Cap Rates; a Sneak Peek at Microsoft's Stores (Tuesday Morning Roundup)

I was in Chicago all day yesterday for our annual SADI Awards judging. I will post some thoughts on that later. It was an interesting day.

Here are some news and notes from yesterday. I will do another roundup this afternoon of today's news.

• Retail News blog had a lengthy post about the difficulties in figuring out what cap rates are in the current market because of the lack of deal volume. It is definitely worth a read. RetailChatradded a few more observations in response to that post. We reported on the on the same topic last week.
• Gizmodo has a huge gallery of images previewing Microsoft's stores. There's been a lot of buzz on this concept for the past couple of weeks. The first locations are supposed to open this fall.
• American Medical News looked at the retail clinic trend and how the number of clinics has actually been declining of late. A lot of the concepts that had projected to open a lot of locations have struggled. The AM News story explores why the clinics have struggled to meet expectations.
• Almost $165 billion in commercial mortgages are due this year, according to a Bloomberg report.
• Centro Properties Group reported that its portfolio has declined in value by $2 billion this year.
• Ritz Camera won court approval to sell some of its assets.