After several months of going back and forth with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York as well as its lenders, Tishman Speyer has finally reached a restructuring agreement for the $1.4 billion in debt it owes on five office space properties in Chicago, including the prominent 161 North Clark Street.

Tishman Speyer initially purchased the properties in question back in 2007 from The Blackstone Group for a price of $5.7 billion. This transaction occurred just shortly following Blackstone’s purchasing of the buildings from Sam Zell as a part of its acquisition of Equity Office Properties.

As a result of the restructuring initiative, Tishman Speyer is now able to invest over $100 million in brokerage commissions and tenant improvements, something that the company greatly needs in order to help in the attracting of new tenants to lease space in the portfolio. Without these much needed improvements, the properties would be considered “zombies” or virtually living but actually deceased. The Federal Reserve had frozen funds needed for the upgrades after it took over the loans from the failed Bear Stearns in 2008. The moral of the story: if Tishman Speyer can do it, there may very well be some hope for everybody else.

Source: www.OKCREview.com

The Miami office space relocation trend has fueled nearly 80,000 square feet of recent transactions for CresaPartners alone. Of the 82,211 square feet of office leases brokered by CresaPartners in the last few quarters, 76,672 of them are actually a result of relocations. The remaining 2,539 square feet is attributed to the recent expansion of a large international company into the United States by way of Miami.

“From free rent to tenant improvements, there are plenty of concessions still to be had in the marketplace,” Barbara Liberatore Black, founding principal of CresaPartners, reported to GlobeSt.com. “Overall, deals to move typically are beneficial to the tenants.”

Despite the economic improvement witnessed by South Florida recently, there is a flood of available office space, and higher rates of vacancy are still the rule, not the exception in most buildings. The market still belongs to tenants and tenants are taking full advantage of the opportunity to seize long-term leases with many incentives at the beginning.

Some of CresaPartners latest transactions include Morgan Stanley, which signed a new lease at 201 South Biscayne Boulevard for 19,104 square feet, relocating from Brickell. Apex USA signed a new lease at 201 South Biscayne Boulevard for 10,683 square feet, relocating from West Dade. Berger Singerman signed a new lease at 1450 Brickell Avenue for 25,837 square feet. The firm relocated from another building in downtown Miami. RSM McGladrey has signed a new lease at 801 Brickell for 7,702 square feet, relocating from the nearby suburb of Coral Gables; just to name a few …

With each lease, Black says that her firm took advantage of the market conditions (as reported by globest.com) and with each new lease, the tenant was offered additional values, from location to lease terms to better amenities. In the upcoming quarters, Black is predicting even more relocations, particularly in the legal, banking and finance sectors of Miami’s market.

Source: www.globest.com

A small Houston area medical office space building that is located adjacent to the well-known Willowbrook Mall is set to be auctioned off this week by Auction.com. As reported by the auction company, this two-story, 27,000-square-foot property went through foreclosure.

Developed in 2004 on 1.3 acres at 17200 State Highway 249, Auction.com reports that  the property is currently only 34 percent occupied. The medical office space property is set to carry a starting bid of $750,000. The auction begins on Tuesday, April 26, 2011 and continues through Thursday, April 28, 2011.

Source: www. Bizjournals.com

At 54 stories tall, Oklahoma’s largest city is erecting a new office space tower (the Devon Building) that, upon its completion, will far surpass anything the city’s skyline has seen since the eighties. After its projected completion in 2012, the prairie state’s highest skyscraper will become the most  recent addition to Oklahoma City’s new real estate “renaissance.” To what or whom does this new movement give credit? A unique series of public/private partnerships is to thank for the city’s office revitalization.

While the city is still very heavily driven by the energy industry, its increasingly diversifying economy now includes aerospace, healthcare, and biosciences. This year alone, Oklahoma City has witnessed a decrease in its unemployment rate — 5.7% in May 2009 — as opposed to the nation’s rate of 9.4% in May. The rest of the world, it seems, has started to take notice.

“Other cities are coming here to find out our secret,” says Roy Williams, president of the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber, as reported by OKCREview.com. “It’s really simple. We have figured out how to make public/private partnerships work.”

“Oklahoma City will finally have an iconic tower that will clearly define our skyline,” notes Klay Kimker, president of Devon Realty Advisors, as reported by OKCREview.com. As a result of a new downtown tax increment finance district that was approved by the Oklahoma City city council, development of the Devon tower will also spawn an estimated $175 million in new taxes to be used to redevelop streetscapes in the area surrounding the building.

Source: www.OKCREview.com

Who says that there isn’t any new construction of office space in this country? New York City has steel rising on its new World Trade Center. Oklahoma City has its Devon Energy headquarters nicely situated in a tower that stands 50 stories tall. Now it is Houston’s turn to add a flashy new addition to its growing skyline.

BBVA Compass has recently announced that it is set to anchor a new twenty-story, 380,000-square-foot office space property to be constructed in Houston’s Galleria area by Redstone Cos. and Stream Realty Partners LP. Located at 2200 Post Oak Boulevard, the Texas bank plans to lease the upper six levels of the building. The construction is expected to begin in May with the project’s completion date set for the first quarter of 2013.

This plan represents a consolidation of four office spaces for BBVA USA Bancshares Inc., the holding company that oversees the bank’s operations (headquartered in Houston). As reported by nreionline.com, BBVA is planning to combine and consolidate its Dallas-Fort Worth office space properties also. This new Houston-based tower is set to be part of a larger redevelopment initiative that will also include a hotel with residences, a second office building and parking garages.

Houston’s Galleria area has become the hot place to be in recent times, and in February of this year, Unilev Capital Corporation dropped $176 million for the purchase of three high-profile Galleria office space properties from an affiliate of Walton Street Capital LLC. Totaling 1.1 million square feet, the buildings were developed in the seventies by Houston-based Hines, and include the seven-story Galleria Financial Center, the 25-story Galleria I, and the 22-floor Galleria Tower II.

Source: www.nreionline.com

The acquisitions mark the second and final phase of the office portfolio of 20 suburban office buildings totaling more than 3 million sq, ft. and valued at more than $516 million.

This new multi-tenant portfolio is leased to about 96% capacity and consists of all Class-A buildings across five national office space markets:

• West Lake at Conway: Chicago with 99,538 square feet
• Norman Pointe I: Minneapolis, Minn., with 212,722 square feet
• Atrium I: Columbus, Ohio, with 315,102 square feet
• One Conway Park: Chicago with 105,000 square feet
• Norman Pointe II: Minneapolis, Minn., with 324,296 square feet
• Weston Pointe IV: Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., with 96,175 square feet
• The Landings I: Cincinnati, Ohio, with 175,695 square feet
• One Easton Oval: Columbus, Ohio, with 125,031 square feet
• Two Easton Oval: Columbus, Ohio, with 128,674 square feet
• Weston Pointe I: Ft. Lauderdale, Florida with 97,579 square feet
• Weston Pointe II: Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., with 97,180 square feet
• Weston Pointe III: Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., with 97,178 square feet
• The Landings II: Cincinnati, Ohio, with 175,076 square feet

“We are pleased to be expanding our joint venture relationship with Duke Realty through these added high-quality core assets,” said Jack A. Cuneo, Chairman and CEO of CB Richard Ellis Realty Trust, as reported by www.OKCREview.com. The CB Richard Ellis Realty Trust team worked alongside Brian Cosentino, Vic Bucchere, Gary Jaye, and the Boston acquisitions team from CBRE Investors to complete this investment.

Source: www.OKCREview.com

In a new NYC deal, RXR Realty is set to purchase the large Starrett Lehigh Building from Shorenstein Properties for the price of nearly 900 million. Located at 601 W. 26th Street, inside sources confirm a report in Crain’s New York Business that the developer and owner from Long Island is paying about $409 per square foot for this massive 2.3-million-square-foot office property.

Citing unnamed sources, Crain’s New York Business reported that RXR chairman Scott Rechler was attracted to this office space property due to the significant potential for growth and prosperity he sees in this part of the city. With floorplates sized at nearly 50,000 square feet, this office space property impressively takes up more square footage on twenty floors than some office towers that are three times its height. Constructed as a railroad freight terminal in 1932, 601 W. 26th went through a $30-million renovation in the late nineties following an investment group’s (pioneered by Shorenstein) acquisition from Helmsley-Spear for $152 million.

Following its repositioning as an office space property, the Starrett Lehigh Building first attracted dot-com tenants. Today, its most well known occupant is Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. Through spokesmen, RXR and Shorenstein turned down the opportunity to comment on the Crain’s report. In 2010, RXR made its first direct property investments in Manhattan since the company began in 2007. RXR acquired a 49% interest in 340 Madison Ave. from the D.E. Shaw group, and eventually purchased 1330 Avenue of the Americas for approximately $400 million.

In December, neighboring 111 Eighth Avenue sold to Google for $1.8 billion. Farther west down the island, the Related Cos. is set to develop the space over the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Hudson Yards into a mixed-use project.

Source: www.globest.com

BBVA Compass Bank will be the premier tenant in a 380,000-square-foot office space property that is currently being developed by Redstone Cos. and Stream Realty Partners LP in Houston’s Galleria area. The new 20-story property is part of a redevelopment project that is expected to include a second office space property, a hotel that includes residences as well as multiple parking structures. The bank is set to take up the upper six floors of the property.

BBVA Compass is based in Birmingham, AL and is the American banking arm of Spain’s financial giant Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA. BBVA USA Bancshares Inc., the holding company handling the bank’s operations is headquartered in Houston.

BBVA Compass Bank has assets totaling $63 billion and is ranked among the 30 largest financial companies operating in the country. BBVA plans to consolidate its administrative offices, as well as its privatized banking arm and banking units that are located in and around Houston into the new building as well. The bank is also looking to consolidate its office space in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, according to an April 11 report by Dallas Business Journal.

Houston-based Redstone and Stream Realty of Dallas have plans to break ground this summer on the first office tower at 2200 Post Oak Blvd. in a joint venture. This is the former site of the Compass Bank property that was demolished approximately two years ago.

Source: www.bizjournals.com

An affiliate of Valeo Real Estate Fund, Dallas-based Valeo Commercial Real Estate LLC has purchased Austin’s Jefferson Building, a 97,552-square-foot medical office space property, with a purchase price of $13.5 million. Transwestern’s Hale Umstattd (Austin) represented Valeo in this sale, and Doug Rauls of The Kucera Company was the seller’s representative.

This is Valeo Commercial Real Estate’s first investment, as the company was just launched last year. Previously owned by Austin-based commercial real estate firm The Kucera Companies, the Jefferson Building is located in the heart of Austin’s Medical District. Built in 1972, it is currently 85 percent tenant-leased including Austin Radiological Association, Seton Healthcare, Austin Neuropsychiatric Clinic in addition to medical service firms and private physicians.

The new firm’s immediate plans for the Jefferson office space property include making some necessary renovations to the common areas and boosting the current tenant occupancy rate. “We expect to see more of this type of opportunity moving forward as the U.S. real estate market recovers,” said Steve Lipscomb, Valeo Real Estate Fund Co-founder and Managing Director as reported by nreionline.com.

Source: www.nreionline.com

Capstar Real Estates has recently sold office space to Commercial Developments International, that is situated on Northwest Highway, filling a 4.3 acre area in the Preston Center submarket of Dallas. The office space property is highly sought after, as it is located near easy hotel accommodations and is only one mile from the Lovefield Airport and.

The 196,300-square foot office space is unevenly split between the two different office towers, the East Tower taking up seven stories (amounting to 126,100 square feet of office space) and the West Tower occupying 70,200 square feet of office space itself. While the tower currently is showing a vacancy rate of only 4%, the submarket in the Preston area averages a rate of 13.7%, reinforcing the great deal that Commercial Developments International has landed here. The company, founded in 1989 and headquartered in New York City, may have chosen this area over Downtown Dallas, whose average vacancy rate has reached 24.4%. However, forecasts by Cushman Wakefield are calling for improved vacancy rates in the city, in the 2011 year, reflecting a rise in office space tenancy across the nation as a whole.

Source: www.executiveofficespace.net