Month: July 2020

Congressman Al Lawson and Van Taylor (Lawson by Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images; Taylor by Thomas McKinless/CQ Roll Call) A bipartisan bill introduced in Congress on Wednesday is intended as a lifeline for hotel and shopping-center CMBS borrowers. The measure would provide preferred equity to borrowers hurt by the coronavirus pandemic, taking from…

Brookfield Asset Management has renegotiated a $6.4 billion credit facility for its retail-heavy real estate investment trust, Brookfield Property REIT. The deal imposes restrictions on dividends and requires other Brookfield Asset Management–owned entities to lend at least $250 million to the REIT, the Financial Times reported. In exchange, a group of creditors led by Wells…

“Our role as owner is shifting from what was solely ‘the librarian’ — collecting rent, renting shops and cleaning spaces — to becoming an ‘editor’ of the space.” (iStock) In sickness and in health, till short-term, revenue-adjusted leases do us part. One of the U.K.’s biggest retail landlords is moving away from a traditional lease…

Jeff Bezos and the Beverly Hills home (Getty, Realtor) Jeff Bezos has scooped up a Beverly Hills home next door to the 10-acre estate he bought from David Geffen for a record $165 million in February. Amazon’s founder and CEO paid $10 million for the two-story home through a trust, according to Variety. Built in…

Blackstone’s Jonathan Gray and a rendering of 350 Park (Blackstone, Vornado) The Blackstone Group is mulling options for a new headquarters in New York City as large as 1 million square feet, sources told The Real Deal. The investment giant’s current leases in the Plaza District expire in several years. Blackstone, headed by CEO Stephen…

NAR CEO Bob Goldberg (iStock) Top Agent Network has another shot to legally thwart the National Association of Realtors’ “pocket listings” ban even after a major setback in their case. San Francisco federal judge Vince Chhabria granted Tuesday Top Agent Network’s stipulation to amend their anti-competitive complaint against NAR, the Washington, D.C. lobbying powerhouse that…

Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield CEO Christophe Cuvillier, Westfield Century City in Los Angeles and Westfield World Trade Center in New York (Getty, iStock, Google Maps) While operations at Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield’s European holdings are returning to normal, the retail giant’s U.S. holdings are contending with different reopening — and in some cases re-closing — timelines. Some of the landlord’s European…

Hutton Hotel in Nashville and The Jewel Runaway Bay Beach Resort & Waterpark in Jamaica (Hutton, Booking) Cash-strapped hotel owners are selling properties at discounts and agreeing to sky-high interest rates with federal aid about to end. The desperate moves are mostly by small or private hotel owners, though some real estate investment trusts are…

Equity Residential chairman Sam Zell and CEO Mark Parrell (right) (Getty, iStock) Sam Zell’s Equity Residential has tried to maintain occupancy rates since the pandemic swept the nation, but despite efforts, the company’s year-over-year net income declined by 15 percent in the second quarter. On a Wednesday earnings call, the real estate investment trust’s CEO…

New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, President Donald Trump and HUD Secretary Ben Carson (Getty) New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is working to defund the Trump administration’s proposed fair housing rules before they even get off the ground. For years, the administration has talked of dismantling an Obama-era rule which President Donald Trump has described as…