Tag Archives: Real Estate Investment

Michaelson, Connor & Boul recently announced that Brandon Bejarano has joined the company as sales and marketing director. Bejarano will focus on growing the company's nationwide real estate services business. The firm specializes in large- and small-scale property management, facility and property maintenance services, and real estate asset management services for government, commercial, and privately owned properties.

Romspen Investment Corporation, the largest non-bank lender in Canada, will use the Mortgage Office from Applied Business Software Inc. (ABS) to administer its commercial loan portfolio and manage its mortgage investment fund. ABS is a Los Angeles-based global provider of software systems to the lending industry. Romspen's current portfolio is $500 million, and the company's mortgage investment fund has thousands of investors.

According to Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels, hotel deal volume in Manhattan will range from $1.9 billion to $2.4 billion in 2011. Manhattan is the most active hotel transaction market in the country, posting the highest growth rates of any major U.S. market in 2010. The report reveals that Manhattan is expected to remain the top U.S. hotel investment market, attracting attention from domestic and off-shore buyers.

One year after CoStar Group, Inc. rescued the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) from an underwater mortgage on its Washington D.C. headquarters building, CoStar has sold the property for a $60 million profit. MBA bought the property for $79 million in 2007, but agreed to sell the building last February to CoStar for $41.25 million. CoStar held on to the property long enough to see values in the D.C. area recover ahead of most of the country, and has sold the building to GLL Real Estate Partners of Germany for $101 million.

ICP Financial, a U.S. real estate investment firm headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, has signed an agreement with an unnamed top 5 European bank to buy distressed commercial real estate property and mortgage portfolios directly from American banks. The arrangement gives ICP a $4.8 billion purse to make individual purchases between $5 million and $180 million.

According to RE/MAX, its commercial division has the second most certified commercial investment member (CCIM) candidates and designees in the industry. A CCIM is a recognized expert in the commercial and investment real estate industry that is professionally trained to help commercial real estate owners and investors seal deals in today's challenging marketplace.

A survey of 100 distressed debt investors found that this year many will increasingly devote their money to real estate. The survey polled investors from companies such as hedge funds, private equity firm, bank props or trading desks. The study showed that respondents allocated 26 percent of their investments to real estate in 2010, and plan to allocate 48 percent of their investments to real estate this year.

Texas-based Halo Companies, Inc. has acquired Equitas Asset Management, LLC and Equitas Housing Fund, LLC (the Fund). The $20 million Fund is a real estate venture that invests in single-family residential real estate across the United States. It primarily invests in undervalued or distressed properties at or below replacement cost through bank-owned real estate and non-performing mortgages.

Private equity real estate funding totaled $35.8 billion globally in 2010, which is the lowest annual total since 2003, when funds raised just over $14 billion, a study found. The numbers are 28 percent lower than the $49.8 billion raised in 2009. The study, conducted by Preqin, an information company for alternative assets, examined private equity funds around the world. It found that funds with a primary focus on North America raised the most capital last year, about $22.5 billion.

Commercial real estate financier Starwood Property Trust, Inc. sourced $653 million last week that the company says will be used to acquire commercial mortgage debt and other target assets. The Greenwich, Connecticut-based REIT closed a $150 million warehouse financing facility with Goldman Sachs Mortgage Company, a $125.2 million asset-based credit agreement with Bank of America, and sold 20 million shares of its common stock to raise an additional $378 million.