Real Estate Daily News Buzz – August 12, 2015

Real Estate Daily News Buzz is designed to give news snippets to readers that our (yet to be award winning) editors thought you could use to start your day. They come from various business perspectives, real estate, government, the Fed, local news, and the stock markets to save you time. Here you will find the headlines and what the news buzz of the day will be.

Tuesday, the Dow Jones industrial average lost 212.33 points, or 1.2%, to 17,402.84. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 20.11 points, or 1%, to 2,084.07. The NASDAQ composite index fell 65.01 points, or 1.3%, to 5,036.79.

U.S. crude fell $1.88 to close at $43.08 a barrel in New York, its lowest close since March of 2009. Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils used by many U.S. refineries, fell $1.23 to close at $49.18 in London. Wholesale gasoline closed unchanged at $1.694 a gallon. Heating oil fell 2.9 cents to close at $1.563 a gallon. Natural gas rose 0.2 cents to close at $2.844 per 1,000 cubic feet.

What Yuan Move Means for September Federal Reserve Rate Hike “China’s central bank devalued its tightly controlled currency early Tuesday, fueling speculation that the move could delay the first interest-rate hike by the Federal Reserve in nearly a decade.” (Market Watch)

Billions of Dollars in New Headaches Ahead for Old Real Estate Deals “A signature financial instrument of the pre-financial crisis real estate boom is about to come due. And for some large real estate owners – particularly in the Midwest and Southeast – that could mean trouble.” (Yahoo! Finance)

Washington’s Wharf Wins 2 Flags “Hilton Worldwide and Hyatt Hotels are teaming on a 413-key, 300,000-square-foot dual-branded hotel in Washington D.C.’s Wharf, to be developed by Hoffman-Madison Waterfront, the master developer of the world-class mixed-use waterfront community.” (Commercial Property Executive)

Could Bill Gates Be the Next Owner of Strategic Hotels? “Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who owns a stake in Strategic Hotels & Resorts, could soon end up owning the whole company. Gates said in a regulatory filing this morning that, considering recent media reports that Strategic is exploring a sale, he would be interested in possibly ‘being a party to a transaction involving the acquisition of the’ Chicago-based real estate investment trust.” (Crain’s Chicago Business)

Brooklyn Neighborhood Rents Growing Much Faster than Manhattan’s “While Manhattan rents are still the highest in the city, housing costs in Brooklyn’s trendiest areas are growing at considerably faster rate, according to recently released data.” (The Real Deal)

Honolulu Office Real Estate Market Showing Signs of Recovery “The Honolulu office real estate market is finally showing signs of recovery, as the second quarter of 2015 was the first quarter in over a year to report more space being absorbed than coming onto the market, according to a new report.” (Pacific Business News)

Swift Default in Ohio Shows Why Commercial Mortgages Worry Fed “Just outside Columbus, Ohio, the small city of Gahanna seemed to be catching a break in its decade-long struggle to transform an underused strip of downtown into a district of retail shops, high-end condominiums and restaurants.” (Bloomberg)

Cambridge Council to Consider Rezoning Part of Kendall “A plan to re-zone part of Kendall Square to enable another 1 million square feet of development in the booming neighborhood will be filed with the Cambridge City Council Monday night.” (Boston Globe)

BofA Sees Moody’s Shift as Slippery Slope for Real Estate Bonds “At a time of increasingly risky lending in the commercial-mortgage market, Moody’s Investors Service appears to be backtracking on its role as guardian of bond investors, according to Bank of America Corp. (Bloomberg)

TPG Real Estate Acquiring TriGranit “TPG Real Estate has reached an agreement to purchase TriGranit, one of Europe’s largest, privately-owned developers and managers of retail and office assets. Under the terms of the agreement, TPG Real Estate will acquire TriGranit’s development and asset management platform as well as a portfolio of high-quality assets located primarily in Poland.” (GlobeSt.)