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 climbed 228.89 points, or 1.4%, to 16,599.85. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 25.06 points, or 1.3%, to 1,978.09. The NASDAQ composite advanced 54.76 points, or 1.1%, to 4,860.52.
The price of U.S. oil rose 59 cents to $44.59 a barrel. Brent crude, a benchmark for many international types of oil imported into the U.S., gained 26 cents to $46.63 a barrel. Wholesale gasoline rose 2.86 cents to $1.333 a gallon. Heating oil fell less than a penny to $1.503 a gallon. Natural gas slipped 3 cents to $2.728 per 1,000 cubic feet.
Morgans Shareholder Rambleside to Offer $507 Million for Hotels “Real estate investment firm Rambleside Holdings is offering to buy two Morgans Hotel Group Co. lodging properties for about $507 million in cash to speed up efforts to maximize shareholder value. Rambleside, owner of about 4 percent of Morgans stock, said it’s prepared to bid $313 million for Manhattan’s Hudson Hotel and $194 million for the Delano South Beach in Florida, unencumbered of management contracts.” (Bloomberg)
Report: Chico’s Considers Private Equity Sale “Chico’s has been approached by Sycamore Partners and is also in talks with other private equity groups about a possible sale. Chico’s is said to be working with investment bank Peter J. Solomon. Sycamore Partners attempted to purchase Chico’s in February 2015, but the deal fell apart due to financing issues. Activist investor group Blue Harbour, Chico’s biggest shareholder, has been pushing the retailer to sell itself since 2013.” (Chain Store Age)
Sheldon Silver, Former Assembly Speaker, Helped Developer Block Methadone Clinic’s Relocation, U.S. Says “When a methadone clinic sought to relocate to Manhattan’s financial district in 2011, parents, local business owners and others rallied in opposition. Perhaps the most prominent opponent was Sheldon Silver, then the powerful speaker of the State Assembly who represented that neighborhood. But what Mr. Silver did not reveal then was that a real estate developer who owned a building near the proposed location had asked him for his help in blocking the project.” (The New York Times)
The Battle Over Prized Land Under Silicon Valley’s Trailer Parks “The free market wouldn't plop down a trailer park just a few miles from downtown San Jose. At least not today, in a sharply spiking housing market that has made the metropolitan area one of the most expensive in the U.S. But that's where you'll find Winchester Ranch and its 111 mobile-home lots, just down the street from an upscale shopping mall, a newly created development zone, and a major highway interchange.” (Bloomberg)
Elizabeth Warren Changes Mind, Sides With Frannie and Freddie “The Fannie Mae saga continues to make strange political bedfellows. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), patron saint of the left, has ditched her support for a bill that would shut down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and replace them with a private system. The legislation would block Treasury from ever paying the mortgage giants’ current shareholders.” (New York Post)
The 10 Most Overvalued Housing Markets in America “Buyers and investors beware: the number of real-estate markets that are now overvalued is growing rapidly. Of the top 100 real-estate markets in the U.S., 14 are now overvalued -- more than double the number that were at the end of the first quarter in 2015, according to a report released on Monday by real estate analytics firm CoreLogic, which examines market data for the first half of 2015.” (MarketWatch)
TIAA-CREF, Norges Move in on San Francisco “The latest acquisition by the joint venture between TIAA-CREF and Norges Bank Investment Management, manager of the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global, is a 1918-vintage office building in San Francisco’s South of Market submarket, TIAA-CREF announced Monday. NBIM has acquired a 49.9 percent stake and TIAA-CREF a 50.1 percent interest in 888 Brannan St., a 445,000-square-foot Class A office building.” (Commercial Property Executive)
Can Gristedes Clean Up its Act? “Tony Najjar squeezed down the narrow aisle at a Gristedes supermarket in Battery Park City to investigate the blue-and-white floor tiles scuffed and stained by years of traffic and spills. Mr. Najjar has one of the toughest jobs in New York retailing: persuading shoppers to take another look at Gristedes, the supermarket chain owned by billionaire and former mayoral candidate John Catsimatidis.” (Crain’s New York Business)
Manhattan Office Leasing Activity Dips 14 Percent Below 5-Year Average in August “According to CBRE, Manhattan office leasing activity totaled 1.88 million square feet in August 2015, 14% below its five-year monthly average of 2.20 million sq. ft. The availability rate was stable over the past month and down 20 basis points from August 2014. Year-to-date net absorption remains negative and is largely unchanged from last month.” (World Property Journal)
HFF Lands a Hand in Downtown Seattle “HFF proves that age is just a number as it lands $69.5 million in financing the century-old Medical Dental Building in Seattle. The commercial real estate and capital markets services provider orchestrated the deal on behalf Goodman Real Estate Inc., owner of the 294,300-square-foot medical office building. Medical Dental boasts a spot on the National Register of Historic Places.” (Commercial Property Executive)
As Fed meets, decision on rate hike seems like a toss-up — Will they or won’t they? Nine years after they last raised their benchmark interest rate and after months of feverish speculation, Federal Reserve policymakers this week may finally raise that rate from a record low near zero. Unless they don’t. Financial markets have been zigzagging with anxiety as investors have tried to divine whether the Fed will start phasing out the period of extraordinarily low borrowing rates it launched at a time of crisis in 2008. With the job market now considered essentially recovered from the Great Recession, many economists say it’s time to start edging toward normal rates. (WRAL.COM)
Autos and restaurants push US retail sales higher in August — Americans stepped up their spending on cars, restaurant meals, groceries and clothing in August, suggesting that consumers will help sustain U.S. economic growth despite a broader global slowdown. The Commerce Department said Tuesday that retail sales rose 0.2 per cent last month, after advancing 0.7 per cent in July. Sales have increased 2.2 per cent over the past 12 months, as solid hiring has translated into surges in spending at auto dealers and dining establishments. (KOMONEWS.COM)
GE says it may move up to 500 US jobs overseas — General Electric Co. said Tuesday that it may move about 500 jobs overseas because Congress did not renew a government program that allows foreign companies to borrow money to buy U.S. products. Authorization for the U.S. Export-Import Bank was not approved by Congress, forcing it to stop lending July 1. Foreign companies use the agency to buy expensive U.S. products when bank loans are not available. As a result, GE says 100 jobs from a Houston plant that makes gas turbines will move to Hungary and China in 2016. The Fairfield, Connecticut, industrial conglomerate says those countries have lending options in place for customers. (ABC)