Petroleum Plaza, a 315,000-square-foot office property in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, has been snapped up in a transaction valued at $130 million. Acting on behalf of client DEGI Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Immobilienfonds m.b.H., Morguard Investments Ltd. purchased the property from KingSett Capital, which had owned Petroleum Plaza since 2005. Located in Downtown Edmonton [...]

Ground has just broken on Universal Studios Dubailand, a 7 million-square-foot theme park in the sprawling mixed-use Dubailand development in the U.A.E. Tatweer is behind the project, as well as the entire $64 billion, 3 billion-square-foot Dubailand endeavor, which is being designed to be the largest tourism, leisure and entertainment destination in the world.Universal Studios [...]

In an effort to help hotel real estate investors and owners weather the credit crunch storm, San Francisco-based PKF Capital has established a hotel finance program. Under the program PKF Capital will orchestrate debt and equity financing for clients in need of anything from construction loans to short- and long-term bridge loans to refinancing packages.Presently, [...]

Fannie Mae is working on a number of enhancements to its multi-family financing offerings, including a combined construction-permanent financing product. The agency says it is cooperating with several DUS lenders who have construction lending expertise to combine construction financing with permanent debt. “The construction-to-permanent product will offer a seamless, lower cost execution and more [...]

The Bascom Group has acquired Gleneagles Apartments, a 562-unit property in Northglenn, Colo., a northern suburb of Denver, for $60.8 million. The seller was Principal Life Insurance Co. Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services’ most recent report on the Denver multi-family market posited that the area will remain relatively healthy through 2008, with [...]

Dozens of Hyatt Regency properties in key business, convention and resort locations in North America are undergoing renovation or being opened as part of a $1.3 billion dollar investment. Seventeen such properties have been renovated or opened in the past three years and 31 additional hotels are scheduled to be revamped or to open by [...]

Over the course of a couple of days, the Houston office of real estate services firm CB Richard Ellis Inc. represented several clients in long-term leases in the city for a total of more than 60,000 square feet.The deals are representative of the city’s continued growth in a nation troubled by a shaky economy. But, [...]

London-based luxury hotel group Dorchester Collection, owner of such iconic properties as the Beverly Hills Hotel and Hotel Plaza Athénée in Paris, has brought two additional legendary assets under its umbrella with the attainment of contracts to manage New York City’s renowned New York Palace Hotel and the tony Hotel Bel-Air in Los Angeles. The [...]

American and European-based hotel companies have focused much effort in recent years on expanding their presence in the booming economies of China and India. Much less attention has been paid to the world’s third largest economy, Japan, but, according to a recent report from HVS International, that is soon likely to change. [...]

Laramar Group has acquired Oceanview Apartments, a 160-unit waterfront property located in Boca Raton, Fla. The property, to be renamed Villa Oceana Apartments, was previously a condominium conversion project, and is now designated to be renovated as luxury waterfront apartment units. The price was not disclosed. Laramar acquired the note on the Oceanview from [...]