The company — which also invests in office, industrial, self-storage and multifamily assets–has spent nearly three decades lining its portfolio with California neighborhood shopping centers within close proximity of the Pacific Coast, and the company’s remarkable success over the last two years indicates that certain retail properties within close proximity of the water in the Golden State are apparently recession-proof.

The deal marks BlackRidge’s second Inland Empire acquisition within the past 90 days. The firm recently bought 1000 Etiwanda, a 302,020-square-foot distribution center in Ontario for $14.4 million.

The number of U.S. workers filing applications for jobless benefits for the first time dropped to 388,000 to the week ending Christmas Day, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. That’s the lowest level since July 2008. The less volatile four-week average of new claims also reached down to levels not seen since the summer of 2008, falling to 414,000.

The company plans to mine the U.S. market for triple net-leased real estate, as well as mortgages secured by such properties.

Brookfield Asset Management sold 300 S. Riverside Plaza, a Class A office building in Chicago’s West Loop submarket.

The iconic 1.7 million-square-foot tower was sold to Boston Properties Inc. According to Cushman & Wakefield Inc., which handled the sale on behalf of a joint venture between Normandy Real Estate Partners and Five Mile Capital Partners L.L.C., the deal is the largest pure investment sale transaction closed in the U.S. this year.

ShopperTrak, which followed U.S. retail sales, said that the recent East Coast blizzard kept about $1 billion at home with consumers, rather than out being spent at shops on Dec. 26 and Dec. 27. That’s assuming a 10 percent impact on sales for the two days, which ShopperTrak estimates at about $10 billion.

Myriant Technologies’ new $80 million, 392,000-square-foot sustainable chemical manufacturing facility at the Port of Lake Providence will be the largest bio-based succinic acid refinery in the world.

The $75 million deal will invest the Israeli firm’s strategy of increasing real estate holdings in the U.S.

After being lost by high-profile real estate investor Harry Macklowe in a foreclosure auction, 1330 Avenue of the Americas is being refinanced by its new owner.