After acquiring a 49 percent stake in 1540 Broadway last November, Edge Fund Advisors has partnered with HSBC Alternative Investments to take the remaining 51 percent stake in the 907,000-square-foot Times Square property.

Phillips Edison, a shopping-center REIT, and CB Richard Ellis have jointly invested $102 million in equity for the purchase of grocery-anchored shopping centers nationwide.

MetLife has originated a $300 million loan for San Francisco’s Bank of America Center and an additional $250 million in loans for the Washington Square Building in Washington, D.C.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis announced the U.S. 2Q GDP was an annual increase of 1.3 percent. Jobless claims dropped last week, but housing numbers didn’t budge — and we’re not quite through the storm that has been 2011 yet.

Reports by Jones Lang LaSalle and Cassidy Turley pinpoint one of the brightest spots in the CRE office space: High-tech firms, through venture capital, are creating better-than-average employment numbers.

The 305,000-square-foot former office building at 1107 Broadway in Manhattan, formerly the Toy Building North, has come under the ownership of Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing and The Witkoff Group for $191 million.

Regency Centers has announced that it closed on the acquisition of Tech Ridge Center, a 187,529-square-foot, 93 percent-occupied shopping center anchored by grocery chain H-E-B.

The Irish economy posted a 1.6 percent GDP gain from the first to the second quarter of 2011. Orders for capital goods other than airplanes and military hardware rose by 1.1 percent in August. And Kansas City Fed president Thomas Hoenig retires.

Multi-Employer Property Trust has purchased Chicago’s 45-story 200 W. Madison Ave. from a joint venture that includes Tishman Speyer, Pearlmark Real Estate Advisors L.L.C. and a major U.S. pension plan for approximately $217.5 million.