At the 2013 Mortgage Bankers Association CREF/Multifamily Housing Conference, David Durning, president and CEO of Prudential Mortgage Capital Co., explains Prudential’s targets for balance sheet, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and FHA, CMBS and bridge financing for 2013.

At the 2013 Mortgage Bankers Association CREF/Multifamily Housing Conference, Marisha Clinton, director of research, Capital Markets, at Jones Lang LaSalle, names markets and industries that are on the “to watch” list for real estate investors.

One of the defining qualities of a leader is the ability to be comfortable making decisions in the midst of uncertainty, according to leadership consultant Julie Benezet, founder and managing principal of Business Growth Consulting.

Benezet, who formerly led Amazon.com’s corporate real estate department, recently spoke to attendees of the Women’s Leadership Forum at CoreNet Global’s spring meeting in New York.

Benezet pointed out that business leadership and management involve two different types of skill sets and executions. Management is concerned with ensuring a business plan goes forward, and the criteria of success and the end point of management projects are “knowns.”

Leadership, however, addresses larger strategic questions and requires the ability to inspire others to believe in a vision. A leader pursues “bigger, scarier, bets” and “to do that, she will have to go down the pathway of not knowing,” said Benezet. A leader who is correctly doing her job will be “traveling to a lot of unknown places” and “be comfortable with the discomfort of not knowing.”

Executives in the world of corporate real estate have to “figure out things long before everyone,” said Benezet. They are faced with a changing work world in which the needs for real estate are fast changing. They will ask a lot of questions for which there may not be answers. Leaders need to be “in a frame of mind that sees strategic opportunities in every moment,” Benezet added.

To pursue their dreams, Benezet suggested executives identify what drives them in their careers and in overcoming adversities, and what are their defensive mechanisms, such as micro-managing. It is only when they can properly manage their motivators and their blocks or defense mechanisms, that people can effectively pursue their possibilities, she concluded.

A new breed of high-rise architecture is in the process of being born, thanks to the collaborative efforts of modern design pioneers. Envisioned as the best sustainable option for meeting world housing demands and decreasing global carbon emissions, wooden mega-structures are now one step closer to becoming a reality.

Photo credit: eVolo

“Big Wood,” a conceptual project submitted by architect Michael Charters to the eVolo 2013 Skyscraper Competition, builds on the premise that wood, when harvested responsibly, is one of the best tools architects and engineers have for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and creating healthy communities. Aspiring to become one of the greenest skyscrapers in the world, Big Wood challenges the way we build our cities and promotes timber as a reliable platform to support tomorrow’s office and residential towers.

Whereas the building industry accounts for 39 percent of man-made carbon emissions, according to the eVolo architecture and design journal’s announcement of Charters’ honorable mention win, timber emerges as a greener alternative to standard structural systems. In addition to its eco-friendly properties, timber is technically and economically competitive compared to steel and concrete, and can be employed in a broad range of building structures. “Recent studies have proved the success of 20- to 30-story mass timber structures,” according to eVolo,  while the use of hybrid systems would enable developers to go even higher with their projects.

Combining technological advances with conservation and sustainability features, Big Wood stands out as a masterpiece of modern engineering. It is a prototype on mass timber construction that offers the possibility to build more responsibly while actively sequestering pollutants from our cities.

To be developed along the Chicago River in the Windy City‘s South Loop neighborhood, the mixed-use university complex is built on a mass timber system. In yet a further sustainable step, the lumber used is not just locally grown and milled but the South Chicago tree farm from which it was obtained is on a remediated brownfield site that once sheltered the South Works steel mill and now bvenefits the entire area by extracting toxins from the soil as well as carbon dioxide from the air.

The astounding high-rise features three different housing types, retail, a library, a media hub, a sports complex, parking, as well as a community park and garden.

“Known as the birthplace of the skyscraper, Chicago is an optimal location for a prototype in mass timber construction,” writes Carlos Arzate in his description of the project in eVolo. “Similar to the rapid innovation in building technology that occurred in the early 1900s, ‘Big Wood’ is positioned to be a catalyst for a new renaissance in high-rise construction, forever changing the shape of our cities.”

Widely recognized thanks to the architectural efforts of Michael Green, a progressive architect who plans to erect a 30-story wooden skyscraper in Vancouver, the groundbreaking concept strives to address the major challenges of climate change, urbanization and sustainable development. In collaboration with structural engineer Eric Karsh, Green developed a mass timber panel approach solution for tall buildings called FFTT (Finding the Forest Through the Trees), which is adaptable to various architectural forms, including office and residential uses.

Construction has gotten off the ground on Runway, the $260 million mixed-use center that will sit on the former runway of billionaire Howard Hughes’ aerospace complex in the Los Angeles community of Playa Vista.  Lincoln Property Co., Phoenix Property Co. and Paragon Commercial Group are the forces behind the project, which is one segment of the 111-acre Village at Playa Vista development.

Designed by the architectural firm of Johnson Fain, the multi-faceted Runway will have no shortage of shopping options with a whopping 221,000 square feet of retail space. CBRE Group Inc., the commercial real estate services firm charged with filling up the retail square footage, has already landed a few big tenants, including Whole Foods and a Cinemark multiplex, which will occupy a respective 35,800 and 46,000 square feet. And with CVS, a national bank branch and an eatery having already claimed space, Runway’s retail segment is nearly half-full.

Additionally, a total of 420 apartment residences will be available at Runway to feed what appears to be an unfailingly strong appetite among renters in Los Angeles. Despite an influx of new product on tap for 2013, demand is expected to remain strong and allow the city to close this year with an enviable vacancy rate of approximately 3.7 percent, according to a report by Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services.

“The rebound we are seeing in the larger economy has certainly helped to drive demand for apartments on a greater scale,” Rusty Ross, a vice president with Phoenix Property, told Commercial Property Executive. “In Playa Vista, specifically, we are seeing a rapidly growing cluster of technology, Internet and entertainment companies in the area including Facebook, Google and Electronic Arts. Those firms are attracting young, entrepreneurial employees who want to live in well-designed, modern homes that are close to where they work and have direct access to stores, theaters, and restaurants. The residences in Playa Vista and at Runway fit squarely into that profile.”  

And as for the work segment of the live-work-play Runway project, the development partners will provide 35,000 square feet of office space, which is also being marketed by CBRE.

It’s a carefully planned endeavor. “We want Runway to be at the forefront of everything new in the worlds of fashion, art, design and technology and to be a real center of the community where people come to shop, eat, and to just relax,” David Binswanger, Executive Vice President of Lincoln Property, said in a prepared statement. 

Lenders have taken kindly to Runway. With the assistance of commercial real estate and capital markets services HFF, the developers were able to secure $150 million in construction financing from a consortium of banks led by Bank of America. In addition, Alcion Ventures came through with equity financing.

Runway is on schedule to make its debut before 2014 draws to a close.

Ultimately, the entire Village at Playa Vista will be home to 2,800 residences, including 200 senior and assisted living units; 221,000 square feet of retail offerings; 50,000 square feet of office space; and 40,000 square feet of community serving space. The destination will also encompass plenty of room for roaming, with 11.5 acres of parks and 12 acres of open space.

By Alex Girda, Associate Editor

A decade-long development effort by Sunac Real Estate was recently commemorated during a ceremony organized by the developer. Sunac is celebrating the completion of Sunac Olympic Garden Phase 13, part of the development process of the Sunac Olympic Garden urban complex. The company has completed a number of both residential and commercial constructions over the past decade in the area, buildings whose designations have ranged from its initial infrastructure-based plans to its current, more diversified, slate of developments.

Sunac Olympic Garden is a 19 million-square-foot mixed-use development, one of the largest of its kind in the Chongqing area. Offering the opportunity for both high and midrise housing, the project also features townhome-style properties, detached villas and commercial space. The Olympic-themed megadevelopment also features an entertainment and business center and a regional education center.

After carrying out infrastructure work on roads in the Chongqing area, Sunac Real Estate began filling available land parcels with large amounts of housing and, in the 2004-2007 timeframe the company built an entire town’s worth of residential property.  The education center is a 645,000-square-foot development, housing a middle school currently affiliated with Peking University, the first instance of a first-class, upper tier form of education in the province. The investment in the area’s education stood at around 150 million yuan, or about $24 million.

Also part of the newly-built community is a large entertainment and leisure component, meant to elevate the area’s standards for commercial venues. Sunac managed to attract the UN’s attention during the Global Habitat Awards, first awarded in 2005 at Global Forum of Human Settlements and Environment, held in Shenzen. Sunac Real Estate was awarded a real estate “Oscar” for its work on the Olympic Garden project, making it the only project in the city to be garnered with the honor.

Chongqing is one of the five national central cities in the People’s Republic of China, with a population of around 29 million. It is one of only four direct-controlled municipalities in the country, alongside Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai, and the only one of its kind located in inland China.

Gold, silver, bronze towers

The European urban development landscape is changing. Sustainability is now a major factor as it is in the U.S., as well as the developer’s need for a hook, a theme to draw buyers and tenants of both residential and commercial space and captivate their imagination. To that effect, developer Moritz Gruppe has come up with a new vision for a large sports themed mixed-use project. Based on a design by well-known architecture firm LAVA, THE SQUARE³ will focus on three elements: Life, Nature and Sports.

According to information released by the developer, the mixed-use project will be located less than 10 minutes away from Alexanderplatz, the German capital’s core. Following the central theme of THE SQUARE³,the three diagonally formed city blocks would create a dynamic, mixed-use environment in the city of Berlin. The 15-acre site will house an Olympic-inspired podium-like construction consisting of three differently shaped towers, each of which will be decorated with one of the colors of the medals given to athletes in the prestigious sports event.

The $585 million investment will create a 1.5 million square foot complex featuring office space that would cater to sports-centric tenants, including sports clubs and companies that activate in the industry. Around 1,000 residential units, a gross leasable area of around 1 million square feet, a medical and research center, a sports hotel and sports-themed entertainment areas, specialized shopping mall, educational facilities, childcare spaces and a multi-level parking facility are included in the development plan. Construction start is scheduled for 2014, with a completion date tentatively set some time in 2017.

The three concepts of Life, Nature, Sports, will be introduced in the project as follows:

• LIFE – the concept calls for this component to be materialized in the community’s living spaces, the apartments, offices, retail and social facilities
• NATURE – embodies the sustainable element of THE SQUARE³ including roof gardens, hanging green facades and common courtyards and green spaces
• SPORTS – the main architectural element of the podium-shaped towers; also represents the focus on sports offices, the hotel, the shopping mall and athlete hospitality facilities

Galleria Plaza, a 428,300-square-foot mixed-use property in Houston has come under new ownership. Songy HighRoads L.L.C. and The Carlyle Group acquired the high-profile office and retail asset from Chase Merritt L.P. and PCCP L.L.C. 

Rules are rules and all parties involved are honoring the confidentiality agreement associated with the trade of Galleria Plaza and, therefore, remaining mum on the transaction price tag.  However, David Songy, CEO and Co-founder of Songy HighRoads, offers a bit of perspective, telling Commercial Property Executive, “We did acquire it below replacement cost.” The partners purchased the complex with a three-year loan through Bank of America Merrill Lynch – CMBS, orchestrated by real estate services firm HFF, which also marketed the asset on behalf of the seller. 

Galleria Plaza, occupying 7.6 acres in Houston’s bustling Galleria submarket, encompasses five structures, including the 217,000-square-foot TeleCheck Plaza office tower and the 179,500-square-foot office building at 5333 Westheimer. The remaining buildings consist of retail space, with Sage Plaza offering 20,100 square feet; Michaelyndon’s on the Boulevard totaling 8,800 square feet; and Region’s Bank totaling 3,900 square feet. The office segment and retail component are approximately 96 percent and 88 percent leased, respectively.

Galleria Plaza features another offering: room for growth. Songy HighRoads and Carlyle are in the early stage of development plans. “We’re conducting a feasibility analysis as to how much additional square footage can be built on the site with respect to the size of the building and the associated parking that it would need,” Songy added. “We have two big parking decks on our property so we’re trying to determine what type of use would be best to work with the parking that exists.”

Currently, the team is considering adding a new property type to the mix at the mixed-use destination. “For, example, we have office buildings on the property and they’re full, but at night they’re not full so we’re thinking that we could develop residential or hotel, or both,” he concluded. “Based on our reconnaissance we think there is demand for either product. The market is really expanding so the timing is very good and this location is just really, really top notch.”

Waveland Ventures L.L.C., along with partners Jackson Street Holdings L.L.C. and Arrival Partners L.L.C., has a mixed-use plan in the works for the active Fitzsimons neighborhood in Aurora, Colo. The team will develop Block 21, a $160 million project that will deliver apartments, retail offerings and a hotel and conference center to the area, just 10 miles outside of Denver. 

Block 21, which takes its name from the World War I-era Army Hospital 21 that once occupied the site, will sit in the bustling enclave that is home to the Fitzsimons complex of medical-related facilities, which encompasses Children’s Hospital Colorado, the Anschutz Medical Campus, the Fitzsimons Life Science District and the Veterans Affairs Medical Center. A vast well of demand will be practically right outside the project’s doors.

“The Primary driver for our development is the business traveler that is currently spending time at the medical complex during the day but staying in Denver or Cherry Creek at night,” Rick Hayes, CEO of Waveland, told Commercial Property Executive. “The secondary driver is the employee base at the campus.”

The six-story hotel at Block 21 will feature 200 guestrooms, as well as 30,000 square feet of meeting and exhibition space. “[There is a] huge demand source with no competing product and improving demographics,” Hayes said. A 500-space parking facility will be connected to the hotel.

The development will also cater to those who are interested in making a home in the area. A four-story building will house 100 apartments and adjoin a 300-space parking structure. “[There are] growing, young professionals that want or need to be close to where they work, close to a major highway system with efficient airport access,” he added. The property also sits adjacent to a planned light rail station. 

Block 21 will also offer 10,000 square feet of retail space to be located on the first floor of the residential structure, in addition to 8,000 square feet designated for a destination restaurant. And the Quadrangle, a landscaped urban park, will round out the complex. 

Waveland and partners expect to kick off construction of Block 21 in late 2013.

One of the most ambitious development initiatives on the African continent recently held a sod cutting ceremony, in the presence of a number of state officials and business partners of the massive project. Spearheaded by rlg Communications, The Hope City development promises that a sprawling ICT-oriented community will take shape in Accra’s Donkonaa area featuring high-end office space, entertainment venues and a substantial residential component, all encased in a design that illustrates the country’s traditional heritage. The $10 billion development will have a three-year-long construction process after which Hope City will open its doors to some 25,000 residents and around 50,000 employees.

Likened by its advocates to Silicon Valley, Hope City will hopefully crystalize a community of tech professionals willing to live in this massive vertical city concept. HOPE, here an acronym that stands for Home, Office, People and Environment, is the central theme of the multi-billion dollar project, and also its mission statement. Set in one of the fastest growing cities of the African continent, the tech-oriented mixed-use park will capitalize on the interest of not only rlg Communications, but other major entities that have manifested their support for the project such as: Microsoft, GUMA Group and Nigerian officials.

Hope City’s specifics point out that the project will be able to accommodate around 25,000 residents and 50,000 employees in a gross developed area of around 13 million square feet. Designed by Italian architecture firm Open Building Research, a company that’s also heavily involved in the design process for Rio’s 2016 Olympic Park, Hope City’s six towers will be taking their design cues from the traditional rural architecture of Ghana’s northern regions. The tallest of the towers would have 75 levels and stand 885 feet high, making it the tallest construction on the continent. Two other towers will have heights of more than 700 feet and 60 stories, while the remaining three constructions will reach 500 feet, and offer 42 levels. All of the six towers will be interlocked through an intricate system of bridges allowing residents and employees to easily communicate with the rest of the hive-like development.

As previously noted, Hope City will be located in Donkonaa, a suburb located just 30 minutes away from Accra’s central area. The project will be constructed over the next three years on an empty site of approximately 24 acres. It will only be rivaled by the Konza Techno City, Kenya’s very own tech-oriented mega development, which will take shape in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi. That rivaling project will be a mere 60 kilometers away from Hope City. Local officials and publications have, however, voiced their concerns that the project would not bring as many advantages to the city of Accra and the state of Ghana as much as other entities, and have called for measures to make sure that the $10 billion investment mainly benefit the country and the African continent.