Amsterdam-headquartered global financial institution ING Group continues to downgrade its presence in the tumultuous commercial real estate market with a deal to sell its 50 percent interest in ING Summit Industrial Fund L.P., a fund with a 32 million-square-foot industrial portfolio in Canada.

A new energy cost solution is emerging, thanks to the Australian government.

It may be tough to attract financing today to hotel resort ventures–especially hundreds of millions in development financing–but the Ritz-Carlton Reserve, Dorado Beach Resort & Spa project in Dorado, Puerto Rico, is an exception.

Developed in 1908 and recently renovated, Le Méridien sits in the Mayfair district of London’s West End and, in addition to its luxury guestrooms, features 12,000 square feet of meeting space, a restaurant and a fitness facility.

Two years ago this month, Tokyo, Japan-headquartered Toyota Motor Corp. acquired a 914-acre parcel of land in the town of Sorocaba in Brazil , and now the automobile company is ready to erect a new plant on the site.

The company has acquired a 1,040-unit self-storage facility in the Florida city of Davie and will rebrand it under the SmartStop Self Storage trade name.

The sale, which accounted for nearly 9 percent of BR Malls’ capital stock, is no indication of Equity’s feelings about Brazilian retail. The investment firm remains keen on the market and retains a 6 percent ownership interest in BR Malls, Brazil’s largest retail real estate concern.

The international private equity concern acquired six fully leased landmark office properties that had been part of the portfolio that secured the White Tower 2006-3 plc CMBS, which was placed in liquidation.

Already the largest international hotel operator in Greater China, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) plans to become even bigger in China — more than 50 percent bigger. The Buckinghamshire, England-headquartered company has just revealed pans to expand its 131-property portfolio in the country with the addition of 146 hotels over the next five years.

Industrial real estate owner, operator and developer AMB Property Corp. continues to stabilize its holdings in China. During the second quarter, AMB has leased 700,000 square feet and has leased 1.22 million square feet since the beginning of the year.