A year after being named chairman of the board of Cushman & Wakefield Inc., Carlo Barel di Sant’Albano is gearing up to take on another challenge for the world’s largest privately held commercial real estate services firm as he becomes CEO of the firm’s operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
With the strategic alliance of Houston-based Transwestern and Paris-based BNP Paribas Real Estate, the two firms have positioned themselves to focus on occupier clients and enhanced services to the firms’ customers in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, India and the United States.
After a long week of seminars, presenatations and, of course, plenty of networking, the 2012 MIPIM conference in Cannes, France, drew to a close. While an atmosphere of cautious optimism pervaded, regions and countries are thinking big again.
Kennedy Wilson and Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. continue to eye commercial real estate opportunities in Europe together, this time forming a $365 million partnership to seek assets, including loans and real property.
For some years now, Brazil, Russia, India and China have offered happy hunting grounds to U.S.-based real estate companies. Despite their ups and downs, the four countries that have come to be collectively known as the “BRIC nations” have shown steadily improving transparency and sophistication in their investment, development and service markets. By Paul Rosta.
Commercial real estate in Mexico is heating up and Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. is expanding its presence in the country with the opening of an office in Guadalajara in the state of Jalisco.
Simon Property Group, the largest real estate company in the United States, went on a $3.5 billion shopping spree Thursday by acquiring a $2 billion stake in Klepierre, a major European retail and office player, and by buying out its joint-venture partner in The Mills U.S. shopping-center properties for $1.5 million.
The Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corp. has appointed CBRE Group Inc. as the strategic marketing and leasing consultant for the $631 million Phase III of the Hong Kong Science Park.
Related Group and Related Cos. have officially launched Related Brasil, naming Daniel Citron — former head of Tishman Speyer in Brazil — as CEO. The firm plans to invest $1 billion in residential and commercial real estate.
Senior industry leaders gathered at the exclusive pre-MIPIM 2012 event hosted by CREOpoint CEO J.C. Goldenstein to share both their expectations for the week and their sentiments on the global real estate environment.
The mood among participants was mostly positive. After sitting on the sidelines for several years, yield-starved investors are eager to find new opportunities. Howard Roth, global real estate leader for Ernst & Young L.P., was “cautious but positive, even in Europe, thanks to the recent stimulus,” he said. “There’s plenty of equity looking for a home this year.”
Demitrios Louziotis, senior vice president of global real estate solutions at ARGUS Software, may have best summarized the mood. “This time last year, the champagne glass was half full,” he said. “When we got to the fourth quarter, we realized the bottle was empty. Now the question is where is the next bottle coming from — and who’s bringing it.”
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