Commercial

Houston’s office market continues to struggle with leasing activity, down by almost 35% at mid-year 2016 from a year ago. However, Houston isn’t the only North American city with an energy-focused economy vulnerable to sagging crude oil prices.

Calgary, the largest office market in Canada’s Alberta Province with a cowboy culture every bit as rich as the original Texas boom-and-bust market, and an economy similarly linked to energy markets, has…

Hollywood Park Land Co., owned by Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke, has picked Turner Construction Co. and AECOM as general contractors overseeing construction of a 70,000-seat stadium for the NFL team, anchoring a 298-acre mixed-use sports and entertainment project in Inglewood, CA.

Between them, Turner and AECOM, picked after a review of several other construction firms, have built 17 stadiums for NFL teams and renovated 10 others, becoming…

Sovran Self Storage Inc. completed its acquisition of LifeStorage LP, a privately-owned self-storage operator, for $1.3 billion.

Following its acquisition, Buffalo, NY-based Sovran Self Storage plans to rebrand its 563 storage facilities it currently operates as Uncle Bob’s to Life Storage. The REIT also plans to change its corporate name from Sovran Self Storage to Life Storage Inc. and its ticker symbol on the New York Stock Exchange from SSS…

Colliers International Group (NASDAQ:CIGI, TSX:CIG) continues to roll up affiliates throughout the U.S., this week announcing it added Colliers International Long Island to the corporate fold. Colliers officials declined to comment and terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The acquisition of its former Long Island affiliate comes one week after the Toronto-based firm bought out its West Michigan affiliate and follows the firm’s purchases…

As part of a wider plan to liquidate holdings in some of its REITs, KBS Capital Markets Group has hired HFF to market an 11-property, 3,039-unit multi-housing portfolio to prospective buyers. The 11 complexes were valued at $416.7 million at the end of the first quarter.

HFF is marketing the offering on behalf of KBS Legacy Partners Apartment REIT Inc., a public, non-traded real estate investment trust (REIT) sponsored by KBS Capital Advisors LLC…

AvalonBay Communities, Inc. sold the 628-home Eaves by Avalon apartments at 13921 Tustin East Dr. in Tustin, CA to Raintree Partners of Laguna Niguel for $163.5 million, or about $260,000 per unit – a new high for single-asset multifamily sales across the market over the past five years, reported Berkadia, which brokered the sale.

The seller acquired the asset in August 2010 for $98.5 million ($157,000 /unit) from Security Properties, Inc., according…

The U.S. office market continued to record strong demand as measured in both occupancy and rent growth at midyear, and analysts even found optimism in the slowing trend in investment sales activity seen year-to-date.

Office net absorption rebounded from a slow first quarter, matching year-earlier levels, and vacancies continue to fall to a cyclical low in the second quarter of 2016. Although easing slightly this year, office rent growth ended the…

Google and LinkedIn have reached an agreement to swap properties totaling more than 1 million square feet of existing buildings and 2.54 million square feet in potential development, hitting the reset button on Google’s ambitious plan to expand in Mountain View, CA’s North Bayshore area — and eventually allowing LinkedIn to develop Shoreline Commons, a mixed-use headquarters expansion.

Under the agreement confirmed by a Google global communications…