Regions

By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorChicago–Apartments.com has recently acquired social media apartment Web site, Apartment Home Living, in order to deepen its footprint in the online apartment rental search category and extend its reach to a broader audience of renters. With the acquisition, advertisements and listings on Apartments.com will automatically appear on the Apartment Home Living web site. The Apartment Home Living web site will not have any exclusive ads.“The main reason for this acquisition is that we wanted to provide our advertisers with a broader reach and different environment to showcase their properties,” Kevin Doyle, senior vice president and…

By Erika Schnitzer, Associate EditorDoha, Qatar—The first of three phases of the $2.5 billion, 14 million-sq.-ft. Pearl-Qatar, a man-made island off the coast of Doha, Qatar, has opened its first five parcels. Phase one, known as Porto Arabia, will include 31 towers with 4,700 residential units, 450 townhomes and low-rise apartments, one million sq. ft. of retail and commercial space, 6,378 parking spaces and a 700-berth marina. At completion, which is slated for the end of 2009, Porto Arabia will include 18 parcels of land.Seattle-based Callison served as the master planner for the entire site, as well as urban planner,…

By Anuradha Kher, Online News Editor Boston–The acceleration of job losses over the past few months has reinforced the idea that the current downturn will be extremely painful, according to Portfolio and Property Research’s (PPR) latest forecast figures. With the national unemployment rate at its highest since the early ’90s, and the housing market still in bad shape, there is no doubt that the recession will be deep, says the real estate research firm. The implications for the apartment market are no less macabre in the near term, PPR’s latest fourth quarter data suggests.Vacancies Will Hit Historic Highs for ApartmentsThis…

By Erika Schnitzer, Associate EditorLos Angeles—Hikari, a 128-unit public-private partnership between The Related Companies, MacFarlane Partners and the City of Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency, is now 100 percent leased. Built with RDA funds, the mixed-use, mixed-income apartment community is located in LA’s Little Tokyo district and was developed on an urban infill site of a parking lot. Designed by TCA (Thomas P. Cox: Architects), Hikari was built on a triangular site of less than an acre in size, allowing for a high-density project of five residential stories above one level of retail. The building’s architecture references its location and…

By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorSan Diego–The CB Richard Ellis Senior Housing Services Group has arranged the sale of a senior housing portfolio consisting of 3,554 units situated in 45 senior housing communities for approximately $364 million.  Located in Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming, the communities offer independent living, assisted living services and dementia care. The communities were approximately 85 percent occupied at the time of sale. “Due to lack of liquidity in the current environment this transaction was heavily dependent upon the purchaser and existing lender working out mutually agreeable assumption…

By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorIndianapolis–John F. Sweeney CPM, has been named president of Barrett & Stokely Management, LLC. Sweeney will be responsible for continuing the management and expansion of Barrett & Stokely’s multifamily contract management portfolio. He joined Barrett & Stokely in 1976 and currently serves as a director of the Indiana Apartment Association and as an advisory board member of the Ball State University residential property management degree program.Barrett & Stokely manages apartment communities in Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia and North Carolina.Edward Petti Appointed Director in Arbor’s New York Office New York–Arbor Commercial Mortgage has appointed…

By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorBethesda, Md.–Walker & Dunlop, Inc. and Green Park Financial LP have merged with Column Guaranteed LLC, a subsidiary of Credit Suisse Group. The new enterprise, which will be named Walker & Dunlop, will provide Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) origination and servicing expertise.The new entity expects to originate over $3 billion of commercial mortgages on an annual basis for agency, HUD and other sources of commercial mortgage capital (life insurance companies, pension funds and conduits.) The company will be headquartered in Bethesda, Md., with additional offices in…

By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorNew York–The U.S. economy shrank at its fastest pace in a quarter-century from October through December, the government reported today. Consumer spending and business investment also collapsed during this period, signaling more economic contraction in the months ahead.U.S. GDP, the broadest measure of a country’s national income, fell by 3.8 percent in the final three months of the year, which is the worst figure reported since the first three months of 1982 when the economy shrank by 6.4 percent.The figure is in line with what the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) had predicted would be contractions…

By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorNew York–The Rose Smart Growth Investment Fund I has acquired 198 units of affordable housing and approximately 4,500 sq. ft. of ground floor retail space at 107-145 West 135th St. (pictured) in Harlem for $26.5 million. While the project’s U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Section 8 contract was set to expire at the end of last year, the fund worked with HUD to obtain an interim renewal at acquisition, and lay the groundwork for a new 20 year contract to preserve the affordability of the project long term. As the new owner,…

Sanjit Biswas (pictured) is the CEO and co-founder of Meraki, a company that has been installing broadband networks providing wireless Internet access to residents of apartment communities for over three years. Meraki has also set up networks in other property types. Wi-Fi is a top amenity request according to executives and operating staff of multifamily buildings, and 45 percent plan to increase spending on Wi-Fi in 2009, as they seek cost-effective ways to gain an edge in the down market, according to J. Turner Research. Biswas is currently on leave from the Ph.D. program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where…