Commercial real estate
* Wharton Properties LLC's Jeff Sutton and Thor Equities LLC's Joe Sitt agreed to sell a New York retail building for $400 million, The Real Deal reported, citing people familiar with the transaction. The buyer is a partnership between Turkish developer Bilgili Holding, Deutsche Finance, and German pension fund BVK. The 11-story building at 530 Broadway in Soho is leased by retail tenants including Skechers and Club Monaco.
* Bentall Kennedy (U.S.) LP acquired the 31-story office building at 685 Third Ave. in Manhattan, N.Y., from Unizo Holdings Co. Ltd. for around $450 million, Commercial Observer reported, citing sources familiar with the transaction.
* JBG Smith Properties is teaming up with CBRE Group Inc. subsidiary Hana to open a flexible office space in its National Landing development in Arlington County, Va. Hana will initially lease around 39,000 square feet at 2451 Crystal Drive for its first location on the East Coast, due to open in 2020.
* KKR & Co. Inc. acquired the 688,100-square-foot Riata Corporate Park in Austin, Texas, for approximately $258 million. The acquisition of the eight-building class A office campus includes an adjacent land site that is entitled for a ninth office building.
* Amazon.com Inc.'s Amazon Web Services subsidiary paid $100 million for the two-story, 358,000-square-foot office and R&D building at 2305 Mission College Blvd. in Santa Clara, Calif., the Silicon Valley Business Journal reported, citing two real estate industry sources. The seller, PGIM Real Estate, had planned to demolish the property and build a data center on the site.
* Noble Investment Group said it acquired the Hampton Inn & Suites Downtown Denver and Homewood Suites by Hilton Downtown Denver hotels. The assets totaling 302 rooms were acquired for an undisclosed price.
* JLL reported on the increased presence of fitness centers in U.S. shopping malls as landlords seek new tenants. Since 2010, there has been a 24% increase in fitness centers in malls, to 111,055 locations, and this number is expected to rise to almost 121,000 by 2024, the report said, citing IBISWorld data. Landlords tend to prefer fitness centers because they help boost business at surrounding stores, according to the report.
* The Wall Street Journal's Property Report series looked at how the crowdfunding model for real estate is more focused on projects with an environmental aspect. Some funds, marketed as non-traded real estate investment trusts, acquire assets and require investors to commit at least $2,500 and promise annual dividends of more than 5%.
These funds have recently seen a spike in interest, and some big-name firms such as Starwood and Blackstone are also involved. In the first 11 months of 2019, investment firms raised $10 billion from such funds, compared to $8.8 billion for 2017 and 2018 combined, the publication noted, citing investment bank Robert A. Stanger & Co.
Housing
* Lennar Corp. reported net earnings attributable to the company of $674.3 million, or $2.13 per share, for its fiscal fourth quarter ended Nov. 30, 2019, compared to nearly $796.1 million, or $2.42 per share, for the same period in 2018.
The day ahead
Early morning futures indicators pointed to a higher opening for the U.S. market.
In Asia, the Hang Seng lost 0.83% to 28,087.92, and the Nikkei 225 fell 1.57% to 23,204.76.
In Europe, around midday, the FTSE 100 slid 0.02% to 7,572.52, and the Euronext 100 shed 0.04% to 1,152.67.
On the macro front
The ADP employment report, the U.S. Energy Information Administration Petroleum Status Report and the U.S. consumer credit report are due out today.
Click here to read about today's financial markets, setting out the factors driving stocks, bonds and currencies around the world ahead of the New York open.
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Data Dispatch: US housing market: New home sales, housing starts on the rise in November 2019: Chart Watch: New single-family home sales and single-unit housing starts both grew in November 2019, according to recently released data, while existing-home sales dipped 1.7%.
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