Commercial real estate
* Welltower Inc.'s former CEO, George Chapman, has teamed up with a number of former Welltower colleagues to launch privately held ReNew REIT, Senior Housing News reported. The new company is focused on private-pay independent living, assisted living and memory care communities, the report noted, citing ReNew's LinkedIn page.
Chapman served for 18 years at Welltower, formerly called Health Care REIT, and retired in 2014, the report noted.
* WeWork Cos. leased roughly 167,000 square feet at 18 W. 18th St. in Manhattan, N.Y.'s Chelsea neighborhood, Commercial Observer reported. The co-working company will occupy the entire office portion of the 11-story building, which is a block away from its present headquarters at 115 W. 18th St.
In October 2017, a WeWork joint venture agreed to buy the Lord & Taylor building at 424 Fifth Ave. for its corporate headquarters, the report noted.
* Revenue per available hotel room in Manhattan increased 1.4% year over year in the fourth quarter of 2017, reflecting the first increase after declining for 10 consecutive quarters, The Real Deal reported, citing PricewaterhouseCoopers.
* The state of Florida’s pension management arm received a $100 million loan for the Ventura rental tower at 240 E. 86th St. in Manhattan's Yorkville neighborhood from Nationwide Life Insurance, The Real Deal reported, citing property records filed with the city. The 22-story property contains 246 units and was not encumbered by any debt, the report noted.
* Google Inc. is in talks with construction startups to build thousands of apartments in the San Francisco Bay Area, The Information reported, citing a letter Google sent to startups and real estate developers. The startups are involved in factory-assembled apartments.
The Real Deal noted that the city of Mountain View, Calif., where Google is headquartered, approved a development plan that includes 10,000 new housing units in December 2017. A Google spokesperson said the company has not selected a location or number of units but is searching for ideas, The Real Deal noted.
* Starwood Retail Partners, the retail investment arm of Starwood Capital Group, raised $290 million as part of a bond offering on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, with the bonds backed by seven of its 30 shopping malls in the U.S., The Real Deal reported, citing Ori Eisenberg of Barzell Global, the firm that advised on the offering.
* Electra America plans to raise $300 million for its 2018 multifamily fund and buy at least 1,000 apartments in South Florida, the South Florida Business Journal reported, citing CEO Joseph Lubeck. The company expects to leverage the equity into $1.5 billion in acquisitions, the report noted.
* Tristate Ventures plans to develop a $110 million apartment community in Cherry Hill, N.J., the Philadelphia Business Journal reported. Tristate had acquired an unfinished 33-acre portion of the Garden State Park masterplanned mixed-use community in July 2014.
The Plaza Grande project will comprise a total of 507 units in 16 buildings, the report noted, citing John Fasciano, managing partner at Tristate. The company plans to build three buildings in 2018 and four buildings a year from 2019 onward, according to the report.
* MRP Realty bought the 400-unit Windsor at Arbors garden-style apartment complex at 5250 Duke St. in Alexandria, Va.'s West End for an undisclosed price, the Washington Business Journal reported. The property was sold by GID Real Estate Investments. It previously sold in 1996 for $27 million, the report noted.
* Commercial property transactions in Canada reached roughly C$43 billion in 2017, beating the previous record of C$34.7 set in 2016, Bloomberg News reported, citing CBRE Group Inc.
CBRE predicts 2018 volumes to be even higher amid historically strong fundamentals that are improving further, including high rents and low vacancies.
After the bell
* Boston Properties Inc. entered into a binding lease agreement with Fannie Mae for 850,000 square feet of approximately 1.0 million square feet to be built at the office real estate investment trust's Reston Gateway project in Reston, Va.
* Investments in U.S. commercial properties by overseas entities declined throughout 2017, driven by a sharp pullback from Chinese investors, Real Capital Analytics said.
Housing
* Roughly 2,800 condominium units are on the market in Miami-Dade County with asking prices of at least $1 million, The Real Deal reported, citing Condo Vultures Realty. The number of units on the market reflects four years of inventory for luxury condos, and this does not include pre-construction condos that are being marketed.
Other real estate news
* The Mexican government plans to sell a 310-acre military base site that is one of the last large parcels of developable land in central Mexico City, Reuters reported.
Present zoning for the site allows roughly 25,100 housing units, and the site could sell for up to US$1 billion at auction based on the median price of 24,000 Mexican pesos per square meter for homes in the area, the report noted, citing real estate experts.
The day ahead
Early morning futures indicators pointed to a lower opening for the U.S. market.
In Asia, the Hang Seng was up 0.65% to 31,044.25, and the Nikkei 225 fell 1.56% to 21,724.47.
In Europe, as of midday, the FTSE 100 dropped 0.68% to 7,182.46, and the Euronext 100 slid 0.85% to 1,019.63.
On the macro front
The jobless claims report, the purchasing managers' manufacturing index, the ISM manufacturing index, the construction spending report, the EIA natural gas report, the Fed balance sheet and the money supply report are due out today.
The Daily Dose is updated as of 7:30 a.m. ET. Some external links may require a subscription. Articles and links are correct as of publication time.
This article was amended on March 2 at 05:20 am ET to reflect a correction by The Real Deal regarding the ownership of the Ventura tower.
