Commercial real estate

* AManhattan federal appeals court has blocked the U.S. government from a 36-story office towerin Midtown Manhattan, N.Y., under a terrorism-related forfeiture agreement overalleged ties to the government of Iran, the NewYork Post reported.

The Real Deal also reportedon the news, noting that 650 Fifth Ave.'s retail portion is by and Jeff Sutton.

*The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey will contribute up to $600million in the second phase of the redevelopment of New York City's LaGuardia Airport,according to a newsrelease. The second phase is expected to have an estimated cost of $4billion, and will be developed by Delta Air Lines Inc. Work is expected tocommence in 2017, with completion slated for 2024.

*Sterling Bay, the developer of McDonald's new in Near West Side, Chicago,won an initial approval to increase the size of the building, the Chicago Tribune reported.The fast food giant's nine-story headquarters will comprise 608,000 square feetand has a development cost of around $250 million. Completion is slated forspring 2018, the report said.

*Denton Floyd Real Estate Group is planning a more than $150 million developmenton an approximately 70-acre site in Jeffersonville, Ind., the Louisville Business Journal reported.The project will include an 18-acre residential campus, multiple hotels andrestaurants, a cinema and a senior housing facility.

*Average office rents in uptown Charlotte, N.C., increased nearly 7% year overyear during the second quarter to reach $27.82 per square foot, The Charlotte Observer reported,citing JLL's Skyline report. The paper noted that average office rents in thearea are slowly making their way back toward the first-quarter 2008 record of$33.45 per square foot.

After the bell

*Weisman Group LLC raised its offer to acquire Ashford Hospitality Prime Inc. to $1.54 billion and saidit hopes to continue negotiating with the REIT about the terms of the deal.

*Douglas Emmett Inc.and Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority, a class A Los Angelesoffice property for $225 million.The 365,000-square-footproperty is at 12100 Wilshire Blvd. in the Brentwood submarket.

*Smart Real Estate InvestmentTrust promoted COO Peter Forde to president, effective July 21.

Housing

*The median price for single-family homes in Miami-Dade County increased 12.5%year over year in June to $315,000, while condo prices increased 7.3%,according to a reportfrom the Miami Association of Realtors. Single-family sales in the countydecreased 6.3% year over year during the month.

*Home sales in Illinois inched up 1.4% year over year in June, while the medianprice rose 5.8% year over year to reach $204,000, according to IllinoisRealtors.

Gaming

*Caesars Acquisitionis in exclusive talks with a Chinese consortium for the of the online games business ofCaesars Interactive Entertainment Inc., Reuters , citing people familiar withthe matter. The sale, if successful, could value the unit at more than $4.2billion, and help fund the new group that will be created through thebankruptcy-relatedmerger of CaesarsAcquisition and CaesarsEntertainment Corp., the report said.

*Kazuo Okada, the chairman of Universal Entertainment Corp. and of 's Steve Wynn,is planning a casino resort in Manila that could cost up to $4 billion, the Macau Daily Times reported.The Okada Manila project will have more than 26,000 square meters of gamingspace, and is meant to attract Chinese gamblers away from Macau, according tothe report.

The day ahead

Early morning futures indicators pointed to a higher openingfor the U.S. market.

In Asia, the Nikkei 225 dropped 1.09% to 16,627.25 and theHang Seng decreased 0.16% to 21,964.27.

In Europe, around midday, the FTSE 100 was up 0.42% to6,728.27, and the Euronext 100 was up 0.06% to 867.81.

On the macro front

The PMI manufacturing index flash report is due out today.

Now featured on S&PGlobal Market Intelligence

: Despite reports of tighter construction lending,there have been no reports of projects being canceled, President and CEO MikeBarnello said on a conference call.

: On an earnings call, CEO Marc Hollidaydescribed a flourishing New York office market, in sharp contrast with the moretenuous picture he presented in January.

: While the real estate platformis not able to pick up properties at 40% to 50% of physical replacement costthe way it could five years ago, it is still finding plenty of investments atbelow replacement cost.

: Analysts offered anticipated themes and bestbets going into second-quarter REIT earnings season.

: The July 21 North American property news roundup alsofeatures Four Corners Property Trust's $5.7 million purchase of six Pizza Hutrestaurants and Empire State Realty Trust's lease renewal at the Empire StateBuilding.

: This feature presents a weeklyrundown of recent significant management and board changes and personnel movesin the North American real estate industry, including U.S. REITs and REOCs,homebuilders, and gaming operators.

: Thisroundup of recent guidance from real estate companies includes updates fromBrandywine Realty and EastGroup Properties.

The Daily Dose is updated asof 7:30 a.m. ET. Some external links may require a subscription. Articles andlinks are correct as of publication time.