News & Analysis

Tim Pfister and Jay Fortin, project finance and M&A lawyers at Patton Boggs in New York, also believe the political climate for foreign investors is likely to improve as the US comes to grips with its massive infrastructure spending needs.

The affiliate of the private equity real estate firm, Starwood Capital, has formed a $75m joint venture with Cold River Development to target the 23-counties of the Atlanta metro region. It comes just two days after the firm bought 2,500 residential home sites in Arizona, California and Florida.

As retail rental growth slows in the wake of the credit crisis, retailers head to prime cities – and prime locations within those cities – to weather out the storm, according to a report by CBRE. New York, Hong Kong, Moscow, London and Tokyo remain world's most expensive cities for retail.

Currency hedges gone sour are also forcing many of Australia’s pension investors to put more cash toward meeting margin calls, making a fraught fundraising environment even more difficult.

In times of crisis, people revert back to what they know: the basics of life.

A joint venture between Australian firms, The Goodman Group and Macquarie Group, is capitalising on continued demand in Japan’s logistics property sector through two new real estate funds. The vehicles have already received A$106m of committed capital to date.

The buyout firm's latest hires include former Coke executive Ludo Bammens as director of European corporate affairs. Meanwhile, Sanjay Nayar, ex-CEO of Citi's Asian operations, will be based in the firm's Mumbai office, which is opening in January.

AxleTech International will join the armament and technical products division of defense industry contractor General Dynamics.

Robert Bertram will step down from the C$108.5bn pension fund at the end of 2008, to be replaced by current senior VP Neil Petroff. Bertram led Ontario’s purchase in 2000 of the real estate operating company, Cadillac Fairview, which now evaluates all of OTPP's real estate investments.

The founder of private real estate firm Thompson National Properties, Anthony Thompson, has fired his own letter off to Grubb & Ellis shareholders, after the group accused him launching a proxy contest. Thompson says he is 'dismayed' over the group's performance over the past nine months.