Durham- Big-name real estate companies investing big dollars in retail

Posted At : February 13, 2007 11:53 AM | Posted By : name
Related Categories: Market Conditions

Big-name real estate companies investing big dollars in retail BY JEFF ZIMMER : The Herald-Sun jzimmer@heraldsun.com

DURHAM -- Durham's burgeoning retail sector is drawing shoppers of a different sort -- national real estate firms with deep pockets that are spending tens of millions to buy area shopping centers as investments.

In the last couple of years, big-name companies with billions in assets have spent $100 million to acquire four retail centers in Durham and one in Chapel Hill, according to deed records in Durham and Orange counties.

While the sale of Regency Plaza on Shannon Road last year for $6.3 million was the smallest deal among the five shopping centers sold, it could turn out to be among the most valuable.

The new owners of the 23-year-old center want to pump $75 million into a mixed-use project that would convert the 14-acre site -- now an aged one-level shopping center -- into residential units and stores in six multi-level buildings.

"Our goal is to create something unique and special out of a depressed asset," said Shoff Allison, an official with Hawthorne Capital in Charlotte, a private investment company affiliated with the shopping center's owner.

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Real Estate Housing Market Conditions Not Accurately Portrayed By Stats

Posted At : January 15, 2007 2:05 AM | Posted By : name
Related Categories: Market Conditions

As CNN recently reported, the current state of the housing market is not accurately reflected in recently released national statistics.

An Indiana man writes to say he can't sell his house even asking less for it than he paid - four years ago.

A Duluth, Minnesota, reader writes, "The housing market is brutal, has been for months. Prices dropping at least $20,000, some as high as $60,000 just to get them sold. Most aren't selling even with the drop."

It's not just the Rust Belt. A reader from northeastern Connecticut moved to Maine and can't find a buyer for his previous house even though all he's looking for is to sell for what he owes.

A Gulf Breeze, Florida, reader reports, "The market here went sky high and now went down - houses are selling cheap and people are not buying."

Yet, when the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released its third quarter median sales prices, the downturn was very modest, just 1.2 percent compared with 12 months earlier. The government's Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) home price index actually showed a gain for the same period.

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