Bankrupt mall owner General Growth Properties Inc. is in talks to hire Vornado Realty Trust executive Sandeep Mathrani as its next chief executive, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.
Get the full story »
Filed under: Real estate
Visit our Filed page for categories. To browse by specific topic, see our Inside page. For a list of companies covered on this site, visit our Companies page.
Oct. 25, 2010 at 3:23 p.m.
Comments Off
Filed under: Bankruptcy, Chicago executives, Commercial real estate, Development, Real estate General Growth reportedly courting Vornado exec
New downgrades, warnings crush bond insurers
The bond insurance business, which fell to its knees during the 2008 financial crisis under the weight of soaring defaults, may have finally heard its death knell Monday. Get the full story »
Frank Lloyd Wright returns to Rookery
Wright Preservation Trust offices and gift shop seen from the light court of the Rookery Building. (Handout)
Frank Lloyd Wright is headed back to Chicago’s historic Rookery building, in a manner of speaking.
The Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust plans to open a public information center and offer free tours of the building where Wright once housed his downtown Chicago offices and later updated its light court and lobbies. The free tours, as well as the opening of a gift shop, are scheduled for early 2011. Get the full story »
Chicago existing home sales fall 25% in September
Sales of existing homes in the Chicago area dropped again in September, falling more than 20 percent in the Chicago area from a year ago and more than 25 percent within the city of Chicago, the Illinois Association of Realtors said Monday. Get the full story »
Bank of America finds foreclosure mistakes
Bank of America Corp acknowledged some mistakes in foreclosure files as it begins to resubmit documents in 102,000 cases, the Wall Street Journal said. The bank found errors in 10 to 25 out of the first several hundred foreclosure it examined starting last Monday, the newspaper said. Get the full story »
Oct. 22, 2010 at 10:58 a.m.
Comments Off
Filed under: Commercial real estate, Health care, Real estate Ventas to buy Atria real estate assets for $1.5B
Ventas Inc. said Friday it is buying the real estate assets of Atria Senior Living Group for $1.5 billion in cash and stock, giving it a portfolio of 118 homes located in wealthy coastal regions.
The health care real estate investment trust is also assuming $1.6 billion in debt. Get the full story »
Fannie, Freddie may need another $215 billion
The cost for the huge government bailouts of housing finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will grow — and possibly more than double to $363 billion — over the next three years.
But the taxpayer loss depends mainly on the health of the economy and the real estate market, a federal regulator said Thursday. Get the full story »
Oct. 21, 2010 at 1:56 p.m.
Comments Off
Filed under: Bankruptcy, Commercial real estate, Real estate, Updated General Growth cleared to exit bankruptcy
General Growth Properties’ reorganization plan was approved on Thursday, paving the way for the mall operator to exit bankruptcy a year and a half after it was brought to its knees under billions in debt it could not refinance.
General Growth said it expected to emerge from bankruptcy around Nov. 8. It then would turn its attention to a $2.25 billion share sale to raise capital. Get the full story »
Oct. 21, 2010 at 11:55 a.m.
Comments Off
Filed under: Banking, Chicago executives, Earnings, Mortgages, Real estate Cole Taylor parent makes first profit in 3 years
Mark Hoppe said it has taken more than 990 days, but the chief executive of Taylor Capital Group Inc. said the parent of Cole Taylor Bank has finally turned a quarterly profit.
“Wow, that feels good,” Hoppe, who joined the Chicago-based company from LaSalle Bank in 2008, told analysts during a conference call Thursday morning to discuss third quarter earnings.
But he said he’s “not standing on an aircraft carrier like George W. Bush did.” Get the full story »
Mortgage rates rise to 4.21% from decades low
Rates on 30-year fixed mortgages rose slightly from their lowest level in decades, inching up to a national average of 4.21 percent. Get the full story »
Foreclosures chill Lincoln Park, Near South markets
A boy skips by an unfinished home in Lincoln Park. (William DeShazer/ Chicago Tribune)
Chicago’s once-hot neighborhoods are getting hammered by foreclosures.
In Chicago’s Loop, for instance, 73 foreclosure filings were made during the three months ended Sept. 30. Combine that with filings made earlier in the year and foreclosures up almost 77 percent from the first nine months of 2009, to 205 properties. The Near North, Near South and Near West sides, as well as Lincoln Park, also saw double-digit increases, according to a third-quarter foreclosure report scheduled to be released Thursday by the Woodstock Institute. Get the full story »
U.S says foreclosure problems were not systemic
The Obama administration said Wednesday that it found no sign of “systemic” troubles s with U.S. home mortgages, as banks sought to play down a crisis over accusations of shoddy foreclosure practices.
But Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan insisted the government would “take every action” to press banks to fix paperwork problems at the core of a foreclosure crisis that has put major financial firms on the hot seat. Get the full story »
Oct. 20, 2010 at 10:52 a.m.
Filed under: Commercial real estate, Magazines, Media, Real estate, Updated Playboy puts Chicago HQ up for sublease
Playboy Enterprises Inc. is looking to sublease its headquarters space at 680 N. Lake Shore Drive.
The company confirmed this morning that it hired real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield to sublease the 15th and 16th floors of the building because the space “is too big for us,” said spokeswoman Martha Lindeman.
Lindeman said the company has not started looking for a new home to relocate its 245 full-time employees. “We haven’t made any plans at all,” she said. Get the full story »
Tate & Lyle plans Hoffman Estates research center
Tate & Lyle PLC, the maker of Splenda, announced Tuesday that it will open a $26 million innovation center in Hoffman Estates. The company plans to relocate about 80 employees from Decatur to Hoffman Estates, where an additional 80 jobs will be created. Get the full story »
Cook County sheriff to halt foreclosures again
By Becky Schlikerman | Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart is ordering his deputies to stop carrying out mortgage foreclosure evictions — again. Dart did the same two years ago after finding out many of those his deputies were forcing from their homes had paid their rent faithfully and didn’t know their landlords were having financial problems.
