http://blog.nreionline.com/green_shoots Thu, 18 Mar 2010 13:42:32 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Well, it’s not actually the Sears Tower anymore—it’s called the Willis Tower. But the point is that the firm hired to find the public financing for the big green project was fired without a 30-day notice, so now there’s a law suite. This is what Crain’s Chicago has to say ... http://blog.nreionline.com/green_shoots/2010/03/18/350-million-greening-of-chicago-sears-tower-in-doubt/ When scientists become political--even with the best of intentions--the result is sloppy science. That appears to be the case with the ongoing saga of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which has been embroiled in controversy around email leaks. The group does not conduct its own research but filters ... http://blog.nreionline.com/green_shoots/2010/02/26/climate-change-made-easy/ Guest post from David Bodamer, editor-in-chief, Retail Traffic Magazine Simon Property Group via a press release made public this morning that just more than a week ago it submitted a formal bid to acquire General Growth Properties for about $10 billion. General Growth has not yet responded to the release. All ... http://blog.nreionline.com/green_shoots/2010/02/16/simon-makes-10-billion-bid-for-general-growth/ The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) has suffered the consequences of an inflated mortgage and falling property values. Last week, CoStar Group bought the organization's D.C. headquarters for $41.3 million, somewhat less than the $79 million the group reportedly paid in 2007. According to the Wall Street Journal: The price also is far ... http://blog.nreionline.com/green_shoots/2010/02/08/mba-sells-headquarters-at-a-huge-loss/ It was one of the most major deals of all times and it was consummated at the height of the market in 2006 — the $5.4 billion acquisition of the sprawling Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town apartment complex in Manhattan. Now the deal is likely to go down in ... http://blog.nreionline.com/green_shoots/2010/01/26/aftershock-tishman-abandons-stuyvesant-to-creditors/ Just right around when everyone was turning on their out-of-office messages for the holidays, Excel Trust made a securities filing for an IPO to sell up to $300 million in common shares. As a REIT, the company would acquire retail assets such as shopping centers, power centers and neighborhood shopping ... http://blog.nreionline.com/green_shoots/2009/12/29/excel-trust-files-300-million-ipo-to-buy-retail/ Did the big investment banks package and sell shoddy real estate mortgage debt and then bet against it? Here are some excerpts from an NYT Christmas Eve story: “Banks Bundled Bad Debt, Bet Against It and Won” While the investigations are in the early phases, authorities appear to be looking at ... http://blog.nreionline.com/green_shoots/2009/12/28/cdo-scandal-buying-fire-insurance-on-someone-elses-house-and-committing-arson/ This newly released report “Energy efficiency and real estate: Opportunities for investment” from Ceres and Mercer is pretty good in that it combines case studies from REITs to institutional portfolios as well as surveys and data from sources such as RREEF, McKinsey and several universities. Ceres is a coalition of ... http://blog.nreionline.com/green_shoots/2009/12/21/one-stop-report-reiterates-business-case-for-energy-retrofits/ After developing nations walked out of the Copenhagen Climate Talks yesterday amid disagreements over which countries pollute and which countries should pay to cover the impacts of climate change (the developed nations), a new draft of a U.N.-sponsored international climate change agreement is circulating today. Most notably, it takes both ... http://blog.nreionline.com/green_shoots/2009/12/15/no-talk-of-religion-politics-money-or-carbon-cuts/ At the global climate summit in Copenhagen today, the Obama Administration declared carbon dioxide a threat to public health, leaving the door is open for the EPA to regulate emissions from vehicles, factories and power plants. American business groups, including U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers ... http://blog.nreionline.com/green_shoots/2009/12/07/carbon-dioxide-declared-danger-to-public-health/