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CHICAGO — The real estate investment banking team at Jones Lang LaSalle has secured a $365 million refinancing package for Chicago’s Palmer House Hilton, a 1,639-room, full-service luxury hotel owned by Thor Equities. J.P. Morgan Chase provided a five-year, floating-rate loan as part of the overall financing. “This refinancing will allow Thor Equities to continue to augment its ongoing efforts to maintain the Palmer House’s status as a crown jewel of Chicago,” says Joe Sitt, CEO of New York-based Thor Equities, which acquired the Palmer House Hilton in August 2005 from Hilton Hotels Corp. for $230 million. One of the most famous hotels in the world, the Palmer House was built by wealthy entrepreneur Potter Palmer. The hotel opened on Sept. 26, 1871, and burned to the ground 13 days later during the Great Chicago Fire. Undeterred, Potter Palmer began construction on a new hotel across the street from the former building and reopened it in July 1873. It was the first hotel to be equipped with electric lights and telephones in each room. Between 1923 and 1925, a new hotel was built on the same site to accommodate increased demand. The property is situated on two-thirds of a city …

ANNAPOLIS, MD. — The seniors housing sector continued its recovery in the third quarter of 2012 posting an average occupancy rate of 88.8 percent, according to NIC MAP, a data analysis service of the National Investment Center for the Seniors Housing & Care Industry. This figure is up 0.2 percentage points from the previous quarter and 0.8 percentage points from one year ago. “Occupancy is now at a four-year high and with inventory growth remaining tempered, we should continue to see occupancy recover in the near term,” says Michael Hargrave, vice president of NIC MAP. The average occupancy rate for the seniors housing industry has increased consistently during the past 10 quarters. The figure is 1.8 percentage points more than its cyclical low of 87 percent, which occurred in the first quarter of 2010. The occupancy rate for independent living and assisted living properties both averaged 88.8 percent in the third quarter of 2012. Both types of properties showed improvement over the previous quarter, increasing 0.1 and 0.2 percentage points, respectively. Source: NIC MAP Annual rent growth is also experiencing record highs in the seniors housing community. Annual asking rents for seniors housing increased 2.2 percent in the third quarter, …

SPRINGFIELD, MASS. — Penn National Gaming is aiming to build an $807 million destination resort casino in Springfield. The Wyomissing, Pa.-based company said it has submitted its proposal to the City of Springfield and the Springfield Redevelopment Authority. If approved, the plan would include a 300,000-square-foot casino with up to 5,000 slot machines, as many as 100 game tables and up to 30 poker tables. The project would also include a hotel with up to 500 rooms, a spa, restaurants, a night club and 4,000 to 5,000 spaces of structured parking. The casino would be named Hollywood Casino Springfield. Penn will be working in partnering with Peter Picknelly, CEO of Springfield-based Peter Pan Bus Lines, to construct the facility on 13.4 acres near the city's downtown. The development would include land now occupied by The Republican newspaper on Main Street. The company said The Republican offices would be moved to a newly renovated downtown location featuring a village square and construction of a new printing plant in Springfield. The proposal also calls for Peter Pan Bus Lines' operations to be moved to Union Station. Peter Carlino, chairman and CEO of Penn National Gaming, says the casino project would be a …

A new wave of commercial real estate development is beginning to emerge in the South as cities such as Houston, Atlanta and Charleston shake off the construction slump triggered by a deep recession. In Houston's multifamily sector, for instance, new apartment supply this year is expected to double from 2011, according to brokerage firm Marcus & Millichap. During a commercial finance and investment conference last Thursday at the Westin hotel in Atlanta, the topic of growth was front and center. The panel discussion — titled “Development: What? Where? By Whom?” — featured some of the biggest names in the commercial real estate business today. Produced by the law firm of Morris, Manning & Martin LLP and France Media's InterFace Conference Group, the daylong event attracted more than 400 leading investors, developers, lenders and financial intermediaries from across the Southeast. The panel featured remarks from Jim Jacoby, chairman and CEO of Jacoby Development; Reid Freeman, president of Regent Partners; Charlie Tickle, chairman and CEO of Daniel Corp.; Chad Weaver, vice president of investments for Camden Development; Jay Jacobson, director of national acquisitions for Wood Partners; and moderator Michael McDonald, managing director of Eastdil Secured. Panelists agreed that select development opportunities do …

NORTH MIAMI BEACH, FLA. — North Miami Beach-based Equity One Inc. (NYSE: EQY) has acquired or is in agreement to acquire four commercial properties in Bethesda, Md., New York City and Norwalk, Conn., for $260 million. The company is under contract to acquire the Westwood Complex, a 22-acre mixed-use development located in Bethesda, for $140 million. The development features 214,767 square feet of retail space, a 211,020-square-foot apartment building and a 62-unit assisted living facility. The transaction is slated to close by the end of 2013. Giant Food has anchored Westwood’s main retail center since the center opened in 1959. The lease expires in 2019 with no term remaining. The assisted living facility is leased to Manor Care Health Services through 2015, also with no term remaining. Westwood’s apartment property is leased to a division of Montgomery County, Md., and it is subject to a purchase right in 2017, which is expected to be exercised. Equity One has also acquired the 78,820-square-foot Clocktower Plaza, a shopping center located in Queens, for $56 million. Pathmark anchors the center, which is fully leased. The property is located on seven acres of land that has opportunities for future development and expansion. The company …

SEATTLE — In a $1.16 billion deal, online retailer Amazon.com Inc. has agreed to acquire 11 buildings totaling 1.8 million square feet in the heart of Seattle’s burgeoning South Lake Union neighborhood from Vulcan Real Estate. Amazon currently leases the buildings, which are part of its corporate headquarters. Vulcan, which constructed the 11 buildings as part of Amazon’s Seattle headquarters, put them on the market in August. The deal is expected to close by the end of this year. The Amazon campus is at the center of a newly revitalized neighborhood at the north end of downtown Seattle. Once better known for warehouses and light industrial operations, the South Lake Union neighborhood is now home to Amazon, global health organizations, multifamily residential communities and a thriving retail and restaurant core. “We are truly excited that Amazon is making this long-term commitment to the South Lake Union community,” says Ada Healey, vice president of real estate for Seattle-based Vulcan Inc. “We know they will be excellent stewards of this property and will continue to play a vital role in revitalizing South Lake Union and creating a thriving urban neighborhood in the heart of Seattle’s urban core.” Vulcan plans to reinvest earnings …

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Joseph Stettinius Jr. has been unanimously elected as Cassidy Turley's new chief executive officer (CEO) by the firm's board of directors, effective immediately. Stettinius is based in Cassidy Turley's Washington, D.C. office, which will become the company's headquarters. The company was previously based in St. Louis, where former CEO Mark Burkhart resided. Burkhart will serve as an ongoing advisor to the company. Stettinius has served as president of Cassidy Turley since the firm's inception in August 2008. From March 2007 to February 2010, he was CEO of predecessor firm Cassidy & Pinkard Colliers. In his new role, Stettinius will oversee all operations of the brokerage giant. Cassidy Turley is a full-service firm serving owners, investors and tenants with a full spectrum of integrated commercial real estate services — including capital markets, tenant representation, project leasing and development services. The company includes more than 3,600 professional in more than 60 offices nationwide. Stettinius' told Southeast Real Estate Business that his main goal for his first year as CEO is to leverage the company's success in its legacy markets and enhance Cassidy Turley's capabilities in some of its less mature markets. He cited markets such as Boston, Atlanta, Houston, …

ATLANTA — Today’s low interest rate environment is inducing many buyers to pay significantly more for properties than they should and poses the single biggest risk to the commercial real estate industry, warns Dean Adler, co-founder and CEO of Philadelphia-based Lubert Adler Partners LP, a real estate equity firm with $16 billion of assets under management. “There are a lot of asset allocators out there that are paying way too much for real estate because of cheap interest rates, and they will get whipsawed,” predicts Adler. “It’s fine to raise money today, but they will get whipsawed in four and five years as interest rates rise. Real estate still has the same amount of [operating] risk and obstacles as it had two, three, four, five, six years ago. I could make an argument that there is greater risk.” The insights from the outspoken Adler came Thursday morning during a commercial real estate finance and investment conference at the Westin Buckhead. The law firm of Morris, Manning & Martin LLP and France Media’s InterFace Conference Group jointly produced the daylong event, titled “What to Expect In 2013?” The event attracted more than 400 leading investors, developers, lenders and financial intermediaries from …

BURLINGTON, MASS. — Nordblom Co. is planning a $215 million recapitalization of Network Drive at Northwest Park, a six-building, 805,000-square-foot office complex in Burlington. Nordblom originally acquired the property in partnership with CarVal and now completed the sale to institutional investors advised by JPMorgan Asset Management. “We are delighted with our new partnership and the fact that they also recognize the tremendous value of this world-class office park located in this dynamic Boston suburb,” says Ogden Hunnewell, executive vice president and partner of Nordblom Co. “Burlington continues to emerge as the ‘Capitol City’ of Route 128 and this property is wonderfully situated to benefit from the vibrancy and growth in this leading market area.” Network Drive includes land sufficient to add approximately 330,000 square feet of space. The property is situated on 158 acres adjacent to Northwest Park, a 140-acre office park that has been master-planned and permitted for up to 3.2 million square feet of mixed-use space. Network Drive is 96 percent leased to a variety of tenants, including Exa Corp., eDialog, Memento, Dyax, Veracode and Avid Technology. The campus is also a regional headquarters for Oracle Corp. James McCaffrey, senior managing director of Eastdil Secured, and director Sarah …