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The majority of commercial property loans in the United Kingdom are currently in default, according to a study by CB Richard Ellis.  Approximately £200 billion ($327 billion) is required to refinance existing loans secured against £450 billion of properties over the next five to seven years.  Only half of that amount is available, according to […]

Although Chicago’s 2016 Olympic dreams were shattered on October 2, the experience should be a learning experience about shaping the city’s future. According to Blair Kamin, the Chicago Tribune‘s Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic, “It’s all about whether Chicago can transform its grand defeat on the international stage into a back-to-basics victory on the home front, […]

New accounting standards calling for property to be marked to market,  and changes in lease accounting rules will strongly impact balance sheets, income statements and the general financial outlook of American companies. Unfortunately, many corporations are not ready to deal with the changes, according to a new report from CB Richard Ellis.  The mark-to-market requirement […]

The recession has thwarted real estate billionaire Sam Zell’s plans to raze the art deco, 80-year-old, 26-story 2 North Riverside Plaza building that housed the Chicago Daily News until 1960 and replace it with an office tower.  Instead, Zell’s Equity Group Investments is beginning a multi-million dollar renovation of the building, which the advocacy group […]

The announcement that President Barack Obama, after just nine months in the Oval Office, had won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize stunned the world — including the humbled recipient. “I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many transformative figures that have been honored by this prize,” Obama said […]

Home equity loan delinquencies reached a record high of 3.52 percent during the first quarter of 2009, according to the American Bankers Association.  That contrasts with the 3.03 percent reported during the fourth quarter of 2008.  Late payments on loans climbed to a record 1.89 percent. Home equity loans also are partly to blame for […]

Architecture 2030 is a non-profit, non-partisan, independent organization established in response to the global-warming crisis.  Its core mission is to transform the global building sector from a major contributor of greenhouse gas emissions to part of the solution to the global-warming crisis.  The organization seeks to achieve a dramatic reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions […]

As a follow-up on a previous blog, the Chicago Cubs have been sold to the Ricketts family in an $800 million deal that encompasses the team, Wrigley Field and a 25 percent stake in Comcast SportsNet.  The Tribune will keep a five percent stake in the assets; this means the transaction is worth approximately $845 […]

So Chicago was eliminated in the first round of International Olympic Committee voting as the host city for the 2016 Summer Olympics, a source of great surprise to many, particularly in light of Barack Obama making the final pitch personally. Still, one thing bears repeating:  no city hosting the games has ever made money from […]

Cleaning up the mess left by Lehman Brothers’ collapse and bankruptcy involves salvaging a national portfolio of 900 properties valued at $16 billion.  What the advisory firm overseeing Lehman’s bankruptcy achieves could be a framework for the strategies that big banks across the country use as they deal with their own troubled assets whose loans […]