Jones Lang LaSalle
PLOTS & PLOYS
Rebuilding Blueprints
February 8, 2006; Page B8
Much of New Orleans may be rebuilt from trailers in a Wal-Mart parking lot.
That, at least, is the hope of the folks who created a temporary blueprint room and design studio just west of the city in Kenner, La., that allows architects, engineers and construction workers to access plans to public rebuilding projects from schools to roads and sewers.
McGraw-Hill Construction, a construction-plan clearinghouse unit of McGraw-Hill Cos., set up the cluster of trailers to replace its Metairie, La., "plan room," which was badly damaged during Hurricane Katrina. Other companies also made donations: Autodesk Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. contributed hardware and design software, and Cisco Systems Inc. provided a solar-powered satellite Internet hookup. The setup allows displaced tradespeople, who previously worked from the plan room or from their own offices, to have a place to work.
Michael Calongne, a sales estimator for Louisiana Utilities Supply Co., has used the trailers since they opened in mid-December and expects to spend an increasing amount of time there. His company, a unit of Ferguson Enterprises Inc., itself owned by England-based Wolseley PLC, sells municipal water equipment and heating supplies.
Mr. Calongne searches the blueprints for equipment that his company sells, and sends quotes to the contractors bidding on the jobs. Fire hydrants and storm drains are in hot demand, he says. "A lot of the streets got messed up, and if the street gets messed up, the piping underneath gets messed up," he says. "They got a lot of those starting to show up versus a couple of weeks ago."
Ripe for Conversion
In the Manhattan real-estate market, rising values come to those who wait. These days, a former hotel on the seedy edges of Times Square that the Chinese government bought decades ago is viewed by some as a savvy real-estate play.
In October 1979, the Chinese government bought a 20-story former Sheraton Hotel at 520 12th Ave. for $6.9 million, or less than $20 a square foot, according to Santa Ana, Calif.-based real-estate data provider First American Real Estate Solutions. At the time, it seemed an odd location to host meetings of public officials, let alone diplomatic socials. While most consulates were located in the leafy neighborhoods circling the United Nations, the Chinese consulate was close to Times Square's notorious red-light district.
But in the decade since former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani launched a plan to clean up the neighborhood, a number of pricey real-estate developments and conversion projects have appeared along the 42nd Street corridor. Efforts to clean up the Hudson River waterfront, which the consulate fronts, have also helped.
Now, some Manhattan brokers are betting that the Chinese government may have a property ripe for residential conversion.
"What a great location in what's a burgeoning, up-and-coming residential area," says Chris Brodhead, a Massey Knakal Realty Services Inc. broker who handles building sales in the greater Times Square area. "This is a home run, real-estate-wise."
Chinese Consul Liyan Li says the government is unlikely to cash out and turn its now-valuable digs into luxury condominiums. "We didn't expect the prices to soar like that," says Mr. Li. "But we don't think we're going to sell the building."
Global REITs
Chinese Estates Holdings Ltd. says it is considering spinning off some of its property holdings into a new real-estate investment trust, joining the growing ranks of Hong Kong developers looking at REIT listings as a way to boost returns.
Chinese Estates, a midtier property developer controlled by Hong Kong businessmen Joseph Lau and his brother Thomas Lau, owns a number of major commercial and office buildings in Hong Kong's Causeway Bay shopping district -- an area that commands some of the highest rents in the city.
The company said options it is considering include "the possibility of disposing of certain investment properties of the group in Hong Kong to a real-estate investment trust and the possible listing of the units of the real-estate investment trust on the stock exchange." No final decision has been made on the REIT, Chinese Estates noted.
PLOTS & PLOYS
Rebuilding Blueprints
February 8, 2006; Page B8
Much of New Orleans may be rebuilt from trailers in a Wal-Mart parking lot.
That, at least, is the hope of the folks who created a temporary blueprint room and design studio just west of the city in Kenner, La., that allows architects, engineers and construction workers to access plans to public rebuilding projects from schools to roads and sewers.
McGraw-Hill Construction, a construction-plan clearinghouse unit of McGraw-Hill Cos., set up the cluster of trailers to replace its Metairie, La., "plan room," which was badly damaged during Hurricane Katrina. Other companies also made donations: Autodesk Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. contributed hardware and design software, and Cisco Systems Inc. provided a solar-powered satellite Internet hookup. The setup allows displaced tradespeople, who previously worked from the plan room or from their own offices, to have a place to work.
Michael Calongne, a sales estimator for Louisiana Utilities Supply Co., has used the trailers since they opened in mid-December and expects to spend an increasing amount of time there. His company, a unit of Ferguson Enterprises Inc., itself owned by England-based Wolseley PLC, sells municipal water equipment and heating supplies.
Mr. Calongne searches the blueprints for equipment that his company sells, and sends quotes to the contractors bidding on the jobs. Fire hydrants and storm drains are in hot demand, he says. "A lot of the streets got messed up, and if the street gets messed up, the piping underneath gets messed up," he says. "They got a lot of those starting to show up versus a couple of weeks ago."
Ripe for Conversion
In the Manhattan real-estate market, rising values come to those who wait. These days, a former hotel on the seedy edges of Times Square that the Chinese government bought decades ago is viewed by some as a savvy real-estate play.
In October 1979, the Chinese government bought a 20-story former Sheraton Hotel at 520 12th Ave. for $6.9 million, or less than $20 a square foot, according to Santa Ana, Calif.-based real-estate data provider First American Real Estate Solutions. At the time, it seemed an odd location to host meetings of public officials, let alone diplomatic socials. While most consulates were located in the leafy neighborhoods circling the United Nations, the Chinese consulate was close to Times Square's notorious red-light district.
But in the decade since former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani launched a plan to clean up the neighborhood, a number of pricey real-estate developments and conversion projects have appeared along the 42nd Street corridor. Efforts to clean up the Hudson River waterfront, which the consulate fronts, have also helped.
Now, some Manhattan brokers are betting that the Chinese government may have a property ripe for residential conversion.
"What a great location in what's a burgeoning, up-and-coming residential area," says Chris Brodhead, a Massey Knakal Realty Services Inc. broker who handles building sales in the greater Times Square area. "This is a home run, real-estate-wise."
Chinese Consul Liyan Li says the government is unlikely to cash out and turn its now-valuable digs into luxury condominiums. "We didn't expect the prices to soar like that," says Mr. Li. "But we don't think we're going to sell the building."
Global REITs
Chinese Estates Holdings Ltd. says it is considering spinning off some of its property holdings into a new real-estate investment trust, joining the growing ranks of Hong Kong developers looking at REIT listings as a way to boost returns.
Chinese Estates, a midtier property developer controlled by Hong Kong businessmen Joseph Lau and his brother Thomas Lau, owns a number of major commercial and office buildings in Hong Kong's Causeway Bay shopping district -- an area that commands some of the highest rents in the city.
The company said options it is considering include "the possibility of disposing of certain investment properties of the group in Hong Kong to a real-estate investment trust and the possible listing of the units of the real-estate investment trust on the stock exchange." No final decision has been made on the REIT, Chinese Estates noted.
posted by Jones Lang LaSalle NJ News Blog at 10:48 AM
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