Virtual Open Houses

Jones Lang LaSalle has announced the firm's capital markets experts have completed the sale of Galleria Towers I, II & III on behalf of Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Fortis Property Group L.L.C. to Los-Angeles-based Cannon Commercial.

DMR Architects has been selected to design Early Childhood Center 13 in Jersey City, N.J.  The school's anticipated completion is set fir 2010.

Over the past 18 months, Sunrise Management,  a San Diego-based residential management firm, has been  expanding the territory it services.

Ground will be broken later this year on the 1.2 million-square-foot center, which will be built according to LEED guidelines.

The Hudson River Park Trust held a press conference yesterday to celebrate the park's 10th anniversary and discuss future improvements.

While multi-family property sales in New York City and Los Angeles have decreased over the last two years, one analyst attributes the drop to investors holding on to their assets until the market rises.

Colliers Meredith & Grew has brokered the sale of a 148,116-square-foot portfolio of life science properties on behalf of a private family trust to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for $90 million.

Bristol Park Medical Plaza at 250 East Yale Loop in Irvine, Calif., has just come under new ownership. Sanderson J Ray sold the 28,400-square-foot medical office building to Yorba Hawthorne L.L.C., which made the purchase as part of a 1031 Exchange.

Construction of Foundry Square I, a 336,000-square-foot office building in Downtown San Francisco, has recently reached completion.

Barack Obama visited Las Vegas, one of the hardest hit housing markets in the nation, and used it as a backdrop to unveil his fix for the mortgage mess. Obama says he wants to create a $10 billion government-financed fund to help restructure bad mortgage loans as well as offer tax credits good for 10% of their mortgage interest payments to troubled borrowers. He said he supports legislation proposed by Senator Dodd and Congressman Frank that would have the Federal Housing Administration guarantee new loans if lenders agree to forgo part of the principal and lower the interest rates. Obama also said he wants to increase the level of disclosure of loan terms to borrowers, increase penalties for predatory lending and eliminate income taxes for senior citizens making under $50,000 a year.

Taking a page from Ronald Reagan, Obama trotted out Felicitas Rosel and Francisco Cano, a maid and a porter at the Bellagio hotel on the Strip who are now in danger of losing their home of many years. “Because a lender went for the easy buck, they are left struggling with ballooning interest rates and monthly mortgage payments,” Obama said.

Hilary Clinton quickly reiterated her own housing policy, including a moratorium on subprime loan foreclosures and a freeze on subprime adjustable loan rates. She also supports the Dodd/Frank legislation and a $30 billion mortgage bailout fund. She used the occasion to slam President Bush’s housing policies.

Largely absent from the debate has been John McCain. He briefly took a stand in April, saying he would have his own $10 billion mortgage restructuring fund. That was after several months of saying the government shouldn’t prevent market forces from working. His campaign Web site has almost nothing to say regarding a housing program, at least as far as I could find. Strange given that his home state of Arizona is another place struggling with the housing bust.