The 234 Apartment

As you do more banking by smartphone, that bank branch you used to visit may soon turn into a restaurant, a day care center or even a condo tower. After a branch building boom a decade or so ago, banks are closing offices by the thousands as more of their customers bank online . They're leaving behind space ready to be transformed into something else, whether an urban storefront or a free- standing brick building with a drive-thru in the suburbs. "If the real estate is strong, any number of things can happen to the property," says Kim McGuire, senior vice president in the Chicago office of CBRE. It's a problem or an opportunity, depending on your perspective, that will be here for a while. Banks operate about 89,300 branches in the United States today , down 8 percent over the past decade, according to Chicago- based real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle . JLL expects an additional 20 percent drop over the next decade. In the Chicago area, the number of branches d...

The Memphis housing market shows signs of a recovery as home sales improve month after month. Yet foreclosures still bring about the best investment opportunities, especially in the multifamily sector as the general economic trend continues to favor renting rather than buying. An entity affiliated with LNR Property LLC , a market leader in commercial properties development headquartered in Miami Beach, Fla., recently acquired Waterford Place Apartments , a 320- unit community located at 8037 Waterford Circle . The Class A community was bought for $18.2 million from Harris P. Quinn of Prochaska Thompson Quinn & Ferraro PC, in a substitute trustee’s sale following a foreclosure, according to the Daily News . The residential community built in 2001 on 27.9 acres had been property of Empirian Waterford LLC and Flushing Waterford LLC until earlier this year when the venture defaulted on a $54.6 million loan through Deutsche Banc Mortgage Capital LLC . Also following a foreclosur...