The 234 Apartment

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc agreed to sell property group Archstone to two real estate investment trusts for about $6.5 billion, taking advantage of a strong market for apartments and marking an end to a 2007 gamble that helped push the investment bank into bankruptcy. The buyers, Equity Residential ( EQR.N ) and AvalonBay Communities Inc ( AVB.N ), will split the assets 60-40 and will also take on Archstone's debt, for a total transaction value of $16 billion. Lehman collapsed at the height of the financial crisis in 2008, in part because of soured real estate bets , including the $23. 7 billion leveraged buyout of Archstone. The firm filed for bankruptcy and has been liquidating assets to pay back creditors , who are still owed more than $30 billion. Archstone, one of the largest owners of U.S. apartments, has a large portfolio of properties in metropolitan areas, where apartment buildings have been pricey and difficult to come by. The acquisition would...

America Apartment Communities logo" title="Mid- America Apartment Communities logo" class="companylogo" /> Oakbrook Investments LLC decreased its position in shares of Mid- America Apartment Communities , Inc. (NYSE:MAA) by 5.6% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4 ,551 shares of the real estate investment trust ’s stock after selling 272 shares during the period. Oakbrook Investments LLC ’s holdings in Mid- America Apartment Communities were worth $480,000 at the end of the most recent quarter. Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MAA. Roanoke Asset Management Corp NY increased its position in Mid- America Apartment Communities by 48.0% in the second quarter. Roanoke Asset Management Corp NY now owns 3,625 shares of the real estate investment trust ’s stock worth $3...

A wealthy Orange County investor has acquired Brookstone Apartment Homes in Buena Park for $38 million. Patrick Cadigan , the former chief executive of Electronic Engineering Co. of California, bought the 184-unit community at 7400 Artesia Blvd. from L&B Realty Advisors , a Dallas- based investment firm with real estate holdings across the country. Built in 1977, Brookstone consists of 112 one-bedroom and 72 two-bedroom units across 17 two-story buildings. The property features a pool and spa, a fitness center and covered parking. Carl Greenwood , general partner of real estate investment firm Greenwood & McKenzie, said Cadigan liked the quality of the recently renovated complex . “There’s a shortage of supply of good apartment complexes for sale,” he said. Cadigan, who made headlines last year when he pledged to donate $27 million to a pair of schools in Boston, is one of the county’s largest real estate investors . He owns nearly 1, 800 apartment units across 11 comple...

By Sabra Ayres August, 3, 2017 Ksenia Belayeva and Igor Zaitsev sit at their kitchen inside an apartment they are sharing in St. Petersburg, Russia. (Vasiliy Kolotilov / For The Times) By the time Marina Maslova was born in the six- room communal apartment at 65 Bolshoi Prospect, an entire generation had lived there and come of age since the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. Maslova still lives in the room where she was born 61 years ago , and she remembers the dozens of families that have walked down its twisting, dark hallways and lived in its crowded rooms during her life. It was here that the guests at her wedding party in the 1970s moved the furniture aside to make room to dance in the 345-square-foot room she shared with her new husband, her parents and her grandmother. And it was here, in a small room just off the kitchen, where a 16-year-old boy hanged himself with his belt in the early 1960s after his parents, with whom he shared the cupboard-size space, disappeared. Both the...

We know the problem well. We live it. Other than Hawaii, California has the ignominious distinction of leading the nation in housing costs, and not by a little. A San Francisco apartment costs more than one in New York City. A Silicon Valley home is beyond reach of all but the wealthy. A 2015 Legislative Analyst’s Office report said homes here cost two and a half times more than the average national price . It gets worse by the day. Companies expand elsewhere because workers can’t afford to live here. For workers who stay, commutes are interminable because they live far from their jobs. It has taken California decades to get into this mess. Consider what’s coming to be a down payment. No fewer than 15 housing- related bills awaited legislators upon their return Monday. Some would provide tax incentives so the working poor can afford decent housing , and homeless people can find shelter. Others would streamline approval for new homes so millennials can own a piece of the American dr...

“And suddenly they were able to help us and to buy things that we cannot buy,” he said. “It was like a housekeeper buying your house. That is awkward.” The conditions in both countries created a perfect match: As Portugal reeled from a financial crisis a few years ago, Angolans were enjoying an oil boom that provided enormous opportunities for self-enrichment by the elite, particularly the president’s family and inner circle. Angola is often listed as one of the world’s most corrupt nations. And Portugal has been singled out for its laxness in reining in money laundering and bribery, particularly in its dealings with Angolans, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the research and policy organization of the world’s richest countries. “In Angola, they call Portugal the laundromat,” said Ana Gomes, a Portuguese lawmaker in the European Parliament and a member of Portugal’s governing Socialist Party . “It’s because it is.” But the two nations’ relationsh...

AvalonBay Communities, Inc. (NYSE:AVB) Q2 2017 Earnings Call August 03, 2017 1:00 pm ET Executives Jason Reilley - AvalonBay Communities, Inc. Timothy J. Naughton - AvalonBay Communities, Inc. Sean J. Breslin - AvalonBay Communities, Inc. Matthew H. Birenbaum - AvalonBay Communities, Inc. Kevin P. O'Shea - AvalonBay Communities, Inc. Analysts Nicholas Joseph - Citigroup Global Markets , Inc. Nick Yulico - UBS Securities LLC Richard Allen Hightower - Evercore ISI Juan Sanabria - Bank of America Merrill Lynch Andrew T. Babin - Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc. Austin Wurschmidt - KeyBanc Capital Markets , Inc. Dennis Patrick McGill - Zelman & Associates Wes Golladay - RBC Capital Markets LLC Alexander Goldfarb - Sandler O'Neill & Partners LP Vincent Chao - Deutsche Bank Conor Wagner - Green Street Advisors , LLC Richard Hill - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC Robert Stevenson - Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Operator Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to AvalonBay...