CPN - December 2008 - (Page 25)

INDUSTRY PULSE INTERNATIONAL atrium within a 40,000-square-foot Garden Grove, Calif., office building last year, adding a fountain, among other elements. Vice president & director of property management Ken Wheeler said the improvements have helped retain tenants. “It’s a place where people can go to eat lunch, to relax or do both.” Going forward, property managers will likely inherit the daunting task of breathing life into distressed assets. Jumping in head first, RiverRock Real Estate Group Inc., which provides leasing and management services for properties in the Western United States, has formed a value-maximization unit that principal John Combs likened to a real estate SWAT team. “Property management is going to see a whole new world order,” he said. “We’re seeing the Resolution Trust Corporation again, and we want to be positioned for that.” —Reach senior editor Eugene Gilligan at eugene.gilligan@nielsen.com. Visit www.cpnonline.com/specialties for coverage of other commercial real estate business lines. INTERNATIONAL Continued from page 22 PARADOX OF OPPORTUNITY lion.“Because of their huge populations and growth opportunities, institutional investors will focus on those countries,” said Shannon Robertson, regional director of Latin America for Jones Lang LaSalle. If a major U.S. retailer is going to invest time and money to learn another country’s rules and regulations, it is probably thinking big—50 to 100 stores— he pointed out, so Costa Rica’s neighbors make for more efficient target markets. And though the credit crunch has not slammed the market, it has slowed development of vacation homes and hotels at least slightly, according to industry sources. Still, hotels form the crux of foreign investment in Costa Rica, which has become a favored Central American tourist destination. InterContinental Hotels Group Plc will soon double the 460 rooms it was operating in Costa Rica at the end of 2007. In Octo- ber, it opened a Holiday Inn Express in San Jose.A month earlier, it added a tower and a 16,000square-foot spa to the San Jose Real Hotel & Club Tower CR. And in February it opened the 213-room Crowne Plaza Hotel San Jose Corobici. Its Hotel Indigo boutique brand plans to place its first Latin American property in the city in March 2009. Salo Smaletz, director of Latin America development for InterContinental, also revealed that the company is in advanced negotiations to build an InterContinental Hotel & Resort on Costa Rica’s Pacific coast. Another global hotel giant, Hilton Hotels Corp., plans to open the 160-room Hilton Garden Inn Liberia Airport in November and a 300-key Hilton and a 150-room Embassy Suites Hotel within the next 18 months, according to Simon Suarez, chief development representative for Central America for Hilton Hotels. The company is also seeking an opportunity to build a luxury hotel, either a Conrad Hotel & Resort or a Waldorf- Astoria, on the Pacific coast. Though less glamorous, other opportunities also exist. InterContinental’s Staybridge Suites, for example, could serve executives working in the country on short-term assignments. Smaletz added that the Crowne Plaza brand could also serve Costa Rica’s growing business-travel sector with its ballroom and meeting spaces. Hilton also sees potential to expand its focusedservice brands, such as Hilton Garden Inn and Hampton, to secondary cities like Limon, Cartago and Quepos to attract business travelers, Suarez said. For now, though, Costa Rica is on most investors’ lists of positive Latin American investment targets, Suarez added. And Berger noted that the country’s ratification of the Central America Free Trade Agreement a year ago and the current deregulation of its telecommunications industry are bonuses. —Eugene Gilligan Visit www.cpnonline.com/international for more crossborder coverage. Digital Resources for Commercial Real Estate Executives Tune in, View or Blog when it’s convenient. Our digital resources are available to you 365/24/7. Exclusive interviews with high-profile industry experts and personalities Executive of the Year award winners John Cushman, chairman of Cushman & Wakefield Inc., Mark Rauenhorst, chairman & CEO of Opus Corp., and Gordon DuGan, president & CEO of W.P. Carey & Co. discuss their outlook and strategies for this difficult market. Launching CPN’s CEO Series, Cushman & Wakefield Inc. chairman John Cushman, CPN’s Lifetime Achievement award winner, offers his insights into the commercial real estate industry’s past and current shifts and how it will have to change for the future. Daily broadcasts and weekly updates on the industry, economy and commercial real estate sectors. Now featuring broadcasts from major industry authorities RICS, RDM and USGBC. The digital edition of our monthly magazine Webcasts/Webinars – Special audio and video webcast series with panel discussions, Q&A and more. www.cpnonline.com www.cpnonline.com • December 2008 • COMMERCIAL PROPERTY NEWS 25 http://www.cpnonline.com/specialties http://www.cpnonline.com/international http://www.cpnonline.com http://www.cpnonline.com http://www.cpnonline.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of CPN - December 2008

CPN - December 2008 Contents Starting Line Retail Data/Analysis Conferences Boston Market Profile Finance International Property Management

CPN - December 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.