Luxury Real Estate News and Gossip

Las Vegas CityCenter moves forwards; CB Richard Ellis and Jones Lang LaSalle post first quarter losses; auctions are the new black; and the Queen turns down a low class tenant.

The New York Times reports that Dubai World and MGM Mirage have apparently settled their differences (most of them) and are now moving ahead with their joint CityCenter project in Las Vegas. This will be good news for the local construction industry as everything else seems to have come to a standstill. The amount of vacant commercial real estate in Las Vegas currently stands at over 28% and most projects have been abandoned. The NY Times

Two of the biggest names in the real estate world posted substantial losses for the first quarter of 2009 – CB Richard Ellis posted a $36.7 million Q1 2009 loss compared to a $20.5 million gain in Q1 2008 – Reuters and Jones Lang LaSalle a $61 million loss compared to a gain of $2.8 million in 2008 – Atlanta Business Chronicle

18 luxury condos sold for $1.6 million at auction

Auctions are the name of the game in 2009 – even for high-end luxury real estate. Eagle county, Denver has over 200 homes for sale over $2 million and Park Hyatt Slifer Smith & Frampton Real Estate have created a new division solely to deal with high-end auctions. Denver Post. A new company, iBidCondo is trying an innovative method of auctioning property – no reserve auctions where the bulk of the sales price is donated to charity. iBidCondo.

An example of the type of property now going to auction is “The Villas” at Sabino Canyon in Tuscon, Arizona. 18 condos in this development were sold for $1.6 million last week – and I don’t think that was per condo. J P King Auctions

Retailers in Europe’s largest shopping mall, Westfield in London have pressured the owners into a reduction in

TK Maxx - Not Good Enough for The Crown Estate

service charges – the center is still not fully occupied. The cornerstone of the center was to be a luxury “village” full of upmarket restaurants and luxury boutiques, but the downturn has hit this sector pretty hard and the mall instead has the usual run of the mill retailers such as Debenhams and House of Fraser. The Times

The interesting thing with the state of British retail at the moment is that the only tenants available seem to be at the lower end of the market. The Queen’s property management company, The Crown Estate, blocked TK Maxx, a discount clothing store, from taking a lease in Picadilly Circus last month. The Queen apparently thinks TK Maxx is not good enough as a tenant and wants “high class” retailers such as Louis Vuitton instead. The store in question has been empty for more than 4 years now – but this is standard practice for British commercial landlords. Most of them are long standing owners and will see a property sit empty for any number of years rather than accept a “low class” tenant or take a lower rent. The Financial Times