News Clips & Coverage
Inflated commercial valuations are increasingly distorting markets and hurting investors, as appraisers are under pressure to come up with favorable numbers
Starwood Capital Group made a big bet on the U.S. retail market in November 2013. Barry Sternlicht’s private equity firm bought a 90 percent stake in seven malls from Westfield Group for $1.6 billion through an affiliated company.
Located in towns like Toledo, Ohio, and Olympia, Washington, the malls were filled with national brands and boasted an average occupancy rate of 96 percent – the kind of properties considered a very safe bet at the time.
But the retail market...
According to whistleblower suit, many of the components were manufactured in China
A Wisconsin-based contractor who performed work at the Miami Intermodal Center pleaded guilty this week and paid $3 million in criminal and civil fines for defrauding the federal government.
The charges stemmed from Novum Structural LLC claims that it used materials forged and manufactured in the United States for at least three federally funded projects: The United States Courthouse in Rockford, Illinois; a street car expansion in New Orleans, and the $2 billion Miami Intermodal Center...