Team Arbor Laces Up Again for the Marcum Workplace Challenge

Employees Converge on Jones Beach for Fifth Consecutive Year to Support Local Causes






UNIONDALE, NY - For five years running, Arbor Commercial Mortgage employees laced up their sneakers and joined 6,100 other participants from over 200 Long Island companies on Tuesday, July 28 for the Marcum Workplace Challenge.

All proceeds earned from the annual 3.5 mile race at Jones Beach State Park were donated to the Children’s Medical Fund of New York and the Long Island Children’s Museum.


Contact: Ingrid Principe, P: 516.506.4298, F: 516.542.2555, http://www.arbor.com/
Follow us on Twitter @ arbor1

Chicago Area Industrial Market Snapshot: Second Quarter 2009

CHICAGO, IL--The following summary is designed to provide a brief overview of the Chicago area industrial market during the second quarter of 2009.

For more information or to speak with one of the company’s local market experts, please contact Erin Mays at 312.698.6735 or via email at erin.mays@grubb-ellis.com

To access the full Chicago Industrial Metro Trends report and other Grubb & Ellis research publications, visit www.grubb-ellis.com/research.

METRO CHICAGO REGION

The region’s industrial vacancy stood at 11.6 percent at the end of second quarter of 2009, up from 11.4 percent in the first quarter. The market experienced negative absorption of 991,255 square feet.

Occupancy in the General Industrial and R&D and flex sectors contracted by approximately 1.3 million square feet and 500,000 square feet of negative absorption, respectively.

CENTRAL WILL COUNTY

The Central Will submarket ended the second quarter with a vacancy rate of 25.1 percent, down from 27.1 percent in the first quarter.

The submarket posted positive absorption of 1,155,340 square feet, mostly due to large tenant occupancies taking place.

Two tenants occupied space at the CenterPoint Intermodal Center I in Elwood: Cypress Medical Products moved into 383,000 square feet, while Alliance 3PL Corp. took occupancy of just over 415,000 square feet.

California Cartage also commenced its new lease of 374,000 square feet at 251 Laraway Road in Joliet.

The submarket currently has just 38,000 square feet of new development under construction, a sign that the construction pipeline has tapered off after 5.8 million square feet of new speculative construction, most of it logistics space, was delivered to the submarket since June 2008.

ANALYSIS

The Central Will submarket remains one of the Chicago industrial market’s most important regions, particularly in the logistics sector.

As a result of completed new construction projects hitting the Central Will submarket, finding tenants to absorb this new inventory will be challenging.

Third-party logistics transactions have been more prevalent in the market as companies continue to find ways of cutting costs by outsourcing distribution activities.

The fact that virtually no new construction is in the pipeline also bodes well for future equilibrium in Central Will, but in the meantime, researchers expect rents to remain steady or fall slightly in the coming quarters.

SOUTH CITY

Industrial vacancy in the South City submarket rose 30 basis points to 7.3 percent in the second quarter 2009, from the prior quarter in part due to 305,807 square feet of negative absorption.
The area currently has 212,942 square feet of industrial space under construction.

ANALYSIS

While no region has escaped the recession, the southern area of the City of Chicago has been an active submarket due to the efforts of developers to renovate and redevelop obsolete manufacturing space into mixed-use facilities.

Logistics users, particularly food distributors, have been particularly interested in this area because of its high concentration of rail and highway options.

With redevelopment efforts still underway and the timeless benefits inherent in a good location with plenty of transportation options, researchers expect the submarket to remain stable.

O’HARE

Vacancy jumped 100 basis points to 11.9 percent in the O’Hare industrial submarket as the area experienced negative net absorption of 902,495 square feet.

Approximately 66,400 square feet of build-to-suit activity is underway.

ANALYSIS

The O’Hare industrial submarket relies heavily on cargo traffic at O’Hare International Airport, which has declined significantly since its high point in 2007 as a result of the recession.

Likewise, development in the submarket hit its own peak in the fourth quarter of 2007, when approximately 18.3 million square feet of new construction was under way.

With just over 66,000 square feet of new construction active today, it’s clear the market is attempting to correct itself.

With little to no activity expected for the remainder of the year, asking rates are expected to stay flat or drop.

Long-term, however, companies will still prefer to locate themselves near the airport. Researchers do not expect demand to pick back up until mid-2010.

Sperry Van Ness/Guardian Achieves Success at Marketmaker West Coast Auction

LOS ANGELES, CA, Aug. 6, 2009 – Los Angeles-based Sperry Van Ness/Guardian and MarketMaker™, achieved success at the MarketMaker™ West Coast Auction held at the Hyatt Regency in Century City on July 30 – selling 11 of 24 properties. Most of the properties sold were bank-owned properties.

Sold properties include the following:

· Victorville, CA: 115 finished lots
· Rancho Cucamonga, CA: 20 acre single family lot development site
· Sacramento, CA: 3 story partially built condominium project sold as apartments

. Granite Falls, WA: 67 acre site of single family lots
· Everett, WA: 65 finished lots on 11.4 acres
· Renton, WA: 9 single family lots
· Boise, ID: 3.25 acres of land
· Donnelly, ID: 48 unit multifamily community

“Our goal for this auction was to clear our client’s REO inventory and we achieved that,” said Tom Brenneke,(top right photo) president of Guardian Real Estate Services.

“Immediately following this successful auction, we were approached by our banking clients with approval to sell additional properties at our upcoming Northwest Auction.”

With the success of the West Coast Auction, Sperry Van Ness/Guardian is aggressively analyzing potential new properties for the MarketMaker™ Northwest Commercial Real Estate Auction scheduled for September 30. Additional property listings are being welcomed before August 30, subject to stringent pre-qualification criteria.

Auction information can be found at http://www.themarketmaker.com/

Contact: David Ebeling, Ebeling Communications, (949) 278-7851, mailto:7david@ebelingcomm.com-

Grubb & Ellis Reports 2009 Second Quarter Results

SANTA ANA, CA (Aug. 6, 2009) – Grubb & Ellis Company (NYSE: GBE), a leading real estate services and investment firm, today reported revenue of $124.6 million for the second quarter of 2009, compared with second quarter 2008 revenue of $158.4 million.

The company reported first-half 2009 revenue of $244.8 million, compared with revenue of $310.7 million for the comparable 2008 period.

The net loss attributable to the company for the second quarter of 2009 was $32.8 million, or $0.52 per share, compared with a net loss of $5.4 million, or $0.08 per share, in the same period a year ago.

For the first six months of 2009, the company reported a net loss of $74.3 million, or $1.17 per share, compared with a net loss of $11.7 million, or $0.18 per share, in the first six months of 2008.

Second Quarter Highlights

--Completed the disposition of Danbury Corporate Center (top right photo) for $72.4 million. Net proceeds from the sale were applied against the company’s revolving credit facility.

--Recruited 13 senior-level brokerage sales professionals during the quarter, bringing to 68 the number of top brokerage sales professionals who have joined in the past 12 months.

--Won three significant Corporate Services portfolio assignments.

--Awarded 20 new property and facilities management assignments during second quarter totaling 4 million square feet of property.

--Ranked by Robert A. Stanger & Co. as the No. 2 public non-traded REIT sponsor based on equity investment sales for the second quarter, with $208.7 million in total equity raised during the three-month period.

The company was ranked as the No. 1 sponsor of public non-traded REITs based on equity investments sales for the first six months of the year with $406.5 million in total equity raised during the period.

Announced the formation of Energy & Infrastructure Advisors, a joint venture with Meridian Companies that intends to sponsor retail and institutional investment products focused on opportunities in the energy and infrastructure sector.

Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (adjusted EBITDA) for the second quarter of 2009 was negative $9.3 million, compared with positive adjusted EBITDA of $12.5 million in the same period a year ago.

The 2009 second-quarter adjusted EBITDA results excluded the following charges:

· $9.7 million related to the company’s investment management programs,
· $2.0 million in real estate-related impairments, and
· $5.1 million of stock-based compensation and amortization of signing bonuses.

For the first six months of 2009, the company reported adjusted EBITDA of negative $25.8 million, compared with positive adjusted EBITDA of $20.0 million in the same period a year ago.

For a complete copy of the company's news release and financials, please contact Janice McDill , 312.698.6707, janice.mcdill@grubb-ellis.com

MBA Survey: Q2 2009 Commercial/ Multifamily Originations Up from Last Quarter, Down from Last Year

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Aug. 6, 2009) - Second quarter 2009 commercial and multifamily mortgage loan originations were 50 percent higher than during the first quarter of 2009, a quarter with very little activity, but remained 54 percent lower than during the same period last year, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) Quarterly Survey of Commercial/Multifamily Mortgage Bankers Originations.

"Commercial and multifamily mortgage originations continue to feel the effects of the recession and the credit crunch, with volumes 54 percent below last year's second quarter, and 83 percent below the peak seen in the second quarter of 2007," said Jamie Woodwell, (top right photo) MBA's Vice President of Commercial Real Estate Research.

"A 50 percent increase in volumes between the first and second quarter of this year follows a traditional seasonal increase in the second quarter. It also likely signals that commercial and multifamily mortgage originations bottomed in the first quarter of 2009."

SECOND QUARTER 2009 54 PERCENT LOWER THAN SECOND QUARTER 2008

The 54 percent overall decrease in commercial/multifamily lending activity during the second quarter was driven by decreases in originations for all property types.

When compared to the second quarter of 2008, the decrease included an 81 percent decrease in loans for office properties, a 77 percent decrease in loans for hotel properties, a 70 percent decrease in loans for health care properties, a 65 percent decrease in loans for industrial properties, a 51 percent decrease in retail property loans, and a 21 percent decrease in multifamily property loans.

Among investor types, commercial bank portfolios saw a decrease of 83 percent compared to last year's second quarter.

There was also a 57 percent decrease in loans for conduits for CMBS, a 54 percent decrease in loans for life insurance companies, and the dollar volume of loans for Government Sponsored Enterprises (or GSEs - Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) saw a slight increase of 2 percent.

SECOND QUARTER 2009 50 PERCENT HIGHER THAN FIRST QUARTER 2009

Second quarter 2009 mortgage originations were 50 percent higher than originations in the first quarter. Due to the low base of originations in the first quarter, the percentage increases seen in the second quarter are quite dramatic.

Among investor types, loans for conduits for CMBS saw an increase in loan volume of 471 percent compared to the first quarter, loans for life insurance companies saw an increase in loan volume of 46 percent compared to first quarter 2009, GSEs' volume increased by 39 percent during the same time span, and originations for commercial bank portfolios increased 6 percent from the first quarter to second quarter 2009.

Compared to the first quarter of 2009, second quarter originations for health care properties saw a 173 percent increase.

There was a 129 percent increase for hotel properties, a 93 percent increase for retail properties, a 73 percent increase for multifamily properties, a 28 percent decrease for office properties, and a 46 percent decrease for industrial properties.

CONTACT: Carolyn Kemp, (202) 557-2727, ckemp@mortgagebankers.org