Latest news with #CushmanandWakefield
Business Times
17-06-2025
- Business
- Business Times
DayOne seeks US$1 billion private credit for data centre expansion
[SINGAPORE] DayOne Data Centers Singapore is seeking a private credit loan of at least US$1 billion to fund its expansion plans, according to people familiar with the matter. The proposed loan, which can be upsized by an additional US$250 million, is set to pay an interest of 9.5 per cent to 10 per cent, the people said, who asked not to be identified discussing private matters. The financing will have a four-year tenor and may include a payment-in-kind piece, they said. The deal is still in early stages and could be subject to change, the people said. Singapore-headquartered DayOne did not respond to a request for comment. Artificial intelligence advances are fuelling demand for data centre fundraisings in Asia, a region that has seen a series of record breaking loans. Some of these deals go beyond the traditional bank lending space, which is struggling to keep up with the rapid pace of expansion for data storage and processing. Demand for data centre expansion in Asia is set to grow by about 32 per cent a year in the region through 2028, according to real estate services firm Cushman and Wakefield, outpacing expected growth of 18 per cent in the US. Last week, DayOne, formerly the international arm of GDS Holdings, secured RM15 billion (S$4.5 billion) of multicurrency loans to support its green data centres in Malaysia's Johor state, Bloomberg News reported. The facility, which is its biggest-ever borrowing, is also among the largest syndicated financings for the sector by a borrower in Asia. BLOOMBERG
Montreal Gazette
10-06-2025
- Business
- Montreal Gazette
‘A trophy asset': Developers are lining up to buy iconic downtown Bay building
Developers have already started bidding to purchase Montreal's iconic Hudson's Bay building on Ste-Catherine St. The new vocation for the 134-year-old building that helped launch Montreal's modern downtown core has yet to be determined, however. A little more than a month after it was announced the flagship store would be liquidated, one of 80 Hudson's Bay stores nationwide to be shut and sold because of faltering sales, interested buyers have put in bids, said Glenn Castanheira, director of the Montréal centre ville business development corporation. Who the bidders are and what their plans are for the building won't be known for another month or two, Castanheira said. Montréal centre-ville has been in regular contact with Hudson's Bay officials to discuss how to keep the site from becoming an urban eyesore until a new development project begins. 'We're happy, but we're not surprised there are multiple offers on the table, given how much of a trophy asset this building is,' Castanheira said. Located downtown across from the recently renovated Phillips Square, and with the reconstruction of Ste-Catherine St. in that sector completed, the area sees 90,000 people walking by on a good day. With its direct access to the métro system and proximity to a future REM light-rail station that will take passengers to Trudeau airport in 20 minutes, the building could be redeveloped in numerous ways, Castanheira said. Possibilities include a multi-storey residential development, a hotel or a mixed-use project with commercial spaces on the bottom floors and a condo tower or office buildings on top. 'On the ground floor you could imagine a mixed retail experience, with something like (gourmet Italian grocery store) Eataly,' he suggested. Or a hotel, with a lobby on the street level along with restaurants and specialized services like a spa and beauty salon. Brent Robinson, managing director for the Montreal branch of commercial real estate developer Cushman and Wakefield, also predicted The Bay building would be coveted. 'You're right on top of the métro, you're right on Ste-Catherine St. I'm not surprised to hear there's already some offers because the location alone is A class. I'm sure a lot of the major developers in the city are licking their chops over it.' Possible uses could include putting a large retailer on the lower floors, then residential or office space above. While vacancy rates for Class B and C office space is close to 20 per cent in Montreal's central core, according to Cushman and Wakefield's latest report, there is a lack of higher-quality Class A office space in downtown Montreal, Robinson said. There was a development proposal in 2021 to erect a 25-storey office tower on the north end of The Bay's building, which had the approval of city officials. Soaring vacancy rates caused by the COVID-19 pandemic scuttled that project. Lower interest rates and the levelling off of construction costs means 'the timing is better today for this project to hit the market than it would have been 18 months ago,' Robinson said. A challenge for any developer will be to maintain the heritage value of the distinctive red sandstone structure built in 1891. Two beaver pelts and one elk hide Major cities Canada-wide are grappling with how to repurpose their Bay stores. Winnipeg's six-storey Hudson's Bay closed in November 2020 after years of falling sales. Valued at $0 because of the predicted cost of renovations, The Bay handed over ownership in 2022 of the then 96-year-old building to an Indigenous organization in exchange for the symbolic payment of two beaver pelts and one elk hide. The Southern Chiefs Organization planned to spend $130 million to turn it into a mixed-use building that would include affordable housing for First Nations people, restaurants and a museum. The Ste-Catherine St. store is evaluated at $64,130,000, according to Montreal's property assessment roll. Hudson's Bay paid $2.2 million in taxes on the 564,000-square-foot property in 2024. British Columbia billionaire real estate developer Weihong (Ruby) Liu signed an agreement to purchase the leases for 28 Bay stores across Canada to create her own retail chain. She chose suburban sites that she said would be easier to redevelop than flagship stores. Converting the Montreal property could take as long as 10 years, Castanheira said. Local merchants are worried the building could fall into disrepair, becoming a magnet for graffiti, drug use, squatters or worse. Many of Montreal's vacant sites have been the victims of arson. They include the three-storey building next to the Super Sexe strip bar across the street from the Eaton Centre, which burnt down in 2021. The lot where it once stood is still a vacant hole on Ste-Catherine St. in the heart of the downtown core. 'Montreal has some very lax bylaws when it comes to managing vacant properties,' Castanheira said. His main worry is the property will be bought by a building speculator who lets it sit vacant for decades. Another concern is that Montreal, which has ultimate say over zoning laws, could take a long time to issue the necessary permits to allow redevelopment, said Concordia University economist Moshe Lander. 'Whether you're putting in residential space or commercial or industrial space, it's often the municipalities that become the impediment, saying we need to review,' Lander said. 'That's partly why Canada as a whole finds itself in a major housing crisis. And Montreal happens to be particularly bad.' Montréal centre-ville is in talks with the Hudson's Bay Company to maintain the facade and dress up the windows of the hulking edifice with images showing the history of the building. With other large downtown retail sites possibly facing the same fate as The Bay, Montreal needs to develop an urban plan to prepare for their departures, Lander said. 'The Bay is one of many changes that are going to happen over the next 10 to 20 years,' he said. 'Is there a plan in place? Is there a vision, or are we going to keep doing this in a piecemeal sort of way?' History of The Bay building Scottish-born retail magnate Henry Morgan made the risky decision to move his flourishing business from Victoria Square in lower Montreal to the mainly residential area on Ste-Catherine St. W. in 1891. Morgan was betting urban development would move further north and was proven right, with his store selling dry goods, dresses and fashion items paving the way for the development of Montreal's modern downtown core. Morgan spared little expense, importing high-quality red sandstone for the facade of the four-storey building. He hired Scottish architect John Pierce, who designed the department store in the grand Richardsonian Romanesque style, characterized by heavy stonework, rounded arches and deeply recessed openings. The building was considered to be 'the finest structure devoted to the retail business in North America,' historian Robert N. Wilkins wrote in The Gazette in 2014. The store, run by Morgan's family after his death in 1893, was prosperous. In 1923, it expanded northward with the construction of an eight-storey structure. There was a Steinberg's grocery store in the basement starting in 1952. In 1960, the Hudson's Bay Company bought Morgan's and enlarged the store again, moving it all the way to de Maisonneuve Blvd. by 1967. It was still known as Morgan's till 1972. The Hudson's Bay Company announced in April it would be liquidating all of its 80 stores across Canada.
Los Angeles Times
24-05-2025
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
Pushing more Americans into homelessness is no way to revitalize downtowns
The first couple of years of the Reagan administration were rough on most Americans. His 1981 cuts to safety net programs led to an additional 6 million people falling into poverty between 1980 and 1983. Coupled with an unemployment of nearly 11% during his first term, Reagan ended up raising taxes more than 10 times during his presidency to try to clean up the mess his 1981 cuts made. However, elements of that economic devastation continue to haunt us today. One of the most obvious examples is the explosion of homeless encampments in the nation's downtowns, which began during Reagan's presidency and led to the first federal legislative response to homelessness, in 1987. Here we are nearly four decades later: The country has its highest number of homeless people since tracking began, and House Republicans just voted to cut safety programs. It's as if those Reagan years taught them nothing about cause and effect. Yes, we have a $36-trillion national debt, and Moody's just downgraded our credit rating. We have to draw in the purse strings for the sake of our fiscal stability. But it matters where you make the cuts. Creating a scenario that could increase poverty and homelessness is wildly counterproductive. Even setting aside for the moment the human costs, the economic case for reducing homelessness is painfully clear. The commercial real estate value of our downtowns is eroded by vacancies, with Downtown L.A. suffering a rate of more than 30%, according to a recent Cushman and Wakefield analysis. And that wealth is going to continue to flee downtown because people avoid downtown. Why? Safety concerns. Something about seeing a bunch of boarded-up buildings and tents on the streets doesn't feel comforting. A federal budget crafted to crush the most vulnerable people will push countless Americans out of their precarious housing and onto the streets. The Republicans' vision will create more encampments — certainly no way to address the public's safety concerns or revitalize downtowns. It's impossible to make America great without first taking care of her people — all of her people. All the fancy strip malls in the suburban world won't change that. In Downtown L.A. in 1983, Bullock's at 7th Street and Broadway shuttered its doors. That same year, Gimbels in New York said goodbye. And in my hometown of Detroit, the vast Hudson's — second in size only to Macy's in New York — also closed. That wasn't just a reflection of changing shopping habits. That was also a microcosm of the economic erosion that was plaguing the heart of our cultural hubs after those devastating budget cuts in 1981. A municipality's best architecture is often downtown. The best historic buildings are near courthouses and Main Streets. When America cared about its downtowns, entire cities and states thrived. We can't afford to give up on our urban centers. Local officials get that; cities perennially float plans and tweak policies in the hope of revitalizing these areas. But before elected officials focus on removing red tape from acquiring liquor licenses or offering tax breaks to would-be developers, they must help the people sleeping on the streets in front of the buildings that cities want to reopen. Until that happens, the economic potential of our downtowns will stay in limbo. Californians take this risk seriously. Assemblymember Matt Haney (D-San Francisco) is spearheading a multilayered initiative to revitalize struggling downtowns across California since the pandemic. For more than a year he's met with mayors and other leaders from nine cities to identify the barriers to a thriving downtown. This week Haney, who chairs the Assembly's Downtown Recovery Committee, announced a package with 13 initiatives designed to bring life back to civic centers. Three of them specifically target homelessness. As far as I'm concerned, those are the only three that matter. If the public sector can get people off the streets and into shelters, the private sector will do the rest. 'I think that the cities now have the tools and the legal clarity to effectively address encampments,' Haney told me this week. 'They can clear persistent encampments, but they also need to have places for people to go.' That last point cannot be ignored. 'Cities now are more focused on those short-term shelters and transitional housing and ensuring there are adequate placements,' he said — a crucial component given that last summer the Supreme Court endorsed the power of cities in California and the West to break up encampments, and this month Gov. Gavin Newsom has made that tactic a talking point. 'What we don't want to see is just clearing an encampment so that people then get up and move two blocks away,' Haney added. 'Nor does it make much sense to spend money to put somebody in jail solely because they're homeless. That's not going to be a solution.' His take is that the top priority for the state government and for mayors should be funding for 'homelessness response, which really is focused on being able to remove encampments and get people inside.' Obviously that's easier said than done. But if that isn't done, nothing else will work. Unhoused people will have no path out of homelessness, and our downtowns will continue their death spiral. @LZGranderson
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
23-04-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
Office completions dip 13% due to delays in OCs, project timelines: Report
New office completions across India's top eight office markets fell 13 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) in the first quarter (Q1) of 2025 to 10.7 million square feet (msf), down from 12.2 msf recorded during the same period in 2024, according to a report by real estate services firm Cushman and Wakefield. The report attributed the drop to delays in obtaining occupancy certifications (OC), which pushed project timelines. An OC is a legal document issued by local authorities certifying that a building complies with approved plans and safety norms, and is suitable for occupancy. Among the top eight cities, Bengaluru, Pune and Delhi NCR together contributed 9.2 msf — or 92 per cent — of new office supply in the quarter. In contrast, cities like Chennai, Kolkata and Ahmedabad recorded no new completions, leading to lower vacancy rates and higher rentals in these markets. 'Supply constraints and strong occupier demand in the first quarter of the year across India's top eight office markets have resulted in a drop in the vacancy rate by 55 basis points to 15.7 per cent, from 16.25 per cent in Q4 2024,' the report stated. Most cities, except Bengaluru and Pune, reported a decline in vacancy as supply lagged demand. Despite new additions, robust leasing and limited supply in most markets further tightened vacancies, with the office real estate market recording a decline in vacancy rates for a seventh consecutive quarter. Office leasing activity remained strong, with gross leasing volume (GLV) across the top eight markets rising 5 per cent Y-o-Y to 20.3 msf in Q1 2025. 'Fresh leasing made up nearly 80 per cent of the activity this quarter, marking the third consecutive quarter of this trend and pointing to sustained occupier expansion,' the report noted. Similarly, net absorption — or the volume of newly occupied office space — increased by 20 per cent Y-o-Y in Q1 2025 to 13.4 msf. Delhi NCR, Mumbai and Bengaluru collectively accounted for 63 per cent of this total. The first quarter of 2025 also recorded the third-highest quarterly net absorption on record. By sector, the IT-BPM (information technology-business process management) segment retained its position as the largest occupier of office space, accounting for 29 per cent of GLV. This was followed by banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) at 22 per cent, while flex space operators maintained a steady 13 per cent share. Global capability centres (GCCs) increased their share to 31 per cent, up from 28 per cent in 2024. Commenting on the office market's future outlook, Anshul Jain, chief executive, India, SEA and APAC tenant representation, said: 'While we remain watchful of evolving global economic conditions, India's position as the global hub for technology, research and development, and innovation continues to strengthen.' 'The strong performance of the GCC segment, now contributing over 30 per cent of gross leasing, underscores this confidence, and we expect this trajectory to continue with more greenfield entries and expansion mandates,' he added. He further noted that domestic economic factors, such as easing inflation and anticipated rate cuts, will support occupier activity. 'With a resilient demand base, rising flex uptake, and healthy supply additions in key micro-markets, we anticipate the office market will maintain its growth footing in the quarters ahead,' he said.
South China Morning Post
24-03-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
AI boom drives record loans for data centres in Southeast Asia
Artificial intelligence (AI) advances are fuelling a funding frenzy for data centres in Asia, spawning a series of record-breaking loans and filling the pipeline with even more potential deals. Advertisement In the span of a week, two major Asian data-centre operators secured their biggest-ever loans, partly earmarked for the expansion of their operations in Malaysia , which is becoming a hub for these facilities. The deals underscore the industry's appeal in attracting a range of investors – from banks to real estate players – as the AI boom drives demand. They also show how much of a data-centre hotspot Asia has become, with demand set to expand by about 32 per cent a year through 2028, according to data by real state services firm Cushman and Wakefield, outpacing the US' expected growth of 18 per cent, though US tariff policy could be a wild card for the industry. A surge in demand of AI services and the US-China tech war are driving a data-centre boom in Southeast Asia. Photo: Shutterstock 'The surge in demand for data-centre capacity has piqued the interest of an ever-growing diverse pool of capital investors and providers across Asia-Pacific,' said Yemi Tepe, a partner at law firm Morrison Foerster, who has worked on tech-related financial transactions. Advertisement
