(Bloomberg) -- Investcorp Holdings BSC has raised about $1 billion for its first private equity fund focused on North American assets, according to people familiar the matter. 
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The biggest private equity and alternative asset manager in the Middle East is set to complete a first close on the fund soon, and aims to eventually raise about $2 billion, the people said. The fund will focus on investing in areas including technology and data companies, along with supply chain and industrial services.

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Medical office properties are rapidly becoming some of the most prized assets in real estate. They have survived the global crisis caused by the spread of the coronavirus with strong rents, on average, and very little vacant space.
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“A well-functioning medical office is going to trade as aggressively as the best downtown office building,” says Chris Bodnar vice chairman and co-Head of healthcare and life sciences capital markets for CBRE, working in the firm’s Denver offices.

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Investment capital ebbs and flows into commercial real estate, according to the economy and a multitude of other factors. During 2020, capital aligned itself with new investor priorities, especially as they looked for office and apartment assets.
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Investment volume as a whole dropped in 2020, and especially in sectors such as retail and hospitality, Newmark reported in its Q4 2020 Capital Markets report. Even so, investors showed renewed interest in office and multifamily product away from gateway cities — often in urban locations in the case of office product, but definitely in the suburbs for apartments and some office. 

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Over the last year, workers have heard the constant refrain: Adaptation is everything. The unprecedented workplace situations and scenarios unleashed by the coronavirus pandemic have accelerated remote work, emptied out traditional offices and even led many workers to relocate. 
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But talk to talent professionals about the process not of moving out but moving back into offices, and it’s clear that few companies have leadership teams or human resources divisions that have grappled with the change that is yet to come.

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Investors have gathered billions of dollars to turn vacant commercial real estate properties into apartments. But so far there are not many empty office buildings or distressed hotel properties available to buy.
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The crisis caused by the coronavirus hurt properties from regional malls to full-service hotels. But building owners continue to negotiate with lenders. They hope vaccines now being distributed will let Americans return to business and let these buildings return to profitability.

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(Bloomberg) -- Real-estate bosses at Blackstone Group Inc. quietly smiled when Britain’s biggest-selling tabloid unwittingly endorsed their largest European real estate deal since the pandemic.
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The Sun’s front page teased readers that foreign travel curbs meant they’d be splashing their cash at the much-maligned seaside town of Bognor Regis this year. Less than two weeks earlier, it had emerged Blackstone was in talks to spend about 900 million pounds ($1.3 billion) on a majority stake in the owner of Butlins, which has run a popular holiday park in the south-England town for 60 years.

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The past year has been a historically harmful time for the hotel industry as the coronavirus pandemic pushed demand off a cliff, and it has yet to climb back up.
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This fall wasn't accompanied by an avalanche of hotel bankruptcies, as lenders provided enough forbearance to keep hotel owners hanging on throughout much of 2020. That is now beginning to change. 

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(Bloomberg)—WeWork Cos. cut prices across the U.S. in the past few months, indicating that a post-pandemic recovery will come slowly for office rentals. 
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The New York-based company reduced the price of most rental units—from individual desks to small offices—in early November and again in January, according to data compiled for Bloomberg by an independent researcher. The average price reduction overall was about 10%, the data show. Some locations declined by as much as 25%.
 
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A bill to do away with a tax break that has been in the crosshairs of reformers for years has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives.
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Derided by critics as a loophole, the tax break, known as carried interest, which benefits equity fund managers but also partnerships that own commercial real estate, has remained part of the tax code since 1954.

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