Most of the country’s commercial real estate properties are suffering from an increase in vacancy rates due to the recession. However, there are commercial properties suffering from non-use not because of the recession but because of bureaucracy. A case in point is the Hawthorne Plaza Mall which has suffered from vacancy for years now because of an impasse between the owners and the City Council.

Owner Arman Gabay’s The Charles Co is bent on bringing to life the mall and has asked City Hall for some ideas on how the government sees the development of the mall. The owner said it has pushed several development plans for the mall all of…

Residential real estate may be showing signs of very slow recovery but commercial real estate is just starting to feel the punch. New York-based real estate research firm Reis reported that retailers are trimming down to stay afloat resulting to lots of vacant stores in neighborhood centers, strip malls and regional malls. This is bad for consumers who now have to contend with fewer stores and less product choices.

Reis reports show that a total of 8.7 million square feet have been vacated by retail tenants in commercial properties in the first quarter of 2009. This is far greater than the 8.6 million square feet of commercial space vacated in the…

The first three months of the year was bad for the Manhattan real estate industry with home sales down by 47% compared to the number of sales in the same period last year. This was said to be a result of buyers getting jittery from closing deals due to the downfall of banking giants and the Wall Street meltdown. Prudential Douglas Ellima Real Estate and Miller Samuel Appraiser Inc reported that this year’s inventory of unsold units is the highest for this decade.

The inventories show a 15% increase in the number of unsold units at 10,445 which is way above the number of unsold units in the last three months…