After its Rescue and Retooling, Former Sears Tower Stands Tall
	NorthMarq Brokers $44 Million Note Sale
	Jones Lang LaSalle Arranges Sale of Danbury Plaza Hotel
	CBRE Report: Office Rents Hit Bottom in Some U.S. Markets
	Red Capital Arranges $17 Million to Refinance Two Texas Seniors Communities

The sudden assumption in the commercial real estate world after the twin towers of the World Trade Center were demolished on 9/11 was that in a new era ruled by fears of urban terrorism iconic skyscrapers would suddenly fall out of fashion. Business at the nation’s highest building, the 110-story Sears Tower in Chicago, began to plummet as tenants retreated to lower office space elsewhere.

Fully nine years have passed, domestic terrorism doesn’t breed the same urgent fears and the Sears, renamed the Willis Tower, is making an impressive comeback. When U.S. Equities Realty took over as the building’s manager in 2008 from CB Richard Ellis, the complex’s 3.4 million sq. ft. in offices were limping along with a 22% vacancy, with most of its ground-floor retail, including a boarded-up Bonwit Teller store, empty and dark.

The note on the first two phases of Monte Vista Crossings, a retail shopping center in Turlock, Calif., has sold for approximately $44 million.

Broker Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels has closed the sale of the Danbury Plaza Hotel in Danbury, Conn., after negotiating an agreement on behalf of its client Pyramid Hotel Fund.

The buyer, described as a real estate investor, was not identified.
The 242-room hotel is located about 60 miles from New York City and is adjacent to the Matrix Corporate Center, former world headquarters of Union Carbide Corp.

Rental declines appear to be leveling off in a number of major U.S. cities, and some, such as Washington D.C. and New York, have reached the bottom of the rental cycle, according to a new, third-quarter report by CB Richard Ellis Group.

Red Capital Group LLC, a Columbus, Ohio-based real estate finance company, has arranged two Fannie Mae loans totaling $17.056 million to refinance two Alzheimer’s care centers in Texas.

With funding from Red’s mortgage finance arm, Red Mortgage Capital LLC, one of the loans went to JEA Senior Living to finance Cinco Ranch Alzheimer’s Special Care Center, a 66-bed facility developed in 2006 and 2007 in Katy, Texas. JEA Senior Living is a privately owned and operated management and development company based in Vancouver, Wash. that owns and/or operates 18 senior care properties in Washington, Oregon, California, Colorado, Texas and Illinois.