Downtown skyscraper sellathon gains steam

By STAN BULLARD10:50 am, January 29, 2007

KBS Realty Advisors, a real estate investment and asset management firm in Newport Beach, Calif., has put Eaton Center in downtown Cleveland up for sale with Granite Partners of New York and the Cleveland office of CB Richard Ellis, and likely will market the Penton Media Building by year-end.

That’s the word from Chuck Lindwall, KBS regional vice president, who said the company follows a strategy of holding assets a set period and exceeded it in both cases because the investors it represented liked the properties. KBS bought 28-story Eaton Center in 1997 and 21-story Penton, its first foray into downtown Cleveland, in 1996. It’s a rosier market to sell into than a few years ago, but Mr. Lindwall noted, “We didn’t know that then.”

Recent Sales & Current Offerings

Various Current "For Sale" & "Sold" properties

Home foreclosures are highest in Ohio

Ohio again leads the nation in home foreclosures.

About 3.3 percent of Ohio homes and small apartment buildings were in foreclosure in October through December, the highest rate of any state and three times the national rate of 1.1 percent, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Ohio's rate has been higher than the national average since the end of 1998.

New foreclosure filings in Ohio increased by 1 percent in the third quarter of 2006 from the second quarter, trailing only Michigan and Rhode Island for the largest increase.
Also, 7 percent of loans in Ohio were delinquent in the period. The national delinquency rate was 4.7 percent.