Brookfield Properties Corp

Brookfield Properties Corp., owner of the World Financial Center in Lower Manhattan, and buyout firm Blackstone Group agreed to acquire Trizec Properties Inc. for $4.8 billion plus the assumption of $4.1 billion in debt, the second-largest takeover of a real estate investment trust. Trizec, whose chairman is Canadian real estate mogul Peter Munk, would almost triple Toronto-based Brookfield's U.S.

Brookfield Properties Corp., owner of the World Financial Center in Lower Manhattan, and buyout firm Blackstone Group agreed to acquire Trizec Properties Inc. for $4.8 billion plus the assumption of $4.1 billion in debt, the second-largest takeover of a real estate investment trust. Trizec, whose chairman is Canadian real estate mogul Peter Munk, would almost triple Toronto-based Brookfield's U.S.

The Figueroa Street corridor in downtown Los Angeles is already thick with hotels, restaurants and office towers. So is it ready for the vast project announced this week on the site of the Wilshire Grand hotel? The $1-billion proposal by owner Korean Air calls for demolishing the 1950s hotel and an adjoining office building and replacing it with two skyscrapers: a 60-story office tower and a 40-story hotel. It's just the latest in a series of projects that have been remaking the corridor.

Maguire Properties Inc., a Los Angeles real estate investment trust under siege from some of its largest investors, reported a wider fourth-quarter loss Tuesday as its interest payments ate into earnings. The company's loss climbed to $44.5 million, or 95 cents a share, from a year-earlier loss of $8.77 million, or 19 cents. Funds from operations, a key measure of REITs' performance, fell to $7.76 million, or 14 cents a share, from $32.9 million, or 60 cents, a year earlier.

Raising its profile among West Coast developers, Brookfield Homes of California Inc. said it will take control of the home-building operations of Catellus Development Corp. for $147.5 million in cash. Brookfield, the Costa Mesa subsidiary of Toronto-based Brookfield Properties Corp., will manage a new limited-liability company that will own 900 Catellus lots in 16 projects, primarily in Orange County. Catellus, one of the largest developers in the West, will retain a $22.

Shares of Maguire Properties Inc., the biggest office landlord in downtown Los Angeles, rose 8.6% on Friday amid speculation that bidders vying to buy the company would raise its value. Since late last year the real estate investment trust based in Santa Monica has been under attack from investors who want Robert Maguire, the 72-year-old chairman and chief executive, to step down or sell the debt-laden company.

Chicago real estate tycoon Sam Zell agreed Sunday to sell his Equity Office Properties Trust, the nation's largest office portfolio, to the world's biggest buyout fund for about $20 billion in the largest real estate deal of all time. The buyer is Manhattan-based Blackstone Group, one of the most active real estate investors in the world with about 2,450 properties valued at more than $43 billion before the Equity Office acquisition.

Kimco Realty Corp., a leader in purchasing, developing and operating shopping centers anchored by supermarkets, said Monday that it would buy Pan Pacific Retail Properties Inc. for about $2.9 billion, beefing up its presence in the Western United States. The deal continues nearly two years of rapid acquisition activity in the U.S. real estate investment trust sector, and came a day after Australia's Centro Properties Group agreed to buy mall owner Heritage Property Investment Trust Inc. for $1.

In a blockbuster deal, Maguire Properties Inc. will pay about $3 billion to acquire 23 office buildings in Los Angeles and Orange counties from New York investment firm Blackstone Group -- including the 52-story Two California Plaza in downtown L.A., according to people familiar with the purchase. The deal would be the second-largest office transaction in Southern California history, after the $3.2-billion acquisition of Arden Realty last year by General Electric Co.

Maguire Properties Inc., one of Southern California's largest real estate investment trusts, said Friday that it was no longer looking for a buyer. Its stock tumbled 16% on the news. Saying it received no viable acquisition proposals since it began to consider bids in December, Maguire blamed a credit crunch that has made it difficult for private equity investors to obtain financing for buyouts.