The $460-million addition to Westfield San Francisco Centre opens at the end of the week, adding 950,000 sf to the existing 500,000-sf mall. The transformation of the landmark Emporium site by Forest City Enterprises and Westfield Group adds among other things a 357,000-sf Bloomingdale’s department store, the first new ground-up Bloomingdale’s on the West Coast and the largest outside of Manhattan. The site retains only the Emporium's facade and its 102-foot-wide skylit dome built in 1908.

San Francisco Centre opened in 1988, anchored by what was then the largest Nordstrom in the nation. In 1996, the adjoining Emporium closed after its parent, Broadway Stores, was acquired by Federated Department Stores. The following year, the REIT Urban Shopping Centers Inc. acquired a half interest in the property as well as the management assignment. Westfield Group acquired the REIT in 2002 and the following year cut a joint venture agreement with Forest City Enterprises, which had acquired the redevelopment rights to the Emporium site from Federated.

Earlier this year, regulators issued a proposal that calls for banks with a high concentration of commercial real estate loans to take additional steps to manage the risk of these loans. These steps, according to the guidance, could include regular reports on market conditions; detailed tracking of properties, developers and tenants; enhanced underwriting practices; and additional capital.

Federal banking regulators have proposed new guidance for banks with a high concentration of commercial real estate loans. It suggests banks adopt additional risk management measures.  That's not, however, how banks, bank examiners and Wall Street analysts have interpreted the guidance, according to bankers who testified at a House hearing.

The JD-U today flayed the ruling UPA for its policy on Special Economic Zones (SEZ) calling it "the biggest real estate scam in India" and sought immediate suspension of implementation of the "anti-farmer Act".

The SEZ Act is anti-farmer as it aims to rob farmers of their fertile land for the benefit of corporate land mafia.

Sales of US existing homes in the last month likely fell to the lowest level in more than two years.  This was according to the National Association of Realtors. Existing home sales likely fell to an annualized rate of 6.18 million in August from 6.33 million in July, according to the median estimate of 75 economists polled by Reuters.

California's two largest metropolitan areas, one in the north, the other in the south, are fast becoming home price decline markets as 12 of the total 15 counties from both areas suffered sales declines of more than 20 percent in August.

Coming off a year of record sales in 2005, all 15 counties in the two major population areas suffered home sales declines, while three counties in the nine-county San Francisco Bay area and one county in the Southern California region yielded home price declines, according to La Jolla-based DataQuick Information Services.