PhillyInc

Alesco Financial Inc., a firm that invests in real estate securities, paid its outside managers Cohen & Co. more than $48 million in management and investment transaction fees in 2006, according to a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm was founded by Cohen & Co. last year. It's not uncommon for specialty real estate trusts such as Alesco to operate under this sort of arrangement. Both Alesco and Cohen are based in Philadelphia. -- Jonathan Berr

In case you were holding your breath, the FTC and U.S. Attorney General's Antitrust Division just finished two years of work and released a 78-page report on the state of competition among real estate brokers nationwide. It summarizes a lot of statistics (80 percent of prospective home-buyers now start their search online) and offers some commentary ("The cost of an agent’s service should go down."). It doesn't seem to call for any major regulatory changes. But it does, at the end, call on state lawmakers and regulators to come together to repeal laws "such as minimum-service and anti-rebate provisions" that "limit choice and reduce the ability of new brokerage models." New Jersey is one of the states that bars rebates. Thomas Ginsberg

Inga Saffron poses a worthy question in her posting today at Changing Skyline about development in Philadelphia:

"Wouldn't you rather have more development like Urban Outfitters and fewer slots barns and eight-story garages?"

Brian O'Neill's O'Neill Property Group is doing a brownfield-reclamation project in Malvern called Uptown Worthington, and he has snagged one of the country's hottest upscale film-entertainment venues. According to The Inquirer, O'Neill has signed Muvico Entertainment L.L.C. to put in a movie and entertainment complex at the 100-acre, mixed-use community he is developing at the site of the former Worthington Steel factory. The complex is scheduled for completion in 2009 and will have more than 1.6 million square feet of space for retail, entertainment, offices and residences. O'Neill already has signed Wegmans Food Market. He tells the WSJ: "Worthington's target market wants more than just a movie, and Muvico gives customers a night of entertainment." In other spots, Muvico's amenities have included luxury boxes, valet parking and a child-care center. The Inqurier's Carrie Rickey noted in a recent story that Muvico is "going back to the future" with neo-palaces such as Xanadu, scheduled to open next year at New Jersey's Meadowlands. -- Thomas Ginsberg

Clever marketing. Better hope you don't see your house here. This video was created by ForeclosureFreeSearch.com Inc., a seller of foreclosure data, and posted on YouTube today.

PhillyInc: How is Philadelphia's real estate market holding up in the housing downturn?
Long: "Compared to the rest of the country, the Philadelphia market is holding up pretty well. Our sales were down from the previous year but the previous year was one of the hottest in history."

Brent Archer, an options analyst and writer at Investors Observer, writes on Toll Bros. at AOL Bloggingstocks that he's holding firm on TOL given the fed's latest decision to hold interest rates steady.

Colliers L&A's latest quarterly survey of regional commercial real estate market is out today (PDF download). Trends "followed the predicted course."

Nicholas S. Schorsch, who was ousted last year from the REIT he founded, American Financial Realty Trust, doesn't see the $1.5 billion initial public offering of his new REIT called American Realty Capital Trust Inc. as a comeback or a return from the dead.

"The last time I checked, I hadn't died yet," Schorsch told PhillyInc in an interview from his office in New York City.

Whether Wall Street finds his spunk inspiring remains to be seen. Shares of Real Estate Investment Trusts, or REITS, have gotten pounded this year amid worries about the meltdown in the subprime mortgage market. The concerns have also have reached the commercial area. CB Richard Elis Group Inc., the largest commercial real estate broker, was downgraded yesterday by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. because of worries about a slowdown.

But Schorsch told us he is convinced that the time is "ideal" for his new REIT based in Jenkintown to go public.

"We have long-term leases with 100 percent occupancy," he said, adding that his company will focus on mid-range properties. "The market is good for the investor because it gives really stable returns."

His new American Capital Reality is focusing on single-tenant retail properties net-leased to investment grade or other credit worthy clients. These properties are a better investment than malls or office buildings because, his filing yesterday said, they "generally require less management and operating capital and have less recurring tenant turnover. ... In addition, since we intend to acquire properties that are geographically diverse, we expect to minimize the potential adverse impact of economic downturns in local markets."

As MarketWatch notes, analysts questioned Schorsch's strategy at his old firm of focusing on smaller commercial space instead of large marquee properties. Former American Financial Realty board member William Kahane has also joined American Capital Realty. Harold W. Pote, who succeeded Schorsch at American Financial Realty, died in June while vacationing in Turkey. The Jenkintown company is conducting a search for a successor.

- Jonathan Berr

Drexel University real estate people are among the potential buyers who have made repeat visits to the Inquirer and Daily News building at 400 North Broad Street and the parking garage and lot behind it on 15th Street in recent weeks.

Agents for Drexel's Center City medical campus, which includes the dorms, bookstore and classrooms surrounding Hahneman University Hospital, have also been talking to property owners in the 300 block of North 15th Street, just south of the papers' back door, according to real estate sources.

The papers' owner, Philadelphia Media Holdings LP, said last year it wanted to sell the 1920s-era tower, which has been underused since prior owners moved the printing presses and trucks to Upper Merion Township in the early 1990s. The neighboring property at 440 North Broad, once home to the late Inquirer owner Walter Annenberg's TV Guide magazine, now houses offices of the Philadelphia School District.

No word on whether Drexel would share space with, or displace, the 1,000-plus news, advertising, circulation, finance and online workers now in the space. Philadelphia Media chief executive officer Brian P. Tierney declined comment. A Drexel spokesman and the university's real estate office did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

- Joseph N. DiStefano

Dennis Gomes, the onetime president of Trump Taj Mahal, likes to boast that he "never ever gives up." Indeed, since leaving Atlantic City in 2005 after Columbia-Sussex Corp. bought his Aztar Corp., he's been trying to get back in the game. In 2006, he joined with New York real estate magnate Morris Bailey in a failed Poconos slots deal. Last summer, he teamed up with Bailey again to try to buy Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc., but The Donald evidently didn't like their offer.

Now, Gomes is trying yet again. He and David Cordish, owner of real estate development firm Cordish Co., of Baltimore, have created Gomes+Cordish Gaming Management L.L.C., based in Maryland. This is the same Cordish who took a run at buying Trump Entertainment Resorts in A.C. last month but couldn't nail the financing. Cordish's past projects include The Walk in Atlantic City and two Hard Rock-themed casino hotels in Florida. He's now working on a casino complex at the Indiana Downs racetrack.

For Gomes, another bite at the apple.

- Suzette Parmley

Debt-ridden Centro Properties Group, the big Australian shopping center owner, says it is looking to shed most, if not all, of its 700 U.S. shopping centers. As the 5th-largest mall owner, Centro was bound to have a presence locally. Remember three years ago Centro bought Kramont Realty Trust? Today, it owns about 25 shopping centers in the region, including Pilgrim Gardens Shopping Center in Drexel Hill, the Marlton Shopping Center in Marlton, and County Line Plaza in Souderton. And Centro maintains its mid-Atlantic regional office in Plymouth Meeting.

Had enough depressing news about the housing slump?
Let's check in with the commercial real estate sector for a moment.
CB Richard Ellis Inc. offered its fourth-quarter review of the Philadelphia regional office market and found that vacancy rates are down, leasing rates are up and things don't look too bad for the first part of 2008.
Surprised?
Well, remember that Philadelphia isn't exactly a Las Vegas or a Phoenix. No one will confuse us with a boom town. But by CB Richard Ellis' calculations, the vacancy rate in Center City's biggest submarket dipped to a healthy 9.2 percent. In part, that's related to small amount of true "trophy" buildings available in the blocks west of City Hall. (The Comcast Center, which recently opened, wasn't counted in the research.)
Things improved in the suburbs too. The Radnor area had been reporting vacancy rates of over 20 percent after Wyeth had moved operations to Montgomery County several years ago. But Lincoln National Corp.'s move into two office buildings on Radnor-Chester Road in the fourth quarter reduced the vacancy rate in what CB calls the Main Line submarket to 13.7 percent from 20.2 percent in the third quarter. - Mike Armstrong

Board members come and go so often that, unless the change involves a well-known name, few notice.

On Monday, Radnor-based Brandywine Realty Trust announced the resignation of two members of its board of trustees. Brandywine, developer of the prism-like Cira Centre near 30th Street Station, is a real estate investment trust focused on office properties.

Thomas F. August and Michael V. Prentiss stepped down from the board they'd joined little more than two years ago, following Brandywine's acquisition of Dallas-based Prentiss Properties Trust in a $3.3 billion deal.

Brandywine chairman Walter D'Alessio said in a statement that the company wished "Tom and Mike all the best in the future."

But the recent past may have been a different story.