Category Archives: Overseas Property

Property adviser to Calpers resigns

Posted on 27 Oct 2009 | Comments Off on Property adviser to Calpers resigns

Victor MacFarlane will remain under contract with the fund through year’s end

San Francisco businessman Victor MacFarlane is ending his longtime role as a property adviser to the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (Calpers), a spokeswoman for his firm said on Saturday.

The development came after property investments by the nation’s largest pension fund lost much of their value during the global economic downturn, costing the fund hundreds of millions of dollars.

MacFarlane Partners spokeswoman Julie Chase said that Mr MacFarlane will remain under contract with the giant pension fund through year’s end. She said that Mr MacFarlane resigned within the past month, but she would not say why.

Calls to Calpers spokeswoman Pat Macht at home and work were not immediately returned.

Mr MacFarlane had advised the pension fund for years, Ms Chase said. ‘More than a decade is probably fair.’

In January 2007, his firm helped engineer a US$970 million purchase by the pension fund of a majority share of a massive Southern California residential development known as LandSource, The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. Continue reading →

Comments Off on Property adviser to Calpers resigns

Posted in Overseas Property

Tagged , ,

Shanghai luxury hotel market heats up

Posted on 27 Oct 2009 | Comments Off on Shanghai luxury hotel market heats up

The world’s leading luxury hotels are rushing to expand in Shanghai ahead of next year’s World Expo, with hopes high for the upscale travel sector in the Chinese financial hub despite the global downturn.

The opulent Peninsula, the only new building on the main part of Shanghai’s historic Bund in 60 years, just opened, embracing the city’s Jazz Age heyday with a chauffeur-driven 1934 Rolls Royce Phantom and a Great Gatsby-esque pool.

The Peninsula’s owner, Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels Limited, is making a return to the ‘Paris of the East’ where it was founded after a 60-year absence, but it is facing stiff competition.

Ritz Carlton is building a second hotel here, Hyatt already has three landmark properties and Shangri-La is expanding from one to four hotels.

Conrad, Jumeirah, Waldorf Astoria and the legendary Peace Hotel – managed by Fairmont – are all also preparing to enter the fray, with work done or nearly completed on each property. Continue reading →

Comments Off on Shanghai luxury hotel market heats up

Posted in Overseas Property

Tagged , ,