Hilton Enters Agreement in China for 400 Properties

Hilton Worldwide has signed an exclusive license agreement with Plateno Hotels Group to launch and develop the Hampton by Hilton brand in China. Hampton plans to have over 400 deals signed, with the first hotel expected to open by the end of 2015, according to a GlobeSt.com report. Hampton has designed a 3-star hotel prototype to fit top-tier cities in China, serving value-conscious, quality-driven business and leisure travelers. Hampton by Hilton's portfolio in China will be a mixture of new builds, conversions and adaptive reuse properties. Plateno Hotels Group will lead the development and management of the hotels.

"We expect that this partnership will allow us to accelerate our efforts to gain broad geographic and chain scale distribution in China, enabling us to access a large, growing customer base for both in country and outbound business," said Jim Holthouser, executive vice president, global brands, Hilton Worldwide. "Our five existing brands in China are growing at a rapid pace, and after extensively researching the market, we've seen an untapped opportunity to grow in the upper economy to mid-scale category. We're now seizing the opportunity to introduce the Hampton by Hilton brand at scale with an unprecedented partnership with Plateno Hotels Group."

"We're thrilled to partner with the global hospitality leader Hilton Worldwide to bring Hampton by Hilton to China," said Eric Wu, CFO of Plateno Hotels Group. "There is a substantial demand in China for a quality mid-scale lodging option, and we believe that Hampton is the right product to meet this need. Its enthusiastic and caring culture, together with its sought-after amenities such as free Wi-Fi, clean, comfortable beds and a 100% satisfaction guarantee, will be very appealing to Chinese travelers."

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Global Effects on US Recovery

Preliminary reports suggest Europe may be slipping back into recession. 
That's one major danger to the US recovery. 

China suffered a rare trade deficit earlier in the year caused by weak external and internal demand after 5 months of decreased purchasing activity, and now manufacturing sector declines.  
Europe's double dip which looms stronger, will be affected further if China, a major market for European exports, continues to stagnate and shrink.  

That combined with credit shortages in Europe, means the easing of the sovereign debt crisis earlier this year, following the European Central Bank's(ECB) massive aid package, may all be for naught if global recession puts more pressure on a banking system already teetering on crisis.  Defaults and shrinking credit will reintroduce huge sovereign risk to a Euro Zone out of options other than full restructuring with dramatic write off's.  
And with a further domino effect on country risk through out the continent. 

The effect on the US in the banking/financial  sectors and credit availability and exports sectors certainly will echo with bad news.  

That scenario is one that could de-rail a nascent and fragile real estate recovery in the US (below).  Always a precursor to more serious troubles.  

One North American zone (in a hazardous world economy Canada and the US continue to build closer ties and interconnections across industry, energy and resources) advantage is a better positioned corporate sector and more stabally perceived fundamentals and political systems.  
In a volatile risk and surprise filled world that's a major capital attractor. 

Next week's release by the ECB may shed some light on money supply and recent bank lending - but doesn't presage the future.  

More important to the North American zone outlook, are the upcoming corporate earnings reports. 

Banks are set to contract loan portfolios by $1 trillion. This de-leveraging, though needed, will put further strain on the refinancing markets. Bond yields in Italy and Spain edge up. The German offer of a financial boost to the Euro zone financial rescue Fund, the European Financial Stability Fund, may ease concerns temporarily.

But we expect continued problems in Europe, absent some good news on fundamentals soon.

Architects Find Intriguing CRE Projects in China

With the US Markets still in recovery, many American architectural firms are finding work in China with commissions to build challenging new buildings. The New York Times published a new article examining the opportunities being found in China with firms like Heller Manus Architects, a 25-employee firm in San Francisco, which is now doing two-thirds of its work in China. James Zhen of Goettsch Partners noted that the opportunities may be due to a shortage of Chinese architects with the qualifications to execute large-scale commercial projects. "In my opinion," he says, "what most of them are missing is not the conceptual ideas, but rather the experience and ability to turn the concept designs into reality."

An excerpt from the article:

As Americans take on Chinese clients, they are adapting to some fresh nuances in the architect-client relationship. It's a swirl of patient relationship-building, fast-track decision-making and lyrical moments that, they say, would be unusual in American business dealings.

Chris McVoy, senior partner at Steven Holl Architects in New York, says a developer in Beijing gave the firm three months to develop a concept for a high-rise housing project that replaced a Mao-era factory in the heart of the city. The firm injected into the project Mr. Holl's long-simmering ideas about urbanism, tapping the earth underneath for geothermal energy, and fixing everything it saw wrong with the dreary Soviet-inspired high-rises in Chinese cities.

"We thought they'd say, 'You're crazy, forget it,' and we'd walk away," Mr. McVoy says. "We presented to about 20 people, and when we were finished, of course they all looked to their president to respond first. He said: 'Anybody can build buildings. Few can build poetry.' "

The project was built, complete with glass bridges linking the towers like neighborhood alleys in the sky. It led to the even more radical "groundscraper" headquarters for China Vanke, a big developer based in Shenzhen in southern China. The structure is the size of the Empire State Building laid out horizontally and raised five stories off the ground to provide a public park below.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Philip Blumberg on CNBC Asia Squawk Box 10/28/10

The Necessity of Investing In Commodities

The commodities market is one that investors need to be involved in, says Philip Blumberg, CEO of Blumberg Capital Partners. He told CNBC's Martin Soong & Adam Bakhtiar that he is concerned about China's growth trajectory.

Investing In Japan

Philip Blumberg, CEO of Blumberg Capital Partners tells CNBC's Martin Soong & Bernard Lo what he needs to see before he would start investing in Japan's real estate market.

Re-investing in US Real Estate

Philip Blumberg, CEO of Blumberg Capital Partners says he is looking to invest in "emerging markets" in U.S. He shares some of the top spots on his radar with CNBC's Martin Soong, Bernard Lo & Adam Bakhtiar.

Optimism About Japan

While investors are piling into "overheated " markets like China and Singapore, Philip Blumberg, CEO of Blumberg Capital Partners tells CNBC's Martin Soong, Adam Bakhtiar he sees reason to be more optimistic about Japan.