Global hotel operator Accor said its Ennismore division acquired Our Habitas, a growing brand focused on luxury and sustainability with operations in Saudi Arabia and three other regions.

Financial terms were not disclosed for the agreement under which Ennismore will assume management and future development of Our Habitas, which also has locations in Chile, Mexico, and Namibia. Company leaders said Our Habitas has hotels in development in Bhutan, Costa Rica, Indonesia, Morocco and Quatar, with more locations being planned in Mexico and Saudi Arabia. Started in 2017, the brand seeks to connect travelers through music, art, food, learning and nature-oriented amenities. 

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Landsec, a leading real estate investment trust based in the United Kingdom, purchased an additional 17.5% stake in one of the region’s largest retail properties from Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC for £120 million. 

REIT officials said the investment brings Landsec’s stake to 66.25% in the Kent, England, property known as Bluewater, as the company seeks to grow its investment in major retail centers by recycling capital from recent non-core property disposals. Based on income generated by its existing investment in Bluewater for the year ended March 2024, the company expects the increased stake to raise its net rental income by £10.3 million on an annual basis.
 
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The latest deal in a busy French logistics market is for the Palm portfolio, assets that Ivanhoe Cambridge enlisted brokerages CBRE and JLL to market last winter.

According to Business Immo sources, Valor Real Estate Partners is about to win the portfolio of three assets located in Marly-la-Ville, Corbas and Salon-de-Provence, totaling some 90,000 square meters. The portfolio is expected to fetch €97 million.

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The group that owns the nearly 200-meter-high Trianon office tower in Frankfurt has filed for insolvency amid challenging conditions for the property category. 

South Korean financial consortium Igis/Hana Financial Investment purchased the complex with 70,000 square meters of space in 2018 for €670 million. The property has since been heavily devalued, and attempts to sell it were unsuccessful before a loan on the tower matured in November 2023. A legal administrator is in talks with tower management and lenders to maintain operations at the property during the insolvency process.

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Retailers in Canada are watching closely following reports that the United States government is considering trade sanctions against its northern neighbor because of a Quebec law ordering businesses in the province to adopt a range of language measures, including swapping out English-only labels on appliances and increasing the size of French wording on their signs.

The possibility of American sanctions was contained in U.S. documents obtained by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Passed in June 2022, the Quebec provincial legislation orders fines against companies that fail to adopt a wide variety of measures, including one requiring retailers to adjust descriptors on signs so they measure twice the size of the company name on the same sign.

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Apple is pumping the brakes on its long-anticipated campus development in North Carolina, joining other Silicon Valley tech giants in their decision to pause large capital spending projects as they reassess their commercial real estate footprints.

The iPhone maker, based in Cupertino, California, confirmed to CoStar News that while it remains “deeply committed” to its $1 billion expansion in the state’s Research Triangle Park, it is extending the timeline for the sprawling development by at least four years. The Raleigh campus is ultimately slated to house at least 3,000 jobs. 

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This report was compiled from CoStar’s news publications in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France and Germany.