1.
Real estate
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Also, the business of real estate, the profession of buying, selling, or renting land, buildings or housing. It is a term used in jurisdictions whose legal system is derived from English common law, such as India, the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Pakistan, Australia. Residential real estate may contain either a family or multifamily structure. Residences can be classified by, if, and how they are connected to neighbouring residences, different types of housing tenure can be used for the same physical type. For example, connected residents might be owned by an entity and leased out. Major categories in North America and Europe Attached / multi-unit dwellings Apartment or Flat – An individual unit in a multi-unit building, the boundaries of the apartment are generally defined by a perimeter of locked or lockable doors. Often seen in apartment buildings. Multi-family house – Often seen in multi-story detached buildings, where each floor is an apartment or unit. Terraced house – A number of single or multi-unit buildings in a row with shared walls. Condominium – Building or complex, similar to apartments, owned by individuals, common grounds and common areas within the complex are owned and shared jointly. There are townhouse or rowhouse style condominiums as well, semi-detached dwellings Duplex – Two units with one shared wall. Single-family detached house Portable dwellings Mobile homes – Potentially a full-time residence which can be movable on wheels, houseboats – A floating home Tents – Usually very temporary, with roof and walls consisting only of fabric-like material. The size of an apartment or house can be described in square feet or meters, in the United States, this includes the area of living space, excluding the garage and other non-living spaces. It can be described roughly by the number of rooms. A studio apartment has a bedroom with no living room. A one-bedroom apartment has a living or dining room separate from the bedroom, Two bedroom, three bedroom, and larger units are common. Major categories in India and the Asian Subcontinent Co-operative Housing Societies Condominiums Chawls Villas Havelis The size is measured in Gaz, Quila, Marla, Beegha, and acre. See List of house types for a listing of housing types and layouts, real estate trends for shifts in the market
2.
Gerald D. Hines
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Gerald D. Hines is the founder and chairman of Hines, a privately held real estate firm with its U. S. headquarters located in Houston, Texas, and its European headquarters located in London. As of 2016, Gerald Hines net worth equaled USD $1.3 billion, Hines was born in 1925 in Gary, Indiana. His parents moved to Gary from Nova Scotia in 1923, Hines is descended from British loyalists who fought in the Revolutionary War. In 1948, he graduated with a bachelor in mechanical engineering from Purdue University and he moved to Houston in 1948. Shortly after, he formed a partnership and started a fledgling real estate business on the side. Early Hines projects were warehouses and small office buildings and his first large-scale commercial development came in 1967 when Shell Oil Company hired Hines to construct a new downtown Houston headquarters. The Galleria, Pennzoil Place, Transco Tower and more than 400 other major buildings followed. Today, Hines is one of the largest real estate firms in the world, according to a 2005 report by the Lipsey Company with operations throughout the U. S. and in 16 other countries. Many of his buildings were designed by architects, I. M. Pei, Philip Johnson, Cesar Pelli, Frank Gehry. With controlled assets valued at approximately $25, as of 2016, his net worth equaled USD $1.3 billion. Hines also served as chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas from 1981-1983, Hines donated $7 million to the University of Houston’s College of Architecture which renamed the college the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture. He was one of the contributors in the construction of the Chabad Jewish Community Center in Aspen. In 1952, he married Dorothy Schwarz of the Schwarz family, founders of F. A. O. Schwartz toys, in 1981, he married German-born painter, Barbara Hines, the daughter of Holocaust survivors. His cousin is inventor Gordon E. Hines, Hines has an Urban Land Institute competition and award named in his honor, the ULI/Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition. Gerald Hines Oral History, Houston Oral History Project, December 13,2007, interview with Gerald Hines 2013 William R. Jenkins Architecture and Art Library, University of Houston Digital Library
3.
Williams Tower
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The Williams Tower is a 64-story,1. 4-million-square-foot class A office tower located in the Uptown District of Houston, Texas. The building was designed by New York-based John Burgee Architects with Philip Johnson in association with Houston-based Morris-Aubry Architects, construction began in August,1981 and was completed in December,1982. The tower is among Houstons most visible buildings and is the 4th-tallest in Texas, the 31st-tallest in the United States, Real estate developers Gerald D. Hines Interests hired New York-based John Burgee Architects with Philip Johnson to design the building, in association with Houston-based Morris-Aubry Architects. The building was named the Transco Tower after its first major tenant, Transco Energy Co. merged with the Williams Companies in 1995 and in 1999 the name of the building was changed to the Williams Tower. In December 2002, Ryan John Hartley climbed the tower and jumped from about halfway up, resulting in his death, the building was offered along with a parking garage, a 2. On the morning of September 13,2008, during Hurricane Ike, the high-rise suffered over $3.5 million in wind damages. Twelve of the 49 elevators were damaged, most by water due to roof failures. Hines Real Estate Investment Trust Inc. put the Williams Tower up for sale in August 2012, the building was originally named for its major tenant, Transco Energy corporation, now part of the Williams Companies, the towers current namesake. Other major tenants include Quanta Services, the Rowan Companies and Cadence Bancorp, the tower also serves as the headquarters for the Hines companies. At 64 stories and 909 feet above the level, the Williams Tower is the tallest building in Houston outside of Downtown Houston. When it was constructed in 1983, it was also the worlds tallest skyscraper outside of a central business district. The building was built to function as two towers stacked directly on top of one another, one comprising the first forty floors. The building has separate banks of elevators and lobbies for each of the two building sections, a majority of the bottom 40 floors are occupied by Williams. The remainder of the building is occupied by a variety of tenants, Williams Tower was named Skyscraper of the Century in the December 1999 issue of Texas Monthly magazine. Paul Gapp of the Chicago Tribune said that the building became an instant classic when it opened, paul Goldberger of The New York Times said that the tower gave Post Oak Boulevard a center, an anchor, which most outtowns lack. There are six elevators that take tenants to the 51st floor, there is no public observation deck. During the night-time hours, the building is defined by a 7,000 watt beacon that sweeps across the sky, topped by such a beacon, the tower hearkens back to the Palmolive Building in Chicago, Illinois. The building, along with its beacon, is a Houston landmark that identifies the Uptown Houston district, the building is connected to a 10 level,3,208 car parking garage by a sky bridge
4.
Houston
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Houston is the most populous city in the state of Texas and the fourth-most populous city in the United States. With a census-estimated 2014 population of 2.239 million within an area of 667 square miles, it also is the largest city in the southern United States and the seat of Harris County. Located in Southeast Texas near the Gulf of Mexico, it is the city of Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land. Houston was founded on August 28,1836, near the banks of Buffalo Bayou and incorporated as a city on June 5,1837. The city was named after former General Sam Houston, who was president of the Republic of Texas and had commanded, the burgeoning port and railroad industry, combined with oil discovery in 1901, has induced continual surges in the citys population. Houstons economy has an industrial base in energy, manufacturing, aeronautics. Leading in health care sectors and building equipment, Houston has more Fortune 500 headquarters within its city limits than any city except for New York City. The Port of Houston ranks first in the United States in international waterborne tonnage handled, the city has a population from various ethnic and religious backgrounds and a large and growing international community. Houston is the most diverse city in Texas and has described as the most diverse in the United States. It is home to cultural institutions and exhibits, which attract more than 7 million visitors a year to the Museum District. Houston has a visual and performing arts scene in the Theater District. In August 1836, two real estate entrepreneurs from New York, Augustus Chapman Allen and John Kirby Allen, purchased 6,642 acres of land along Buffalo Bayou with the intent of founding a city. The Allen brothers decided to name the city after Sam Houston, the general at the Battle of San Jacinto. The great majority of slaves in Texas came with their owners from the slave states. Sizable numbers, however, came through the slave trade. New Orleans was the center of trade in the Deep South. Thousands of enslaved African Americans lived near the city before the Civil War, many of them near the city worked on sugar and cotton plantations, while most of those in the city limits had domestic and artisan jobs. Houston was granted incorporation on June 5,1837, with James S. Holman becoming its first mayor, in the same year, Houston became the county seat of Harrisburg County and the temporary capital of the Republic of Texas
5.
One Franklin Square
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One Franklin Square is a high-rise building at 1301 K Street NW, in Washington, D. C, United States. The 64 m, 12-story building was completed in 1989, and is the tallest commercial building and it occupies almost the entire north side of the 1300 block of K Street NW across from Franklin Square. The building is owned and managed by Hines Interests and it was developed by Prentiss Company and designed by Hartman-Cox Architects and The Dewberry Companies. The Washington Post moved its headquarters here in late 2015, in 2014, The Post considered moving its headquarters to 1099 14th Street taking two floors in the building. But the building owners and the newspaper could not come to terms, the company leased 242,000 square feet of space for 16 years on floors four through nine in the west tower and floors seven and eight in the east tower. Hines agreed to an extensive build-out, the newly joined space will create two 60, 000-square-foot floors capable of accommodating 700 newsroom workers and software engineers. The build-out also will construct four sets for television filming. Hines also agreed to alter the buildings south-facing facade to give Post workers floor-to-ceiling windows, One Franklin Square is an important setting in the final act of the 2009 Dan Brown novel, The Lost Symbol. List of tallest buildings in Washington, D. C, media related to One Franklin Square at Wikimedia Commons One Franklin Square official website One Franklin Square at Hines Interests Limited Partnership
6.
Royal Dutch Shell
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Royal Dutch Shell plc, commonly known as Shell, is a British–Dutch multinational oil and gas company headquartered in the Netherlands and incorporated in the United Kingdom. It is one of the six oil and gas supermajors and the sixth-largest company in the world measured by 2016 revenues. Shell was first in the 2013 Fortune Global 500 list of the worlds largest companies and it also has renewable energy activities in the form of biofuels and wind. Shell has operations in over 70 countries, produces around 3.7 million barrels of oil equivalent per day and has 44,000 service stations worldwide, as of 31 December 2014, Shell had total proved reserves of 13.7 billion barrels of oil equivalent. Shell Oil Company, its subsidiary in the United States, is one of its largest businesses. Shell holds 50% of Raízen, a joint venture with Cosan, which is the third-largest Brazil-based energy company by revenues, Shell was formed in 1907 through the amalgamation of the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company of the Netherlands and the Shell Transport and Trading Company of the United Kingdom. Shell first entered the industry in 1929. In 1970 Shell acquired the mining company Billiton, which it sold in 1994. In recent decades gas exploration and production has become an important part of Shells business. Shell acquired BG Group in 2016, making it the worlds largest producer of liquefied natural gas, Shell has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE100 Index. It has secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New York Stock Exchange, as of January 2013, Shells largest shareholder was Capital Research Global Investors with 9. 85% ahead of BlackRock in second with 6. 89%. Shells logo, known as the pecten, is one of the most familiar commercial symbols in the world and it was a move largely driven by the need to compete globally with Standard Oil. The Shell Transport and Trading Company was a British company, founded in 1897 by Marcus Samuel, 1st Viscount Bearsted, and his brother Samuel Samuel. Their father had owned a company in Houndsditch, London. For various reasons, the new firm operated as a company, whereby the merging companies maintained their legal existence. The terms of the merger gave 60 percent ownership of the new group to the Dutch arm and 40 percent to the British, national patriotic sensibilities would not permit a full-scale merger or takeover of either of the two companies. The Dutch company, Koninklijke Nederlandsche Petroleum Maatschappij at The Hague, was in charge of production, the British Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Company was based in London, to direct the transport and storage of the products. During the First World War, Shell was the supplier of fuel to the British Expeditionary Force
7.
Redmond, Washington
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Redmond is a city in King County, Washington, United States, located 16 miles east of Seattle, within the Seattle metropolitan area. The population is 60,560 in 2016, an increase from the 2010 census, Redmond is commonly recognized as the home of Microsoft and Nintendo of America. With an annual race on city streets and the states only velodrome. Redmond is bordered by Kirkland to the west, Bellevue to the southwest, unincorporated King County lies to the north and east. The citys urban downtown lies just north of Lake Sammamish, residential areas lie north, Overlake, the citys second urban center, is to the west of Lake Sammamish. The Sammamish River runs north from the lake along the west edge of the citys downtown, Redmond is located at 47°40′10″N 122°07′26″W. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 16.94 square miles. Redmond, like most of the Pacific Northwest, has mild weather, summers tend to be warm and dry, with low rainfall and sunny or partly sunny from June to September. Winters tend to be cool and wet, with November being the rainiest month, snowfall is uncommon, with the most common cold air being in a form of a high pressure system, driving out the rains from the area. However, snowfall is not as rare as in cities like Seattle near the moderating effects of Puget Sound. The average warmest month is August, the highest recorded temperature was 103 °F in 2009. On average, the coolest month is January, the lowest recorded temperature was 1 °F in 1961. The maximum average precipitation occurs in December, According to a 2015 estimate, the annual median income for a household in the city was $99,586. The average home value in 2014 was $649,000, as of the census of 2010, there were 54,144 people,22,550 households, and 13,890 families residing in the city. The population density was 3,325.8 inhabitants per square mile, there were 24,177 housing units at an average density of 1,485.1 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 65. 2% White,1. 7% African American,0. 4% Native American,25. 4% Asian,0. 2% Pacific Islander,3. 2% from other races, and 4. 0% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 7. 8% of the population,29. 6% of all households were made up of individuals and 7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.39 and the family size was 2.98
8.
Minneapolis
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Minneapolis is the county seat of Hennepin County, and the larger of the Twin Cities, the 16th-largest metropolitan area in the United States. As of 2015, Minneapolis is the largest city in the state of Minnesota, Minneapolis and Saint Paul anchor the second-largest economic center in the Midwest, after Chicago. Minneapolis lies on both banks of the Mississippi River, just north of the confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Saint Paul. It was once the worlds flour milling capital and a hub for timber, the city and surrounding region is the primary business center between Chicago and Seattle, with Minneapolis proper containing Americas fifth-highest concentration of Fortune 500 companies. As an integral link to the economy, Minneapolis is categorized as a global city. Noted for its music and performing arts scenes, Minneapolis is home to both the award-winning Guthrie Theater and the historic First Avenue nightclub. The name Minneapolis is attributed to Charles Hoag, the citys first schoolteacher, who combined mni, a Dakota Sioux word for water, and polis, Dakota Sioux had long been the regions sole residents when French explorers arrived around 1680. For a time relations were based on fur trading, gradually more European-American settlers arrived, competing for game and other resources with the Dakota. In the early 19th century, the United States acquired this territory from France, fort Snelling was built in 1819 by the United States Army, and it attracted traders, settlers and merchants, spurring growth in the area. The United States government pressed the Mdewakanton band of the Dakota to sell their land, the Minnesota Territorial Legislature authorized present-day Minneapolis as a town in 1856 on the Mississippis west bank. Minneapolis incorporated as a city in 1867, the rail service began between Minneapolis and Chicago. It later joined with the city of St. Anthony in 1872. Minneapolis developed around Saint Anthony Falls, the highest waterfall on the Mississippi River, forests in northern Minnesota were a valuable resource for the lumber industry, which operated seventeen sawmills on power from the waterfall. By 1871, the west river bank had twenty-three businesses, including mills, woolen mills, iron works, a railroad machine shop, and mills for cotton, paper, sashes. Due to the hazards of milling, six local sources of artificial limbs were competing in the prosthetics business by the 1890s. The farmers of the Great Plains grew grain that was shipped by rail to the citys thirty-four flour mills, a father of modern milling in America and founder of what became General Mills, Cadwallader C. Some ideas were developed by William Dixon Gray and some acquired through industrial espionage from the Hungarians by William de la Barre, pillsbury Company across the river were barely a step behind, hiring Washburn employees to immediately use the new methods. The hard red spring wheat that grows in Minnesota became valuable, not until later did consumers discover the value in the bran that Minneapolis
9.
Safeco Plaza (Seattle)
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Safeco Plaza, previously 1001 Fourth Avenue Plaza and the Seattle-First National Bank Building, is a 50-story,630 ft skyscraper in downtown Seattle, Washington. The building is referred to by locals as The Box the Space Needle Came In and it was the first class-A office building in Seattle. The company announced in 2015 that it would consolidate its offices into the tower, on July 6,2016, it was reported that German firm GLL Real Estate Partners GmbH agreed to buy the building for $387 million. The tower had previously sold in 2005 to CalPERS and Hines for $163 million
10.
CalPERS
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In fiscal year 2012–13, CalPERS paid over $12.7 billion in retirement benefits, and in fiscal year 2013 it is estimated that CalPERS will pay over $7.5 billion in health benefits. As of June 30,2014, CalPERS managed the largest public pension fund in the United States, CalPERS is known for its shareholder activism, stocks placed on its Focus List may perform better than other stocks, which has given rise to the term CalPERS effect. Outside the U. S. CalPERS has been called a global leader in the investment industry. In 1932, the State Employees Retirement System began operation, the California State Employees Association, established in 1931, began a close relationship with SERS that continues to this day. In 1939, the state Legislature passed a bill that allowed local agencies to participate in SERS. Initially, SERS could invest only in bonds, but in 1953 a new law allowed SERS to invest in real estate. SERS then built a 670, 000-square-foot, 16-story building in Sacramento which opened in 1965, part of the building housed SERS employees, and part of the building was leased to other state agencies. The first major new benefit for SERS members, health insurance, because by 1967 SERS was contracting with 585 local public agencies for retirement benefits, its name was changed to the Public Employees Retirement System. With the passage of a proposition and a state law in 1966-1967, PERS was allowed to invest 25% of its portfolio in stocks, in 1984. State Treasurer Jesse M. Unruh was a PERS Board member in the mid-1980s, in 1986, the headquarters building of PERS, now called Lincoln Plaza North, was completed in Sacramento at a cost of $81 million. The building, which has 492,900 square feet, is known for its six-story-high atrium, in 1990, fund value reached $49.8 billion. In July 1991, Governor Pete Wilson addressed the state’s $14.3 billion budget deficit by removing $1.6 billion from the pension fund. Wilson further sought to give the governor’s office control of the PERS’ actuarial projections, Proposition 162, also known as the California Pension Protection Act of 1992, gave the PERS board the sole and exclusive fiduciary responsibility over the assets of PERS. To avoid confusion with public employees retirement systems in other states, by 1996, the CalPERS portfolio was worth $100 billion, and the number of members exceeded 1 million. In 1999, fund value reached $159.1 billion, requiring $159 million in tax dollar contributions. In 1999, the CalPERS board proposed an expansion that would allow public employees to retire at age 55. CalPERS predicted the benefits would require no increase in the State’s contributions by projecting an average return of 8. 25% over the next decade. ”CalPERS chief actuary, objected. The benefits expansion bill, SB400, passed with unanimous backing by California State Assembly Democrats and was signed into law by Governor Gray Davis, the next year the dot-com bubble burst, and CalPERS did not grow, instead losing value in the stock market downturn of 2002
