| It's hard to argue with the popularity of southeastern | | | | residential units in the northern areas over the next five |
| hubs for Brazil's development, long focused on Sao | | | | years. There is also interest in hotel development in the |
| Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Due to this popularity, | | | | area, as there are currently 42,000 rooms in the region, |
| competition in those areas for land and development | | | | but no international brand hotels. Rumors of an interest |
| resources is quite fierce. Investors and developers with | | | | on the part of Ritz Carlton haven't been confirmed, |
| an interest in Brazil are now taking notice of the | | | | and the Brazilian Ministry of Tourism states that no |
| previously obscure northeast region of the country. | | | | agreements have been made. |
| The Northeast Begins to Grow | | | | Malls Move to the Rain Forests |
| With 7% economic growth, the northeast region | | | | Another development that has taken on momentum in |
| recently drew more than 1000 local and international | | | | Brazil is the construction of shopping malls in rain forest |
| investors to Rio Grande de Norte's capital. A three | | | | areas. As the new projects to date have been built in |
| day event was organized to attract private equity to | | | | areas deforested many years prior, there has been |
| Brazil's commercial real estate industry, primarily in this | | | | little resistance from environmental groups. Right now, |
| northeast region. With diverse industries and less | | | | five Brazilian cities in the Amazon have populations of |
| competition, this region is beginning to draw foreign | | | | at least 300,000 people. This is considered a threshold |
| investment interest. | | | | for commercial development. It is projected that by the |
| Most of the 7% growth rate is attributed to | | | | end of next year, four of those five cities will have |
| government initiatives to spur tourism in the region. | | | | American style shopping malls. |
| Hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure and | | | | A Sour Note in the Good News Song |
| transportation projects has added support for more | | | | While all of this commercial and residential |
| industry, bringing jobs to the area. A growing middle | | | | development sounds very positive for Brazil's real |
| class employee base needs housing, and a number of | | | | estate markets, Sam Zell's Equity International unit just |
| high rise residential projects have been constructed to | | | | sold 9 million shares in Gafisa, a large Brazilian home |
| satisfy this demand. Salamanca, an international | | | | builder. It represents a 34% decrease in ownership by |
| developer, has teamed with local development | | | | Zell. It remains to be seen if this is a prediction of |
| company Ecocil to develop more than 25,000 | | | | problems in Brazil's residential real estate market. |