Hotel project opportunities are available for developers in West Africa, executives say, provided they are able to overcome perceptions among investors regarding security, traffic and energy.

Developer and owner Landmark Africa Group has several developments in Lagos, Nigeria, including hotels and other projects intended to be mixed-use destinations, a model popular across West Africa, CEO Paul Onwuanibe said during a hotel investment conference in Madrid. “There is huge opportunity for resorts, especially in Ghana, but also elsewhere in the region,” said Charles Quao, CEO at Accra, Ghana-based development firm Quao Realty, which manages numerous residential properties.

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Blackstone-owned investment firm St. Modwen Properties signed automotive and clean-energy giant Tesla for 155,381 square feet of ultra-sustainable warehousing at a property in Birmingham, England, best known for production of many of Britain’s most famous cars.

The Cofton Centre is part of a £1 billion redevelopment of the Longbridge plant, known since 1906 as a crucial part of the United Kingdom’s auto industry. Brands including Austin, Nash Metropolitan, Morris and British Leyland were produced there, but the factory became dormant after MG Rover went into bankruptcy in 2005.

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The real estate investment management arm of financial services firm BNP Paribas Group is seeking to diversify its portfolio while scouting new opportunities throughout Europe, after investors faced difficult conditions in 2023.

Paris-based BNP Paribas aims to move beyond offices, which now comprise more than half of its portfolio. “We became interested in healthcare property 12 years ago and more recently launched a significant fund in open-air hotels, in partnership with an operator, because it’s in our DNA to systematically try to anticipate the major trends and the asset classes of tomorrow,” Jean-Maxime Jouis, the firm’s global head of investment management, told Business Immo.

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Investment firm Deka Immobilien is looking to buy more real estate in 2024 after making just one purchase during the past year, as conditions provide opportunities for what the company describes as “anticyclical” investors.

Open-ended funds managed by Frankfurt-based Deka recorded inflows of €1.2 billion from retail investors last year, down 36.8% from 2022, as institutional investors withdrew €100 million. In its sole purchase of 2023, the firm took a stake in VGP Logistics Parcs for €560 million.

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Quebec’s retirement home operators may get some aid from a dedicated $200 million provincial government fund that aims to reverse a series of closings of such homes.

The bailout cash earmarked by Quebec seniors minister Sonia Bélanger is an attempt to stem the flow of retirement home closures that have led to a decline in the total number of units at a time when the Quebec population needs the total to increase. More than 100 facilities have closed annually during the past five years, most of them smaller and older retirement homes, as new construction has slowed.

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Los Angeles officials started a countdown toward a deadline for developer China Oceanwide to remove graffiti and debris at an unfinished skyscraper project that’s visible over the downtown to avoid a process that could force it to relinquish the property.

The City Council voted unanimously to mandate the developer to remove all graffiti at the three-tower Oceanwide Plaza by Feb. 17, otherwise the city plans to remove the graffiti itself and bill the developer. The towers at the project have been targeted for nearly two months by vandals breaking into the site and tagging windows on dozens of widely visible upper floors.

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