Virtus Real Estate Capital has jockeyed to expand its buying muscle by launching a vehicle that's looking to raise up to $500 million. It would invest in self-storage, student-housing, medical-office and seniors-housing properties.

The year's first CMBS conduit deal priced yesterday at spreads that were considerably tighter than levels reached by a deal that priced five weeks earlier. The transaction, GS Mortgage Securities Trust, 2012-GC6, saw its 10-year AAA bonds price at a spread of 120 basis points more than swaps.

The parent of New York Community Bank, among the more active bank lenders to commercial property owners, increased the size of its portfolio of apartment and commercial mortgages by $2 billion last year, to $24.3 billion. It expects to continue to be an active lender.

Cohen & Associates, a Los Angeles investment firm, is gearing up to raise $100 million of equity from institutions and high net-worth investors for its first fund as an effort to expand its portfolio five-fold in the coming years. The fund would pursue opportunistic investments in apartment and mixed-use properties in certain areas.

General Growth Properties Inc. has put the 849,486-square-foot Greenwood Mall in Bowling Green, Ky., on the sales market. The Chicago REIT has tapped Rockwood Real Estate Advisors to market the super regional mall, about 65 miles north of Nashville, Tenn.

Last year, traded REITs raised $15.76 billion through traditional common-share offerings, down from $17.46 billion in 2010. But 73 percent of their volume took place in the first half of the year. Issuers were spooked in the second half by the European debt crisis.

Two CMBS loans with a balance of $134.5 million on a pair of Philadelphia office buildings matured without being paid off last month and were moved to special servicing. The loans are backed by the Curtis Center, with 885,776 square feet, and the Public Ledger Building, with 466,725 sf.

Sumitomo Corp. of America is offering for sale a 90 percent stake in a 786,267-square-office building in downtown Miami. Rockwood Real Estate Advisors has the listing for the building, Miami Center, which Sumitomo had acquired in 2008 for $260 million.

Some $230 million of capital was raised by sponsors structuring tax-deferred property exchanges last year, up more than 35 percent from the amount raised in 2010. The expectation is that capital-raising for such exchanges this year will see a marginal increase.