Reven Capital, a La Jolla, Calif., opportunistic investor, is gearing up for more hotel-sector deals after paying a CMBS trust $12.5 million for a 316-room property in San Diego. The hotel had been encumbered by $29.4 million of securitized debt that had defaulted last year. The company has raised capital for additional investments.

Chartwell Hospitality Corp. has raised $200 million for a fund that would pursue investments in hotels and debt backed by similar properties. The investment vehicle, Chartwell Hospitality Fund I, would be the first by the Franklin, Tenn., company and would target upper-scale, select-service properties in certain urban and tertiary markets.

A recently launched set of indices by Boxwood Means Inc. has found that prices for small-capitalization commercial real estate properties fell by 24.7 percent in May from their peak three years earlier. That's a far smaller pricing drop than was witnessed by large-cap properties. The performance of small-cap properties is highly correlated to housing values.

Douglas Manchester has called off a planned sale of a majority stake in the 1,625-room Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego in what would have been the largest hotel deal of the year. Sunstone Hotel Investors had struck a deal to buy a stake in the property in a deal valuing it at $450 million.

In another sign that liquidity in the commercial real estate market is steadily improving, more than $1 billion of CMBS loans were defeased during the first half, nearly three times the volume that was defeased during the same period a year ago, according to Moody's Investors Service.

Velocity Commercial Capital, a Westwood Lakes, Calif., investor in small-balance commercial real estate loans, wants to roll its portfolio and business into a REIT that would buy and originate similar assets. The company owns 319 loans with a balance of $124.7 million.

A total of 200 loans with a balance of $1.04 billion were liquidated in July, making it by far the most active month in terms of loan liquidations ever. If you exclude 18 loans with a balance of $157.1 million that were liquidated with nearly no loss, the loss-severity figure is 59.4 percent. LNR Partners liquidated nearly 70 percent of the month's volume.

Equity Capital Management has registered to launch a REIT that would pursue properties that are net-leased to a single tenant. ECM Realty Trust Inc. would target office, industrial and retail properties with purchase prices of $10 million to $75 million each, including deals in which the sellers lease back the properties.

The Dallas REIT has given the Ferncroft Corporate Center in Middleton, Mass., to the CMBS bond that holds an $18 million loan against the 226,338-square-foot office property. The debt is securitized through Banc of America Commercial Mortgage Trust, 2006-5.

The Jenkintown, Pa., firm has registered to raise up to $1.5 billion for American Realty Capital Healthcare Trust Inc., which will target medical-office buildings along with a full array of medical-treatment facilities.