Big-name investors have swooped in on two high-profile commercial properties in a sign that activity is returning to the investment-property market.

Private-equity firm CIM Group has teamed up with New York developer Harry Macklowe to help him regain control of one of the most valuable vacant lots in the world, according to people familiar with the matter. The site of the old Drake Hotel, in Midtown Manhattan at Park Avenue and 56th Street, has been under the cloud of foreclosure for about five months after the collapse of Macklowe's empire.

In the other opportunistic move, private-equity giant Blackstone Group LP is making a grab for Highland Hospitality Corp, a real-estate investment trusts that owns 27 hotels. Highland has been struggling to restructure its $1.7bn debt load amid the worst downturn for the hotel industry in decades.

Wall Street Journal