Here are the news articles you might find interesting today for commercial real estate and business:
To view the March 2013 Commercial Property Executive magazine, click here…
To view the March 2013 Affordable Housing Finance magazine, click here…
MULTI-FAMILY ASSET SALES CONTINUE TO BE THE RAGE . . . BUT SUPPLY OF UNITS RUNNING LOW One man’s trash is another man’s treasure appears to be the theme of the first quarter 2013 multi-family market in the Valley. As one publicly-traded REIT (real estate investment trust) is exiting the Phoenix apartment investment market by selling more than 5,000 units in the Valley, a joint venture of private investors is headed toward buying 5,000 apartments in the Phoenix area. This week’s BREW is headlined by three apartment projects totaling 1,047 units that are being sold to Bascom Arizona Ventures LLC for a combined $125.232 million (see specifics on each sale in story below). And last week’s BREW reported eight Valley multi-family communities totaling 2,321 units changing hands in deals totaling $255.649 million ($110,146 per unit average). Those sales closed over just a six-day period from February 14 to February 19. While the apartment sales activity in the Phoenix area has been fairly frenetic over the past year, that pace is not likely to continue. View article…
BASCOM SPENDING $125+ MILLION FOR 1,047 APARTMENTS . . . EQR CONTINUES SELL OFF In a buying spree of Arizona apartment communities, Bascom Arizona Ventures LLC is building a portfolio of properties in meteoric fashion. In three separate sales this week, the Bascom venture will add 1,047 apartment units to its quickly growing portfolio of multi-family assets. In three transactions all set to close by press time, Bascom Arizona Ventures was expected to pay a combined $125.232 million to buy apartment communities in Chandler, Tempe and Scottsdale. With the purchase of a 292-unit project in Scottsdale that is scheduled to close February 28, companies formed by Bascom Arizona will have invested $243.8+ million in purchasing 2,656 apartment units in eight properties in Arizona. View article…
Hollywood Live venue set to debut in North Scottsdale Scottsdale soon will be getting the Hollywood treatment. Hollywood Live, a nightclub live entertainment venue, is set to premiere in mid-April at 16203 N. Scottsdale Road. The concept comes from veteran venue operator Randy Davis, a Scottsdale resident who used to own a spot called the Hop in Southern California. View article…
David Krietor named CEO of new Downtown Phoenix Inc. Former city of Phoenix deputy city manager and Sky Harbor International Airport director David Krietor has been named CEO of a newly formed downtown Phoenix group focused on economic and community development and marketing. Krietor will take over as the CEO of Downtown Phoenix Inc. in April. View article…
HOUSING:
Going Places? Post Bust is Inflection Point for Phoenix Criticism of the Phoenix metro area clusters around a few main themes: The city is not sustainable, it’s not walkable, and it’s just a giant bedroom community with too much sprawl and too few well-paying jobs. How did the city end up this way? The critics offer similar analyses: A housing bust that dragged down an economy too reliant on construction, real estate developers and investors too focused on doing deals and moving on. And the bust was not a single incident, but rather the latest in a pattern of boom and bust. View article…
Phoenix Real Estate: Lots of Interest in Land Mike Orr, author of the monthly housing report issued through the W. P. Carey School of Business, said that developers were busy shopping for land in December. The 2,000 lots purchased were more than the number of new homes sold that month, and with only 300 active subdivisions in the market right now, the high interest in lots is understandable. Orr said the number of building permits issued was low, however, indicating that developers may be acquiring the lots to build on later, when housing prices are higher. Listen to podcast…
One-third of 2012 Arizona home sales linked to foreclosure A new report shows 34 percent of all home sales in Arizona last year involved houses in some stage of the foreclosure process. The data released Thursday by foreclosure tracking firm RealtyTrac shows that’s a 26 percent dip from the previous year. View article…
Foreclosure Inventory Shrinks 21% from Year Ago While still at an elevated level, foreclosure inventory is fading and has fallen for 15 straight months as of January 2013, CoreLogic reported Thursday. According to the data provider’s foreclosure inventory report, the number of homes in some stage of the foreclosure process is now down to 1.2 million as of January. Year-over-year, foreclosure inventory has fallen 21 percent from 1.5 million. View article…
RealtyTrac: Distressed Sales Make Up 43% of Home Sales in 2012 Foreclosure-related sales are on the decline but distressed sales continue to claim a “disproportionately high portion” of total home sales across the country, according to RealtyTrac’s most recent foreclosure and short sales report. The firm also found increases in prices for distressed properties in 2012. View article…