Here are the news stories you might find interesting today regarding commercial real estate and business:
WOLFSWINKELS SELL LAND IN HARQUAHALA VALLEY AND PINAL COUNTY FOR $135 MILLION Maricopa County/Pinal County – In deals valued at $135 million, companies formed by Gary Tharaldson of Tharaldson Cos. in Fargo, N.D. has taken control of 15,470 acres in the Harquahala Valley area of Maricopa County, and 4,424 acres in six parcels in Pinal County. The seller in multiple transactions were companies formed by members of the Conley Wolfswinkel family in Tempe. View article…
NEW FREIGHTLINER FACILITY PLANNED FOR TOLLESON PROPERTY Tolleson – Freightliner Sterling Western Star of Arizona (Danny Cuzick, principal) plans to build a roughly 150,000-square-foot trucking dealership and corporate office at the southeast corner of 99th Avenue and Roosevelt Road in Tolleson. A company formed by Freightliner Sterling Western Star of Arizona paid $3.8 million to buy the 38-acre site. View article…
Centerpoint condominium towers in Tempe listed for sale Early next week the mostly-built Centerpoint condominium towers in downtown Tempe will be listed for sale by CB Richard Ellis. The condominium project recently failed to sell at a foreclosure auction, which forced Peoria-based lender, ML Manager LLC to take over the property. A price will not be listed, but offers will be accepted for the property, said Mark Winkleman, ML Manager chief operating officer. Already, he said there has been interest from all over the country. View article…
Biotech Incubator Leases 38,146 SF The City of Chandler has signed an 11-year lease for 38,146 square feet at San Tan Tech Center for a biotechnology incubator site. The City’s biotechnology incubator program, dubbed Innovations, was created to attract smaller, start-up research and technology based companies to the area. View article…
Duo plans to bring Coach & Willie’s to downtown Chandler The upscale sports bar Coach & Willie’s, which is near the sports venues in central Phoenix and feeds the Diamondbacks, Suns, Mercury and soon the Rattlers, plans to open a spot in downtown Chandler. Restaurateurs Eric Stoltz and Mark Simonek hope to buy the to-be-renovated space on the southeastern corner of Arizona Avenue and Boston Street. View article…
Parties in Elevation Chandler battle seek attorneys’ fees The million-dollar bidder for Elevation Chandler, who lost his attempt to take over the property, is being sued by the victors for attorneys’ fees they spent fighting to keep control of the 10.6-acre site near Loops 101 and 202. California-based Point Center Financial, the mortgage holder on Elevation Chandler, and T.D. Service Company of Arizona, which held the disputed trustee sale, are pursuing the bidder, Tom Peltier, who does business as BT Capital. View article…
Arizona home values may depend on mindset of buyers The psychology of the metropolitan Phoenix housing market is at a crossroads. Decades ago, the market was a mix of long-term and short-term buyers: People who saw a house as their home, and people who saw a house as a box of equity to cash in at the first good opportunity. Long-term homebuyers were the dominant segment. View article…
Payday loans centers struggling George Olander is already seeing payday loan centers in his neighborhood trying to adapt in the face of their demise. In the past few weeks, they’ve begun advertising with banners offering new services. View article…
Zoning law may change face of Mesa In the world of zoning codes, the one now on Mesa’s books might as well be a Model T. True, it’s not that old, dating only to 1988 and tuned up several times since then. But it chugs along on essentially one cylinder, its spare prose serving largely to specify what land uses are allowed in different parts of town. It offers few clues as to its authors’ vision for Mesa and little advice as to how the city should look. View article…
Phoenix commute times longer than most The Phoenix area ranks 36th out of 52 major metros for commute time, according to a new analysis of the latest figures from the U.S. Census Bureau. A sister paper of the Phoenix Business Journal, Buffalo Business First, crunched the numbers, and in Phoenix the average one-way commute is 26.5 minutes. Rochester and Buffalo, N.Y. have the shortest commuting times in the nation. View article…
State leaders weigh in on new immigration law Gov. Jan Brewer’s signing of the controversial immigration bill Friday sparked all kinds of responses from all quarters of the immigration debate. Here’s a sampling of the national and Arizona reaction to Brewer’s approval of Senate Bill 1070, which gives police more latitude to question and detain illegal immigrants: View article…
Recovery Report: Higher guarantee, lower SBA loan fees extended Congress extended higher government guarantees and reduced fees on U.S. Small Business Administration loans through May 31, but the SBA wants a longer extension. The economic stimulus bill increased the guarantee on the SBA’s flagship 7(a) loan program from the usual 75 percent to 90 percent, and reduced or eliminated fees for borrowers and lenders. View article…
Bad economy widens credit gap for minority firms Minority-owned businesses have a more difficult time getting loans than other businesses do, and the financial crisis has made this problem worse. That’s the message the U.S. Senate Small Business & Entrepreneurship Committee received at a recent hearing. Narrowing this credit gap would help the nation’s 4 million minority-owned businesses create thousands of new jobs, witnesses said. View article…
7 IL Banks Closed Latest Tally: 63 Failed Institutions in 2010 State and federal banking regulators closed seven Illinois banks on April 23. Amcore Bank, a $3.8 billion bank based in Rockford, IL., was the largest of the failed institutions, followed by Chicago’s $1.2 billion Broadway Bank. These latest closings raise to 63 the number of failed banks and credit unions so far in 2010. View article…
Feel free to contact me regarding any of these stories, the current market, distressed commercial real estate opportunities or your property.