Here are the news stories you might find interesting today regarding commercial real estate and business:
Email me if you would like a copy of the Open Air Shopping Center by ICSC webinar I listened to last week. The focus of the webinar was on the Capital Markets and retail properties. Here are couple items that caught my attention: 1) there is over $2.6 Trillion coming due between now and 2017; 2) mortgage Servicers are taking back very little properties, they are more interested in working with the borrowers.
PACIFIC REALTY ADVISORS GETS OFF SIDELINES . . . JUMPS INTO GAME WITH $25+ MILLION BUY
Phoenix – After sitting on the sidelines for several years while the real estate market peaked in the Valley, Pacific Realty Advisors in Scottsdale (Kenn Francis, Todd Thorpe, principals) is looking to buy investment properties in the Phoenix area. In its first purchase in the Valley since 2005, a company formed by Pacific Realty Advisors paid $25.252 million ($53,500 per unit) to acquire 472 apartments in two projects located in the Deer Valley area of north Phoenix. Deer Valley Apartments LLC (formed by Francis and Thorpe) purchased the 256-unit Palm Court apartments at 20401 N. 19th Avenue and the 216-unit Ridgegate apartments located at 2811 W. Deer Valley Road. View article…
CARLETON CLUB APARTMENTS IN NORTH PHOENIX TARGETED IN FORECLOSURE ACTION
Phoenix – The 436-unit Carleton Club apartments located at 17425 N. 19th Avenue in north Phoenix is scheduled to be sold at a trustee’s sale on May 11. According to Ion Data, a Mesa-based provider of real estate data, Scott Klundt of the Phoenix lawfirm Quarles & Brady is the trustee on the pending foreclosure. Ion Data’s Foreclosure Update lists General Electric Capital Corp. as the beneficiary on a loan of $23.752 million that is secured by Carleton Club. View article…
Queen Creek Crossroads welcomes 1st tenant
Queen Creek Crossroads, a shopping center in downtown Queen Creek that sprouted in mid-2009 with little fanfare, crossed a small milestone a few weeks ago by welcoming its first tenant. R&S Mattress Liquidators opened in mid-January and there are other tenants on the way. View article…
Narrowing Southern part of Fiesta plans
Mesa wants to narrow Southern Avenue in the Fiesta District and post colorful new street signs to boost the long-struggling area. And, perhaps more notably, it wants to move quickly. View article…
Yelp Leases 28,600 SF at Galleria Corporate Centre
Yelp has leased 28,574 square feet in the Galleria Corporate Centre North Building in Scottsdale, AZ. The three-story, 442,132-square-foot office building at 4343 N. Scottsdale Road was built in 1991 and received renovations in 2001. View article…
Fukuda to open downtown Phoenix restaurant
It’s official: James Beard Award-winner Nobuo Fukuda is headed to downtown Phoenix. His new restaurant, Nobuo at Teeter House, will open this summer in historic Heritage Square, just across the way from another James Beard Award-winner, Chris Bianco and his Pizzeria Bianco. Fukuda has inked a 10-year lease, with an option for five additional years. View article…
Medical college to occupy space in Chandler innovations center
A space of 7,137 square feet in Chandler’s Innovations Technology Incubator will be occupied by cutting-edge researchers from the University of Arizona College of Medicine in partnership with Arizona State University. The focus will be on nanobiology and nanomedicine, said the medical school’s dean, Dr. Stuart Flynn. View article…
Tax shortfall may stall Goodyear City Center project
A City Center for Goodyear may not be in the near future, as the city weighs the costs of construction against falling home values. The City Center proposal calls for a four-story, 96,500-square-foot city hall, 27,000-square-foot library and 4-acre-park. That’s a reduction of 16,000 square feet from the original overall project that Goodyear had hoped to open in 2011 northwest of Estrella Parkway and Yuma Road. View article…
Copenhaver Castle on Camelback Mountain goes on auction block
About the only thing interested buyers can’t take with them is the view. The rest of Copenhaver Castle, perched on Camelback Mountain above Phoenix, will be sold to the highest bidder. Looking for some jewelry, interesting artwork, or maybe a new abode? The auction begins at 10 a.m. Saturday. Admission, $20. Parking and transportation will be provided from The Phoenician resort, 6000 E. Camelback Road. Buses will transport auction attendees to the mountain where jeep service will bring them to the 7,800-square-foot castle. View article…
Maricopa County property values drop for 3rd straight year
Maricopa County homeowners will begin to receive their latest property valuations in the mail today. Most will see a third straight annual drop in home values. Residential property values fell an average of 15.2 percent in 2009, according to the latest report from the Maricopa County Assessor’s Office. View article…
New South Mountain Freeway plan upsets some in Phoenix
West Phoenix residents this week got their first look at revised plans for the South Mountain Freeway – which would connect Chandler to Laveen with an eight-lane 22-mile roadway. The reaction? “It stinks,” said Lilly Ong, who raised her family and hoped to spend her retirement years in a home near Roosevelt Street and 59th Avenue. “My place is for sale.” View article…
Light rail train wrap to advertise Grand Canyon University
The Metro light rail and CBS Outdoor, which is running advertising sales for the transportation network, have nabbed their first contract since CBS took over the work in October. A wrapped train touting Grand Canyon University will makes its debut this Sunday and run for six months. The contract value has not been finalized yet. Light rail officials expected advertising revenue to eclipse $350,000 for the fiscal year, but the recession and delays in finding an advertising representative may lower that figure. View article…
Business groups praise export plan, but want more
Business leaders praised President Barack Obama’s plans to increase trade promotion efforts and provide more loans to small exporters, but cautioned this alone won’t be enough to reach his goal of doubling U.S. exports over the next five years. View article…
Washington Briefs: Congress split over Obama’s SBA loan proposals
President Barack Obama’s latest proposals to increase lending to small businesses got mixed reviews on Capitol Hill. The president wants Congress to allow small businesses who own and occupy their own buildings to refinance their commercial real estate loans through the Small Business Administration’s 504 loan program. Many of these mortgages are coming due, but banks are hesitant to refinance them given the weak condition of the commercial real estate market. View article…
Bad CRE Debt Threatens U.S. Economy, Congressional Panel Concludes
Unless there is a strong and immediate improvement in the U.S. economy, it is likely to receive yet another sucker punch from the $1.4 trillion in commercial real estate loans coming due over the next three years. That’s the conclusion of a 184-page report released by the Congressional Oversight Panel (COP) this week. Of the approximately 8,100 banks in the U.S., 2,988 are small banks that are dangerously exposed to commercial real estate. View article…
Recovery Report: TARP to boost loans in low-income areas
The Obama administration plans to make cheap capital available to financial institutions that target economically distressed areas. The Treasury Department will use up to $1 billion in Troubled Asset Relief Program funds to provide low-cost capital to up to 210 banks and credit unions that are certified as community development financial institutions. To qualify as a CDFI, banks and credit unions must do more than 60 percent of their lending in underserved areas. View article…
Shameless plug – My wife, Tiffany, is going through Tempe Leadership as a member of a Class 25. They have identified a project to help the homeless in Tempe. There project is called Shower Power (www.showerpower.org). They have raised over $15,000 and are down to the last few thousand to make the project a success. Please visit the website and if you have a few extra dollars, please help her out! Thank you.
Feel free to contact me regarding any of these stories, the current market, distressed commercial real estate opportunities or your property.