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Daily News for Commercial Real Estate & Business – July 1, 2010

Here are the news stories you might find interesting today regarding commercial real estate and business:

To view this week’s “The Watch List,” by Costar, click here. Here are a couple of the articles: REDC Commercial: Commercial and Nonperforming Notes; Randy L. Fridkis Auctions Public Auction Sale – Two Big Real Estate Locations; Investcap Advisors LLC: Adding Clarity to Distressed CMBS Debt Data.

Phoenix Industrial Sells for $1.6M VM Healthcare Solutions Inc., a subsidiary of Waste Management Inc., acquired the industrial building at 3154 N 34th Dr. in Phoenix, from Milum Textile Services for $1.6 million, or about $60 per square foot. View article…

Baseline Crossings Sells for $1.5M A private investor acquired the Baseline Crossings Retail Center in Phoenix from Compass Bank for $1.5 million, or $48 per square foot. The 31,770-square-foot strip center was built in 2008 in the Laveen Retail submarket. The property was 100% vacant at the time of sale. View article…

Phoenix Zoo close to meeting $20 million remodel goal The Phoenix Zoo turns 50 in two years and about $13 million has been raised to give the 125-acre site a major facelift. View article…

129 layoffs expected as Tempe Whirlaway plant closes The Whirlaway metals manufacturing plant in Tempe will close in August leading to 129 layoffs. View article…

REIT Aggressively Checks Out Mall Purchases Many real-estate buyers have remained on the sidelines this year, complaining about the lack of attractive acquisition opportunities. Retail Opportunity Investments Corp. is an exception. View article…

Carried Interest Goes Down It looks like the industry can breathe a sigh of relief as the fears about a rise in the rate of taxation of carried interest will not come to fruition. It’s possible the push could be revived. But for now the industry won’t face what many thought would be a doomsday scenario. View article…

Investors Snap Up High-Quality Multifamily Properties as Rents, Occupancy Improves With apartment vacancies appearing to have peaked, and U.S. rents even starting to edge up slightly, offerings of quality multifamily assets have attracted multiple bidders and secured premium prices in the first half of 2010, with investors having an especially keen appetite for institutional-grade assets in attractive coastal markets. View article…

FDIC Turns to Loss-Sharing Agreements as Bank Failures Mount As the number of bank failures continues to climb, with troubled commercial real estate loans increasingly contributing to the failures, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) is taking steps to mitigate the costs and the workload associated with the collapse of financial institutions. In particular, the FDIC is using loss-sharing agreements. View article…

HOUSING

Phoenix home prices rise as tax credit wanes Home prices in the Phoenix area were up 0.5 percent from March to April, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices. View article…

ASU-RSI: Big Picture a Little Brighter, But Shadows Persist Big picture, the Phoenix housing market showed gradual improvement overall through May, but zooming in on the various segments the picture changes, as some are still declining while others are improving — but only slowly. View article…

Foreclosure percentage down, but AZ still ranks third Foreclosures as a percentage of all home sales were down in Arizona in the first quarter, but the state still ranked third on that front behind Nevada and California, according to RealtyTrac numbers released Wednesday. View article…

If you want a copy of the latest foreclosure spreadsheet, email me and I will send it to you.

Feel free to contact me regarding any of these stories, the current market, distressed commercial real estate opportunities or your property.