Here are the news articles you might find interesting today for commercial real estate and business:
Phoenix‘s Select Top Office Sales for Q2 2011 The following is an account of the Phoenix market’s select top five office sale transactions for second quarter 2011. Morgan Stanley & Co. purchased the 482,108-square-foot building at 1850 N Central Ave. in Phoenix for $56 million, or roughly $116 per square foot. The buyer and the seller, McCarthy Cook, were represented in-house. View article…
Phoenix‘s Select Top Office Leases for Q2 2011 The following is an account of the Phoenix market’s top 10 office lease transactions for second quarter 2011. PhoenixLaw leased 205,130 square feet at 1 N Central Ave. in Phoenix. Jay Hoselton of Cushman & Wakefield represented the tenant. Phillip Breidenbach, Peter Nieman and Lindsey Carlson represented the landlord, Mitsubishi Estate New York, Inc. View article…
Total Wine to occupy Gold Dust Plaza Total Wine & More will move into a 21,600-square-foot space at Gold Dust Plaza in Scottsdale. The retailer will occupy two vacant spaces at 10320 N. Scottsdale Road as well as a small portion of the existing Ace Hardware store. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. View article…
Salty Senorita closes Mesa location The Salty Senorita in Mesa has closed its doors. The property at 1013 S. Stapley Drive had a notice of landlord lien on it Friday. Calls to Salty Senorita’s corporate office late Friday afternoon were not immediately returned. View article…
Paradise Valley Mall settles suit with former tenant Paradise Valley Mall recently settled a lawsuit against a former tenant over unpaid rent. The northeast Phoenix mall sought payments of $231,081 from the Ben Bridge Corp. to cover rent, late charges and other fees through Jan. 31, 2011. The mall also sought to have its attorney fees covered. In February, the mall filed suit in Maricopa County Superior Court against Ben Bridge, a Seattle-based jeweler. View article…
Promenade owners unlikely to immediately change center A San Diego company became the new owner and manager of the Promenade shopping center in north Scottsdale this week, but no immediate changes are expected at the property. Excel Trust Inc. closed a $110 million deal Monday to buy most of the retail and restaurant space – excluding what’s owned by current occupants Lowe’s Home Improvement and the Great Indoors – at the Promenade. View article…
Mesa light rail extension: Environmental clearance OK’d Valley Metro has received the required environmental clearance to allow for its 3.1-mile light rail extension into central Mesa. The “Finding of No Significant Impact” was issued by the Federal Transit Administration after Valley Metro officials were required to submit an environmental impact report to the agency. “This is another significant step toward implementing the voter-approved extension of light rail,” Mesa Mayor Scott Smith said on Thursday. “(The extension) is so important to not only Mesa, but to the entire metro region.” View article…
Phoenix-area bus, light-rail cuts avoidable, analysis shows When the Valley’s economy was unraveling in 2008, transit service was an early casualty. Three years of cuts ensued. Dozens of bus lines were eliminated, rerouted or truncated. Wait times grew, and fares shot up on buses and light rail. Some of those transit cuts, and the resulting hardship for many riders, might have been averted if the Valley’s transit network were run by a single unified agency, an Arizona Republic analysis indicates. Unified transit systems are common among fast-growing Western cities. View article…
Census shows housing market in Gilbert is better than most In ordinary times, a housing-vacancy rate over 7 percent wouldn’t be much to brag about. But these days, with the economy still sputtering, Gilbert’s vacancy rate of 7.4 percent puts it far ahead of most Arizona cities and towns, according to data released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Thursday. “It’s not that bad” is the way housing-market economist RL Brown characterized the numbers, not just for Gilbert, but for the entire metro area. View article…
Recession throws off old formula to estimate Chandler population The recession has taught Chandler officials that the city’s longtime formula for estimating population between censuses doesn’t work any more. The latest U.S. Census Bureau report show that 7,480 Chandler houses were vacant last year. More single people are living alone and fewer couples have children. The report, released earlier this week, shows more than one-fifth of Chandler’s 86,924 households are just one person and another 32 percent are two people. Aging Baby Boomers are in the mix: 20,174 households are home to someone 60 or older. View article…
Are we headed for inflation or deflation? As we focus on the third quarter of 2011, we are faced each day with investment decisions based on projections. Where is the economy headed for the remainder of 2011 or for the next 5 years? Are we headed into inflation or deflation? Are interest rates going to rise or fall? View article…
U.S. small businesses out of gas on job creation Small business, the traditional source of job creation in the U.S., is out of gas. That’s a big reason the economy created only 18,000 jobs in June. Three new reports shed light on why small businesses aren’t playing their usual leadership role in this economic recovery:…View article…
Feel free to contact me regarding any of these stories, the current market, distressed commercial real estate opportunities or your property.