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. There is a great discussion about the Lehman collapse with a timeframe.
$187M health sciences building closing in on reality
The Arizona Board of Regents may be a step closer to building the $187 million Health Sciences Education Building on the Phoenix Biomedical Campus. The expansion was approved twice by the Arizona Legislature and signed by the governor but was held up pending review by the Joint Committee on Capital Review. The committee doesn’t need to approve the project; it just needs to review it before ground can be broken. View article…
Health Advisory Services Group Leases 47,000 SF in Phoenix
Health Advisory Services Group, a 30-year Arizona medical care management service, signed a 10-year lease for about 47,000 square feet at 3133 E. Camelback Rd. in Phoenix. The three-story office building totals 99,594 square feet and is in the Camelback Corridor submarket. DMB Associates constructed the property in 1999 and KBS Real Estate Investment Trust owns it, according to CoStar information. HASG’s lease includes space on the second and third floors. View article…
Scottsdale Office Condo Sells for $2.4M
Adancho Properties LLC purchased an office condo at 14287 N. 87th St. in Scottsdale, AZ, from SAXA Inc. for $2.47 million, or $202 per square foot. The 12,224-square-foot condo building was constructed in 2004 in the Pima Commerce Center. View article…
$2.9 MILLION RETAIL SALE IN VALLEY OF THE SUN
PHOENIX – Marcus & Millichap has brokered the $2.9 million sale of a Fry’s Shops located at 4212 West Cactus Road in Phoenix. Built in 1990, the 17,055-square-foot retail property is 81 percent occupied by nine tenants. View article…
Senate panel kills bid to keep payday loans
The nearly 600 payday lending shops in Arizona could be closing their doors in less than four months. On a 5-3 vote late Tuesday, the Senate Appropriations Committee killed an industry sponsored measure to continue indefinitely their exemption from state laws which limit interest on loans to no more than 36 percent a year. View article…
Downtown’s Circles Records closes its doors
Circles Records & Tapes, at McKinley Street and Central Avenue, closed March 13 after almost 38 years in the Valley. Leonard and Angela Singer started the Phoenix store in 1972, and it became a haven for music buffs through the years. View article…
Podcast: The Future of Shopping Centers (about 20 minutes long)
In the U.S. and around the world, the recession is forcing shopping center developers and retailers to re-think the design of the places where we spend our money. Some say the very nature of shopping has changed. Recently the International Council of Shopping Centers held a meeting of its North America Research Advisory Task Force in Phoenix. View article…
Podcast: ‘Strategic’ Defaults in the Recovering Real Estate Market (about 10 minutes long)
The Phoenix resale home market rebounded slightly in February, according to the Realty Studies Report from the W. P. Carey School of Business. Compared to January, the number of transactions increased and prices were up a bit. Still, foreclosures accounted for 42 percent of the total market, and the sale of previously foreclosed properties made up 40 percent of the traditional sale segment. View article…
Home sales see rebound in February
Existing home sales in the Valley rebounded slightly last month from January, while foreclosure properties continued to dominate the market, according to the latest report from Arizona State University’s Realty Studies Department. Some 7,925 sales were reported for February in the Valley, up from 7,725 in January, but below 8,510 in February 2009. Foreclosure-related activity – including actual foreclosures or foreclosure homes resold – represented 65 percent of the overall sales. View article…
More owners opt to walk and leave mortgages behind
More Phoenix-area homeowners are walking away from their mortgage payments, and many more are likely considering it. These are not people losing homes due to severe financial problems. “Walking away” now also describes people who can make their payments but don’t want to because they owe much more than their home is worth. View article…
Largest Retail Real Estate Owners Control 1.1 Billion Square Feet
For the second year in a row, the top owners and managers of retail real estate in the United States did little to change their portfolios. In fact, the amount of space controlled by the top 10 owners of retail real estate fell slightly in 2009 from the year prior. For the most part, firms seem focused on keeping current portfolios in order rather than going out and buying new properties. View article…
Pent-up Desire to Shop Drives Improved Sales Performance for U.S. Retailers
As the employment picture stabilizes and the stock market posts moderate gains, consumers that have denied themselves all indulgences for the past two years are starting to come back into stores, new data suggests. When the ICSC published its February same-store sales figures earlier this month, the 3.7 percent gain marked the third month in a row that sales were up from last year’s levels. No doubt the improving statistics are partly due to the fact that the comparisons are to one of the worst sales years on record. View article…
America’s Other Maturities Dilemma
This column is about relationships between commercial real estate and money. Under current recession conditions, the outlook for commercial properties will be greatly influenced by the amount of federal funds used to stimulate business and consumer spending and bolster jobs. But the government will be limited by the amount of federal funds allocated to entitlements for elderly households, including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Those programs are guaranteed by laws that expand payments as the elderly population grows. View article…
The Art of Loan Restructuring
As if the economy and the tight credit markets were not enough, real estate developers are faced with a new challenge. Banks are informing developers at loan maturity that their cash-flowing, debt-servicing properties are now substandard based on current appraisals. As a result, there has been a surge in the number of loans being restructured through a process that is more art than science. Loan restructuring requires a detailed analysis of all possible solutions and a clear understanding of the motivations of each party. View article…
Feel free to contact me regarding any of these stories, the current market, distressed commercial real estate opportunities or your property.