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Daily News for Commercial Real Estate & Business – May 27, 2010

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

To view this week’s, “The Watchlist,” by Costar, click here.

State trust land sold at auction for $2 million Amid some confusion, the head of a Seattle-based firm was the winning bidder Tuesday for 4.7 acres of state trust land in Scottsdale. Perry Koon bought the parcel northeast of Loop 101 and Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard for the minimum bid of $2.15 million or $451,681 per acre. His company is Koon-Boen Inc. View article…

Bank Sells Phoenix Hotel for $3M Saehan Bank sold the 88-room Sierra Suites in Phoenix, AZ, to South Dakota-based HM Hotel Properties LLC for $3 million, or about $34,000 per room. The three-story, 39,969-square-foot hotel at 9455 N. Black Canyon Highway was built in 1997. View article…

Tiny Prints Expanding in Phoenix Tiny Prints Inc. is expanding through the addition of a customer service and design center in Tempe, AZ. The online retailer of personalized stationery signed for 25,350 square feet of flex space at 914 South 52nd Street. The terms of the lease were not disclosed. View article…

India-based engineering company opens SkySong office Targeting Arizona’s aerospace industry, an engineering subsidiary of one of India’s largest corporations has opened an office in SkySong, the ASU Scottsdale Innovation Center. View article…

Glendale OKs 45-acre Urban 95 project Glendale city council unanimously approved a planned unit development of 45 acres just south of Missouri Avenue between Loop 101 and 95th Avenue. View article…

Phoenix unveils design of PHX Sky Train cars for Sky Harbor International Airport Phoenix revealed the design of the train cars that will transport millions of passengers around Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. Wednesday’s announcement is the latest sign of progress for the $1.1 billion PHX Sky Train system, which will take air travelers to a light rail station, Sky Harbor terminals, parking and the airport’s rental car facility. View article…

SBA out of money for loan breaks The Small Business Administration once again has run out of money for breaks that made its loans less risky for lenders and more affordable for borrowers. View article…

2010 Commercial Real Estate Priorities Read a summary of the current commercial real estate market, learn NAR’s legislative and regulatory priorities and its proposals to improve the industry, and review facts, figures and products. View article…

2010 ICSC Marked by Increased Optimism and Activity It started tentatively. The first conversations between the attendees of the ICSC RECon 2010 were marked by a cautious optimism – almost as if people didn’t want to jinx it. One attendee put it like this: In the weeks leading up to the show he hoped he might have a full calendar of appointments. As he called retailers he found, unexpectedly, that many were in fact eager to sit down. And it wasn’t just to talk about how bad they were doing or to plead for more concessions. Instead, they were interested in talking about honest to goodness deals. View article…

Case Shiller: Housing prices slip in March, up year-to-year Housing prices in Phoenix slipped half a percentage point in March, but are up 2.4 percent from March of 2009, according to the latest S&P/Case-Shiller Home Prices Index. View article…

Falling home prices stir fears of a new bottom The housing slump isn’t over. Tax credits and historically low mortgage rates have failed to lift home prices so far this year. Prices nationally fell 0.5 percent in March from February, according to the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city index released Tuesday. View article…

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