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Daily News for Commercial Real Estate & Business – November 7, 2011

Here are the news articles you might find interesting today for commercial real estate and business:

Honeywell extends lease in Glendale Honeywell has signed a lease to remain at 19019 N. 59th Ave. in Glendale. The lease term and financial details were not disclosed. Honeywell (NYSE: HON) has operated out of the 252,000-square-foot aerospace facility for 25 years and maintains at least 400 jobs at that location. View article…

OnTrac Signs for 120,000 Square Feet Overnight package delivery service OnTrac signed a five-year lease for 119,362 square feet of space at Hohokam 10 Business Park, Center #6. The deal is a relocation and expansion for On Trac, and it brings the 157,636 square foot flex building to 100% occupancy. OnTrac will move into its new digs at 4440 E. Elwood St. later this month. The company currently occupies approximately 27,000 square feet in the Southbank Commerce Center at 2601 S. 37th St., less than two miles northwest of the new location. OnTrac will use the space for distribution purposes. View article…

Sojourn Aviation relocating headquarters to Arizona Wichita, Kan.-based Sojourn Aviation, a business aviation consultantcy, will move its headquarters to Arizona. Brad Hatt, managing partner, and Gary Wright, partner, plan to open the new headquarters at the Scottsdale Municipal Airport next month. Hatt, a former senior executive at Hawker Beechcraft Corp.helped found Sojourn in 2010. Hatt left Hawker in January 2010 and served as president of Jack BeBoer’s Consolidated Holdings Group until October of that same year. View article…

Park area would replace Fiesta Village; walkways enhanced After years of talk and studies, Mesa is about to lay serious money on the line to redo its struggling Fiesta District. About 150 people, meeting in the empty Victoria’s Secret storefront at Fiesta Mall, got the first public look Tuesday night at plans for which the word “dramatic” was used over and over again. Mesa has $11.5 million on hand for the project, which will take about two years from when the City Council gives its OK to the end of construction. View article…

First Solar moves ahead in Mesa, delays Vietnam First Solar Inc.will continue developing its Mesa solar panel production facility but will not develop a planned factory in Vietnam next year. The Tempe-based company (Nasdaq: FSLR) said it was consolidating its operations to provide equipment, as well as research and development to further its operations. View article…

Johnson Bank gets $235 million capital infusion Racine, Wis.-based Johnson Financial Group, the parent company of Johnson Bank, announced the Johnson family will infuse the company with $235 million in new capital. The privately held bank, which has five Phoenix-area locations, entered into an agreement with the Federal Reserve and the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions on May 10. It agreed to improve its risk management practices, earnings, liquidity and funds management. View article…

Court: Mesa tattoo artists’ free speech denied The Mesa City Council denied two tattoo artists the constitutional protections of free speech by rejecting their efforts to open a business two years ago, the Arizona Court of Appeals said Thursday. The decision — a first by an Arizona court on free-speech protections for tattoo artists — reversed a Maricopa County Superior Court ruling that sided with the city. “We hold that obtaining a tattoo, applying a tattoo and engaging in the business of tattooing are exercises of free speech entitled to protection as a fundamental right under the Arizona Constitution and the United States Constitution,” the Appeals Court’s presiding judge, Ann Timmer, wrote in the 31-page opinion. View article…

Trepp: Slow Decline in Delinquencies Suggests Prolonged Recovery Recording a slight decrease in delinquencies in its preliminary third quarter estimate, Trepp predicts full market recovery will not occur for years. Residential mortgage delinquencies fell 0.3 percent in the third quarter to 12 percent, according to Trepp’s preliminary data. This is down 1.1 percent from last year. Serious delinquencies in residential mortgages also declined in the third quarter to 5 percent. View article…

Construction jobs up 3 percent in Valley Construction employment in the Valley was up 3 percent in September from a year ago with a total of 85,000 jobs, according to the latest figures from the Associated General Contractors of America. The Phoenix area added 2,300 jobs. Construction employment declined in 153 of the 337 metropolitan areas tracked by the contractors group. View article…

National Unemployment Rate Falls to 9.0% The nation’s unemployment rate slipped to 9.0 percent in October, as employers added 80,000 new jobs to their payrolls, according to data released Friday by the U.S. Department of Labor. Officials called the rate “little changed,” down from 9.1 percent the month before. The unemployment rate has remained in a narrow range from 9.0 to 9.2 percent since April. View article…

Banks in Arizona shift to short sales After more than 175,000 foreclosures in metro Phoenix in the past several years, mortgage lenders in Arizona have done an about-face, approving a record number of short sales. Rather than taking back homes and selling them at auction, bankers say, they are more frequently allowing distressed owners to sell the homes for less than the borrowers owe. The trend could lead to rising sales prices, because short sales in metro Phoenix tend to sell for higher prices than homes taken back by lenders and resold. View article…

SAMPLE OPPORTUNITIES:
Bella Vista Retail Center –
Investment, multi-tenant retail center. For a brochure, click here…

5051 & 5057 E Thomas Road – Former Dentist Office and Former Real Estate Office For Sale (CALL FOR OFFERS-DEADLINE 12/1/2011) For a brochure, click here…

Kokopelli Springs in St. David, AZ – Investment, 56 unit mobile home park. For a brochure, click here…

7320 N Dreamy Draw – Freestanding Office Building in Squaw Peak Corridor-great owner/user opportunity. For a brochure, click here…

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