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Daily News for Commercial Real Estate & Business – April 9, 2012

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

DDR Buys Out Partner’s Ownership Stake in Two Retail Centers for $70M Fourteen years after becoming a 50 percent owner of Portland’s Tanasbourne Town Center and Phoenix’s Arrowhead Crossing in a joint venture with DRA Advisors Inc., DDR Corp. has acquired its partner’s stake in the assets for $70 million. DDR is now the full owner of the power centers, which offer a combined total of nearly 1 million square feet of prime retail space. View article…

Zipps Sports Grill sues Phoenix, landlord Zipps Sports Grill has filed suit against the city, Planning and Development Department Director Debra Stark and Bethany 16th LLC, the owner and landlord of a central Phoenix shopping center where Zipps leases a location. The March 28 filing follows a months-long zoning battle involving a Z’Tejas restaurant proposed at the southwestern corner of 16th Street and Bethany Home Road. Construction of the Z’Tejas, expected to begin in January, stalled after tenants and neighbors argued the center didn’t have enough parking to support the restaurant. View article…

Developer seeking state land for 2 Scottsdale auto lots A developer hopes to acquire more than 29 acres of state trust land for two car dealerships on Scottsdale Road just south of Loop 101. Diversified Partners of Scottsdale submitted preliminary plans to the city last week for two car lots, with one dealership housed in a 90,000-square-foot, two-story building. A second building is not mentioned in the plans. View article…

Mesa’s Fiesta District lands 3 new eating places Three new restaurants and other upcoming projects may signal a brightening picture in Mesa’s Fiesta District. The good news is tempered, however, by Mesa’s ongoing battle with owners of the Fiesta Village Shopping Center, which is the subject of two active code-compliance cases. The first of those concerns the former Bobby McGee’s on the north side of Southern Avenue. Mesa filed a complaint about the building after The Republic inquired about it in January. View article…

Walmart to open at Surprise Prasada shopping center Walmart managers and employees will join city officials Wednesday to mark the opening of a new store at the Prasada shopping center. The Walmart at 14111 N. Prasada Gateway Ave. includes a grocery store, pharmacy, bakery and deli and will be open 24 hours. The ceremony begins at 7:30 a.m. The store will open immediately after the ceremony and will feature product sampling and free products. View article…

Thunderbird LLC buys Excaliber Precision Machining in Peoria The parent of a Phoenix-area manufacturing company has added another to its stable as part of its expansion into different markets. Thunderbird LLC has agreed to buy Peoria-based Excaliber Precision Machining for an undisclosed sum. The goal was to use Excaliber’s talent and Thunderbird’s resources to grow, said Mark Weather, president of Excaliber. View article…

Behind a bank failure Part 1: FNB rode the wave before crash I wrote a story for this week’s print edition on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s efforts to recover the roughly $90 billion the deposit lost in the wake of hundreds of bank failures. As anyone who lives in this market knows, Phoenix benefited more than most cities from the rabid real estate mania that gripped this nation in the early part of this century. View article…

March jobs report: Hiring slows, Unemployment falls Hiring slowed dramatically in March, clouding optimism about the strength of the recovery. Employers added 120,000 jobs in the month, the Labor Department reported Friday, falling far short of economists’ expectations. The number marked a significant slowdown in hiring from February, when the economy added 240,000 jobs. View article…

Metal thieves find new target at Scottsdale businesses It’s a new twist on an old crime and it’s costing Valley business owners thousands of dollars. Jerry Bianco pointed out the damage behind a Scottsdale office building, near the Loop 101 freeway and Raintree Drive. Bianco is a property manager who said that he’s tired of cleaning up after crooks stealing metal downspouts, used to direct water away from buildings. View article…

Phoenix’s Outlying Suburbs Keep Growing As gas prices continue to climb, more and more people around the country are choosing to live closer to the heart of big cities — leaving many suburbs to suffer with slow growth. Things may be in bad shape across the rest of the country, but the valley seems to be bucking the trend. View article…

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

+/- 43,000 SF Leased Industrial Building in Southern Gardens – Single Tenant Investment opportunity. For more information, click here…

Former TDC Corp HQ – 6515 S Rural Road, Tempe, AZ – Former Corporate HQ for TDC in Tempe, AZ For Sale. For more information, click here…

5051 & 5057 E Thomas Road – Former Dentist Office and Former Real Estate Office For Sale/Lease. 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…

6677 W Thunderbird – BANK OWNED – Grey shell office condo in Glendale. For a brochure, click here…

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

2 Acres of Land – Owner/User opportunity to purchase 2 acres of land off of I-10 & 40th Street. For a brochure, click here…

3.64 Acres of Land – BANK OWNED – Infill Development opportunity in Surprise. For a brochure, click here…

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