03/25/07
Filed under:
General,
Real Estate
Posted by:
Lillian Wong @ 4:41 pm
More than 50 percent of the 88 Valley homes up for auction Saturday in downtown Phoenix got bids that met or exceeded the sellers’ minimum price. The bidding went faster than expected, said Juliet Straker, a spokeswoman for National Real Estate Auction Corp., the Scottsdale-based company that planned the auction. The auction created a buzz for buyers hoping to score a bargain on houses with price tags ranging from about $100,000 to $2 million. More…
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Real Estate
Posted by:
Lillian Wong @ 4:38 pm
Construction of the mini-castles that have been sitting half built on Phoenix’s Central Avenue should start again soon. Chateaux on Central got new financing last week, and the foreclosure sale of the property was called off. Mortgages Ltd. is now backing the $65 million development. And the project’s developers are bullish on when they can complete the project and see the first buyer move in. More…
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Real Estate
Posted by:
Lillian Wong @ 4:33 pm
Mesa for years has had an albatross hanging at its municipal neck: 25 barren acres at one of the city’s prime intersections, producing little but empty dreams and sandburs. Nothing panned out, and the city is cutting the dead bird loose. The City Council decided earlier this month to sell or lease the southwesternmost nine acres of Site 17 at Mesa and University drives to Mesa Community College. The rest will be sold to one or more developers, and the council will seek a broker to handle the process. More…
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Real Estate
Posted by:
Lillian Wong @ 4:31 pm
The state’s tallest building sold this month for the highest price ever paid for an office building in metropolitan Phoenix.
Chase Tower at 201 N. Central Ave. sold for $166.93 million to Crystal River Capital, a New York real estate investment trust. It drew 16 offers.
“This signifies a couple of things,” said Bob Young of CB Richard Ellis and one of the brokers who represented the seller. “It shows the health of downtown as a vibrant market and how Phoenix has grown on the world stage for institutional investors.”
Brookfield Asset Management of Toronto was the seller. Brookfield and Crystal River are separate companies but Crystal River is managed by an affiliate of the seller. Chase will remain in the building.
The biggest Phoenix office deal was $155 million for two buildings in the Camelback Esplanade in 2005. The record for a single building sale was $107 million for the Hines building at 24th Street and Camelback Road.
Filed under:
General,
Real Estate
Posted by:
Lillian Wong @ 4:30 pm
Sales of existing homes unexpectedly rose in February by the largest amount in nearly three years, but analysts expressed fears that the recovery for the battered housing industry will be slowed by spreading troubles in mortgage lending. The National Association of Realtors reported Friday that sales of existing homes rose 3.9 percent last month. It was the biggest increase since a similar increase in March 2004. The increase pushed sales up to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.69 million units, still 3.6 percent lower than a year ago. Sales fell 8.5 percent for all of last year as housing hit a sharp slowdown after setting sales records for five straight years. More…
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Posted by:
Lillian Wong @ 4:26 pm
A developer that is building a residential development in northeast Phoenix is seeking nearly $18 million in damages, alleging that city-imposed delays have knocked the project more than two years off schedule. An attorney representing Gray Development Group claims that the city made unnecessary requirements of his client’s Paradise Ridge project that includes three multifamily developments on about 33 acres of land near 64th Street and Mayo Boulevard. The developer claims that the city-imposed delays pushed back the project schedule, making the development subject to the higher impact fees that took effect in February. More…
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Real Estate
Posted by:
Lillian Wong @ 4:21 pm
The graying adobe walls of Monti’s La Casa Vieja have withstood more than a century of change on its corner at the northern end of downtown Tempe. The iconic Mill Avenue steakhouse will weather even more in coming years. Michael Monti, whose family has owned one of the Valley’s oldest restaurants, has sold the 2.5 acres of prime downtown Tempe land. The restaurant will stay, according to the business deal with Phoenix developer Tony Wall and his 3W Cos. So will the original part of the building. More…
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Posted by:
Lillian Wong @ 4:19 pm
Maricopa County holds the nation’s top spot for population growth in a county and that has created a not-too-far-off need for seven-digit license plates. The county, which added 696,000 residents to the Valley between 2000 and 2006, is now the fourth-largest county in the nation with 3.8 million residents, according to a report from the U.S. Census Bureau. These figures translate into an increase in Arizona car registrations originating from other states. Nearly 160,000 titles surrendered in February 2006 compared with 144,000 cars’ titles in 2004. More…
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Posted by:
Lillian Wong @ 4:15 pm
NORTHEAST VALLEY - To look at the conceptual images of CityNorth and other planned retail centers in the Northeast Valley it’s clear that developers are trying to out-Kierland, Kierland Commons. Scottsdale Crossing, just east of Kierland, was originally hyped as Kierland Uncommon, a similar mixed-use project of retail, offices and condos that would have an even higher tier of luxury retailers than its western neighbor. In its infancy seven years ago, it quickly became clear that Woodbine Southwest Corp. had hit the mark at Kierland Commons with its mix of exclusive fashion retailers, unique restaurants, offices and luxury lofts in a kind of idealized American main street. More…
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Posted by:
Lillian Wong @ 4:03 pm
The water hazards soon may yield to waves big enough for surfing and kayaking, washing away the affordable rounds that southeast Valley golfers have enjoyed at Riverview Golf Course in west Mesa for two decades. Developers identified Riverview this month as their preferred site for Waveyard, which is envisioned as a recreational destination resort for adventure-sports enthusiasts, including surfers, scuba divers and kayakers. More…
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Posted by:
Lillian Wong @ 4:00 pm
Dozens of Pinal County home buyers left stranded by the bankruptcy of home builder Turner-Dunn have another chance to move into the houses they planned to purchase. Frontier Homes, a California-based builder, closed on the $29 million purchase of Turner-Dunn’s stagnant subdivisions in Casa Grande and Maricopa on March 12, giving potential buyers new hope. The purchase also will give homeowners in the stranded subdivisions new neighbors, completed landscaping and finished houses in five neighborhoods that have been frozen in time since last summer. More…
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Real Estate
Posted by:
Lillian Wong @ 3:58 pm
A local developer is back at the drawing board after the Glendale City Council nixed a rezoning proposal for a 462-acre housing community west of Loop 303. Phoenix-based Kohner Properties recently decided it would instead go through Maricopa County and start from scratch. Kohner Properties planned to build Turning Leaf at the Meadows, which would have been Glendale’s largest residential project in more than a decade. More…
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Real Estate
Posted by:
Lillian Wong @ 3:55 pm
Steve Ellman and Rick Burton are your typical next-door neighbors: Behind all the smiles and pleasantries, they’re still fierce competitors. The two real estate heavyweights are constructing mammoth projects just north of University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale that together will total more than 10 million square feet. However, their approaches to these developments differ greatly. More…