04/07/07
Filed under:
General,
Real Estate
Posted by:
Lillian Wong @ 1:28 pm
Another Paradise Valley resort is seeking a makeover to keep step with today’s competitive hospitality market. Owners of the adobe-walled Hermosa Inn say they want to remodel without sacrificing the property’s signature Southwestern charm and history. Developer Fred Unger and his wife, Jennifer, have owned the property northwest of Palo Cristi and Stanford Drive for nearly 15 years, buying it in 1992. More…
Filed under:
General,
Real Estate
Posted by:
Lillian Wong @ 1:24 pm
Former Phoenix Mayor Paul Johnson hopes to bring affordable living to the inner city at a time when much of the Valley’s low-cost housing is on the outskirts. Johnson, 47, founded Berkana Homes two years ago to exclusively develop affordable residential infill projects. His company targets teachers, police officers, firefighters and others who seek housing close to the central city, its jobs and cultural amenities, but can’t pay the hefty price tag. These people can generally afford homes within the $190,000 to $250,000 range, Johnson said. More…
Filed under:
General,
Real Estate
Posted by:
Lillian Wong @ 1:22 pm
PARADISE VALLEY - A good first impression is everything and the developers of the Ritz-Carlton Paradise Valley hope they made a favorable one with town officials. The Paradise Valley Planning Commission on Tuesday took its first formal look at the luxury project and were given copies of its special-use permit application, each weighing about 3 pounds. More…
Filed under:
General,
Business,
Real Estate
Posted by:
Lillian Wong @ 1:20 pm
Bring your business to Goodyear. That is the message developers and city leaders want to convey when companies look at plans for CrossPointe. The 1,200-acre, mixed-use development near Phoenix Goodyear Airport is expected to serve as a high-profile employment corridor for the West Valley. More…
Filed under:
General,
Business,
Real Estate
Posted by:
Lillian Wong @ 1:17 pm
ASU West and the Thunderbird School of Global Management are pushing forward with plans to transform their campuses into urban villages that would include housing, offices, shops and restaurants. ASU West in west Phoenix recently hired a team of developers to build a 1 million-square-foot project dubbed College Town that calls for shops, office buildings and senior and multifamily housing. More…
Filed under:
General,
Real Estate
Posted by:
Lillian Wong @ 1:14 pm
In early February, property owners received notices of valuations from the Maricopa County Assessor’s office for the 2008 tax year. In the five northeast ZIP codes, home valuations have risen anywhere from 8.7 to 14.1 percent after rising from 50 to nearly 66 percent the previous year. Property tax bills are based on the assessed values of your home. But just because the assessed value of your home goes up doesn’t mean that your property tax bill will rise at a corresponding rate. Taxing jurisdictions, such as city and the school districts, often lower their tax rates when assessed values rise as they have in the past few years. More…
Filed under:
General,
Business,
Real Estate
Posted by:
Lillian Wong @ 1:12 pm
In 25 years, the Mayo Clinic Hospital Phoenix campus will look completely different. Construction has begun on three new buildings on the 200-acre campus as part of the hospital’s 25-year master plan. The facilities include a hotel, child-care center and hospitality village. These additions are part of the goal-focus treatment of patients at the Phoenix campus and research at the Scottsdale campus. More…
Filed under:
General,
Real Estate
Posted by:
Lillian Wong @ 1:10 pm
Several members of the neighborhood and of the development community are on a mission to improve the streetscape and develop a theme for East Camelback Road. They agreed to form the Camelback Core Streetscape Committee and are meeting regularly to come up with a plan to make those improvements. More…
Filed under:
General,
Real Estate
Posted by:
Lillian Wong @ 1:07 pm
Valeriano Antonioli fell in love with Arizona’s color-splashed sunsets when he visited the state in 2004 for a hospitality meeting. He was so impressed that he called his wife in Milan, Italy, to tell her about his experience. “I was totally amazed and surprised by the sunsets,” he recalled. Three years later, the Italian-born hotelier has moved to the Valley to manage the InterContinental Montelucia Resort & Spa. More…
Filed under:
General,
Real Estate
Posted by:
Lillian Wong @ 1:04 pm
Arizona’s booming economy broke records in 2006, but there is little doubt among experts that it has already slowed considerably in 2007. The trend is seen in a glut of houses languishing on the market and consumers curtailing shopping trips. Economists, however, are at odds over what comes next. More…
Filed under:
General,
Real Estate
Posted by:
Lillian Wong @ 12:52 pm
Some Paradise Valley residents don’t like what they see rising southeast of the intersection of Tatum Boulevard and Lincoln Drive. The InterContinental Montelucia Resort and Spa and the Villas at Montelucia are taking shape, and for some the shape is huge. People are most critical of the project’s 34 resort villas, which hug one of the town’s busiest intersections. Some say they resemble barracks, rather than luxury homes starting in the low $2 million price range. More…
Filed under:
General,
Real Estate,
Mortgages
Posted by:
Lillian Wong @ 12:46 pm
A move to regulate Arizona’s mortgage industry and cut down on bad loans and fraud died at the Capitol last week. A bill to license as many as 18,000 loan officers and mortgage originators never got a chance to be heard in the Senate after passing the House, 47-10. More…
Filed under:
General,
Real Estate
Posted by:
Lillian Wong @ 11:11 am
Fiesta Towers made a dramatic statement about the potential of a reinvigorated Fiesta District with four high-rise glass-and-steel buildings, but the project has turned into a scaled-back Fiesta Lofts proposal. The 10- to 19-story buildings shrink to three five- and six-story buildings in the latest proposal filed Tuesday. The number of condominium units also drops to 438 from the range of 540 to 850 envisioned in November 2005. But in a project narrative, the developer argues that the project still will improve the area by building on 4.9 vacant acres, “turning it into a high-quality project.” More…
Filed under:
General,
Real Estate
Posted by:
Lillian Wong @ 11:08 am
When Tom Hennessy tries to explain his Douglas Ranch project, he has to divide it into sections. That’s because it is difficult to wrap people’s minds around the massive Buckeye development. Hennessy calls it Arizona’s largest master-planned community, larger than Tempe, and predicts it will take 25 to 50 years to complete. And now, the community could get larger. More…
Filed under:
General,
Real Estate
Posted by:
Lillian Wong @ 11:06 am
Cushman & Wakefield’s top office expert in the Valley is a bit cautious about 2007. Although the commercial office market continues on a good run, Larry Downey thinks it will be difficult to repeat the stellar performance of 2006. “It’ll slow down a bit, not a lot, in 2007,” said Downey, executive director of office properties for Cushman & Wakefield of Arizona. More…
Filed under:
General,
Real Estate
Posted by:
Lillian Wong @ 11:02 am
A report looking ahead to 2020 expresses high expectations for the Southwest Valley. “The nine-mile corridor along the I-10 from Loop 101 to the Loop 303 will resemble the current image of north Scottsdale, with high-end retail, power centers, Class A office buildings and high-end demographics housing,” the report said. The report, which was released this week, is called 2020 Vision. It is the work of Colliers International Phoenix. More…