LWR Commercial Real Estate
Sarasota Real Estate
Community ‘SmartFarm’ in the works for Lakewood Ranch
Jun 7th
LAKEWOOD RANCH – A community “SmartFarm” that will be cultivated in centralLakewood Ranch can trace its roots all the way back to a 3-year-old boy in Tecate, Mexico.
Click to enlarge
Jaden Hair, Lakewood Ranch resident and TV chef and author of the Steamy Kitchen Cookbook, wants to teach children about growing food.
Buy photo
Buy photo
PHOTO PROVIDED BY JADEN HAIR
Related Links:
Click to enlarge
Hair was inspired by this little boy and his delight in growing radishes.
Buy photo
Buy photo
PHOTO PROVIDED BY JADEN HAIR
The “Rain Women’s Garden” in Tecate, Mexico, is where Hair got the idea to build an organic garden with educational components to the community.
The child won over Lakewood Ranch resident Jaden Hair’s heart when she saw his ecstatic response to growing radishes in an organic garden on the outskirts of the poor, rural town.
Hair, a food columnist and cookbook author, thought back to when her son, Andrew, was that age — he thought oranges came from a truck.
An adorable mistake? Yes.
But with this planned 5-acre organic garden and feature-packed farm, Hair sees the chance to teach local children about where food comes from, how to grow it, healthy food choices and how to use or sell their crop.
“Parents are so busy taking their kids to music lessons and tutoring that by the end of the day, there is no time to make a healthy dinner,” Hair said. “I’m guilty of it. We value skills so much and we don’t value nutrition.”
The multi-purpose farm will make its home on the northern border of 44th Avenue East, east of Lakewood Ranch Boulevard and near B.D. Gullett Elementary School and the future entrance to Pat Neal’s residential development, Central Park.
It will be built in a hasty three days in late October — a similar style to the homebuilding show “Extreme Makeover” — and the construction will be documented by the Discovery Health channel, said Hair, a food columnist for Discovery Channel’s TLC.
About $500,000 will need to be raised for the SmartFarm by then, she added.
Latest county numbers show 13% fall in 2009, compared with a decrease in residential properties of only 9% | HeraldTribune.com
Jun 7th
HE DISCONCERTING PART OF recent real estate statistics is that the value of commercial property is now falling more rapidly than that of residential property.
A DOWNTURN IN COMMERCIAL?
Preliminary market value figures for Sarasota County
property:
Vacant commercial property
20092010Change
$546 million$471 million-14%
Vacant industrial property
20092010Change
$107 million$81.5 million-24%
Developed commercial property
20092010Change
$6.17 billion$5.45 billion-12%
Developed industrial property
20092010Change
$1.16 billion$958 million-17%
Note: Figures are for appraisals reflecting Jan. 1, 2009, and Jan. 1, 2010,
values. Commercial property includes office, retail and multi-family.
Industrial property is a subset of commercial.
SOURCE: Sarasota County Property Appraiser
After dropping by more than 20 percent in 2008, residential property fared much better, losing 9 percent of its value last year, according to preliminary figures from Sarasota County Property Appraiser Bill Furst’s office.
But the value of commercial, retail, office and industrial property, which had held steady earlier in the recession, fell by 13 percent in 2009. Vacant industrial land fell by 24 percent last year, rivaling the longtime market leader in bad investments, vacant residential land.
The turn in the numbers is worrisome to Sean Snaith, a University of Central Florida economist.
“It’s like a dismal relay race as the baton gets passed from one sagging sector to the next,” Snaith said. Partly because of the downturn in commercial, Snaith says the real estate recovery may not manifest itself until after 2011.
The figures also bring to mind the oft-quoted findings of a February report by the Congressional Oversight Panel, a group of academics, accountants and former regulators formed to oversee the federal government’s $700 billion bank bailout effort in late 2008.
Commercial real estate bargains don’t materialize – Atlanta and Elswhere
Jun 2nd
Commercial real estate bargains don’t materialize
Several high-powered Atlanta investment funds have hundreds of millions of dollars waiting to buy prime commercial real estate at bargain prices.
But there’s almost nothing to buy.
Investors expected a tidal wave of opportunities with potentially giant returns. But, as banks continue holding onto distressed real estate loans longer than expected, the wave hasn’t come.
Some investors aren’t sure it ever will.
This is what many investors who have been marching to the “commercial meltdown” drum are finding. That they’ve gathered these war chests for a water fight.
Read more: Commercial real estate bargains don’t materialize – Atlanta Business Chronicle
The “Other Shoe” Fell, and Barry Sternlicht Caught it and Ran
Jun 2nd
Read More: Barry Sternlicht, the Real Estate Bargain Hunter
His highest-profile deal has been the acquisition of the $4.5 billion real estate loan portfolio of Corus Bankshares, the nation’s largest condominium construction lender until it failed last September because it had financed too many projects like Paramount Bay. The following month, Mr. Sternlicht and a group of investors — including TPG Capital, WLR LeFrak and Perry Capital — won the loans in an auction run by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, paying $554 million for 40 percent of the package, valuing the debt at 60 cents on the dollar. The F.D.I.C. holds the remaining 60 percent.
Mr. Sternlicht hopes to foreclose on many of Corus’s errant borrowers, restyle their buildings and sell units for a significant profit once the real estate market recovers. He says he and his investors can afford to wait until then because the F.D.I.C. has provided them with $1.4 billion in zero-coupon financing and an additional $1 billion in low-cost loans that can be used to complete unfinished projects.
There’s an upside for the F.D.I.C. too, Mr. Sternlicht says: it will recover the full value of the Corus portfolio by working with him. “They are going to make a couple of billion,” he says. “If they sold it outright, they would have lost money.”
If all goes as planned, Mr. Sternlicht says, he and his investors are also positioned to do rather well themselves.
Florida is #6 on Best States for Business
Jun 1st
Best and Worst States for Business 2010
In Chief Executive’s annual survey of best and worst states for business, conducted in late January of this year, 651 CEOs across the U.S. again gave Texas top honors for being pro-business. Florida was #6 on the list. Click here to see the whole story.
DebtX preps for $500m CRE loan sale
May 25th
DebtX preps for $500m CRE loan sale – Boston Business Journal.
Boston-based DebtX said Monday it plans to sell about $500 million in commercial real estate loans for three financial institutions, including an unnamed Northeastern regional bank.
DebtX CEO Kingsley Greenland said lenders are moving aggressively to dispose of loans to bolster the strength of their balance sheets. Over the past two years, commercial real estate loan delinquencies have surged as rents and occupancy rates have fallen.
DebtX said next month it will auction $364 million in performing and nonperforming loans for an unidentified Northeastern regional bank.
In addition, DebtX will auction a combined $136 million in commercial real estate loans for a bank and a financial services company in the South.
“Investors have an opportunity to buy a wide range of both performing and non-performing loans from these sales,” Greenland said in a press release.
Venice apartment complex sells for $1 million less than in 2003 | Real Estate | HeraldTribune.com
May 25th
Venice apartment complex sells for $1 million less than in 2003 | Real Estate | HeraldTribune.com.
Venice apartment complex sells for $1 million less than in 2003
By Michael Braga (email)
Sandpiper Apartments LLC, a Venice company managed by Miles Brannan, has sold a 52-unit apartment building at 125 E Airport Ave in Venice to Citadel Apartments of Venice LLC for $1.35 million.
Corporate records do not show the names of the Citadel’s managers. They only list the name of the company’s registered agent – Williams Parker attorney Jim Turner.
Sandpiper Apartments bought the complex in May 2003 for $2.33 million and defaulted on a $3.2 million loan from Astoria Federal Mortgage Corp in October.
Lakewood Ranch South could make room for a builder stimulus
May 24th
Lakewood Ranch South could make room for a builder stimulus
Talks have started with some of the 17 builders at Lakewood Ranch about opportunities at Villages of Lakewood Ranch South while developer Schroeder-Manatee Ranch remains open to outside companies.
Plans for the Villages of Lakewood Ranch South, a 5,500-acre extension of Lakewood Ranch in Sarasota County, call for at least 5,000 homes.
“We’re willing to talk to any builder that wants to be in Lakewood Ranch, but the most important things we look for in the selection process are who are good stewards of the community, and good stewards of the environment,” spokeswoman Candice McElyea said. “We want builders with a solid reputation, with a longstanding track record in the community.”
Ground is expected to break at Villages of Lakewood Ranch South in 2012.
The plans to build neighborhoods attractive to buyers looking to spend less than $200,000 will help diversify the market, said John Cannon Homes owner John Cannon.
“Lakewood Ranch kind of has that country club lifestyle, and your not-so-typical subdivision,” said Cannon, who has built some 400 homes in Lakewood Ranch. “This new area is going to have clustered housing, a live-work environment, so I don’t think it’s going to force the two to cannibalize each other. Instead, I think it’s going to complement it.”
Many of the Village of Lakewood Ranch South communities will be situated around mile-long man-made lakes. Infrastructure costs will total at least $130 million.
The homebuilding is projected to be done “around 2022 or 2027,” McElyea said. “We’re not in a rush, and we plan on doing it right.”
ABOUT THE DEVELOPMENT
Lakewood Ranch, the largest green-certified community in the nation, is an 8,500- acre master-planned community, located in Sarasota and Manatee counties, close to I-75. In 1922, The Uihlein family, founders of the Schlitz Brewing Co., acquired more than 48 square miles of land, creating what is today Schroeder-Manatee Ranch Inc. In intervening years, SMR expanded to include the community of Lakewood Ranch, SMR Aggregates, The Sarasota Polo Club, and the diversified agricultural operations of SMR Farms, its website reads.
Read more: Lakewood Ranch South could make room for a builder stimulus – Austin Business Journal
Yes, The Housing Market Recovery Is for Real
May 24th
Yes, The Housing Market Recovery Is for Real
(Click to enlarge)
It is now abundantly clear that the U.S. housing market is recovering. From the all-time lows registered in April of last year, starts have now risen 40%. To be sure, the level of activity is still dismally low, but that a recovery is underway is virtually certain. The Bloomberg index of home builders’ stocks has been saying the same thing for some time now, with the average stock up 125% from last year’s low.
Recovery skeptics have been telling me for many months that a true recovery can’t happen without a recovery in housing; if they are right, then this is pretty good news indeed. Regardless, I view this as just one more of many signs that the economy is in recovery mode.
The only item of debate at this point is how fast the economy will recover, not if. I see no reason to change my long-held expectation of 3-4% growth, which amounts to a moderate recovery, albeit one in which a lot of V-shaped sector recoveries, like this, can be found.
CBRE: Retailers Back in Expansion Mode « Counter Culture
May 20th
CBRE: Retailers Back in Expansion Mode « Counter Culture.
Instead of hearing about massive store closures this year, we could get more news about chains opening their doors, according to a just-released retail report by CB Richard Ellis. The report surveyed executives at just over 100 retail companies — most of them national — and found that more than 90% of the respondents planned to boost store counts.
One chain highlighted was 7-Eleven. “With other retailers shedding stores, 7-Eleven is in a position to acquire top retail space that wasn’t available a few years ago,” said Dan Porter, that company’s vice president of real estate and new store development.
Additionally, about 70% of those polled said that the economy is either stable or improving. Nearly half said they expect rental rates to decrease and 43% expected no change in those numbers.
Do these chains seem a bit optimistic about the picture out there or is it truly a good time for them to take advantage of better pricing? Also, is over expansion a factor?
