Downtown Gilbert Heritage District Streetscape Evolving | Arizona Builders Exchange

 

Once considered a likely victim of the Great Recession, the ambitious Heritage District mixed-use project is expected to bring shops, restaurants and office space to a geographically small downtown that is home to several regional favorites, including Joe’s Real BBQ, Postino East, Liberty Market and Oregano’s Pizza Bistro.

Plans for Heritage Marketplace surfaced in 2006 but stalled when the real-estate market crashed. The Town Council kept the project alive by extending deadlines in a town-development agreement. It began to regain steam early this year.

Read more...Downtown Gilbert Heritage District Streetscape Evolving | Arizona Builders Exchange

Forecast: Homebuilding to focus on west

 

Metro Phoenix’s homebuilding recovery won’t ramp up again until 2015, and then it will play out mostly in the West Valley.

The latest forecast comes from some of the region’s top developers, builders, investors, brokers and analysts at the Scottsdale-based Land Advisors Organization’s annual real-estate conference on Wednesday.

New-home permits will climb as high as 18,000 next year, and the number of homes built in the southeast Valley will decline, Land Advisors CEO Greg Vogel told the crowd of more than 500 people at the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown Hotel.

Read more...Forecast: Homebuilding to focus on west

Scottsdale Opts to Sell Third Distressed Property Targeted for Low-Income Housing | Arizona Builders Exchange

 

At its Dec. 9 meeting, the council approved two resolutions to acquire and then sell the property at 7234 E. Belleview St., and reimburse $352K in federal funds.


The action is aimed at resolving a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development finding of non-compliance in regard to the property. Councilmen Bob Littlefield and Guy Phillips were the only council members who voted against the resolutions.


Read more...Scottsdale Opts to Sell Third Distressed Property Targeted for Low-Income Housing | Arizona Builders Exchange

Gilbert council switches gears, will allow zoning change for homes

Believing a long-vacant commercial corner near the Islands neighborhood in Gilbert may never produce a shopping center as originally envisioned, the Town Council this month approved a zoning change to instead allow 44 new homes at the southeastern corner of McQueen and Warner roads.

A Canadian company has since purchased the 11-acre parcel for $2.1 million and plans to begin development on a single-family community “in the near future,” according to land broker Cushman & Wakefield.

Read more...Gilbert council switches gears, will allow zoning change for homes

CityCenter reviving under new ownership

 
The new owners of CityCenter of CityNorth, a mixed-use development near Desert Ridge in northeast Phoenix, say they’re attracting new tenants, filling vacancies and improving the property.

The development has faced legal and economic troubles since opening in 2008 during the economic downturn. Scanlan Kemper Bard Cos., a real-estate private-equity firm based in Portland, Ore., and Wayzata Investment Partners purchased the property for $67 million in April.

Read more...CityCenter reviving under new ownership

Scottsdale council approves 3 new housing developments

 
The Scottsdale City Council has approved three new housing developments, two near the Boulders Resort and one in the East Shea Boulevard corridor.

The three are called Boulders Villas, Hawknest, and Scottsdale Mountain Villas.

Boulders Villas — The development on 18 acres at Westland Drive and Scottsdale Road will have 40 units. Zoning was changed from commercial to suburban residential for the project. The land is owned by Klondike Land Portfolio and Boulders Joint Venture, with Klondike owning more than 90 percent of it. The initial proposal for the site was made 10 years ago. Taylor Morrison Homes will develop the land.

Read more...Scottsdale council approves 3 new housing developments

3 banks failed to meet some relief tests: monitor

 
WASHINGTON (AP) — Three of the biggest U.S. lenders failed this year to meet some requirements for giving relief to struggling homeowners in a $25 billion settlement over foreclosure abuses, according to an official.

The monitor overseeing the settlement said in a report issued Wednesday that Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. together failed to meet seven of the 29 requirements tested in the first half of the year.

Read more...3 banks failed to meet some relief tests: monitor

Tempe's Centerpoint on Mill on verge of comeback

The Centerpoint on Mill complex is among the many downtown Tempe developments poised for an economic comeback.

A new AMC Theatre, with 11 movie screens, is expected to open in February, and several new restaurants are on the horizon, said Scott Ellsworth of SRS Real Estate Partners, the leasing company for the YAM Properties LLC development.

Amid the economic downturn, the site, an anchor for downtown Tempe that spans 22 acres at the northwestern corner of Mill Avenue and University Drive, was plagued by vacant storefronts.

Read more...Tempe's Centerpoint on Mill on verge of comeback

Chandler sees boom in multifamily housing

 
For the first time in at least 20 years, more apartment and condominium units than single-family homes are going up in Chandler this year.

It’s a trend that is likely to continue as Chandler moves toward build-out (see graphic at bottom of story), but city leaders recently got together to discuss whether that is consistent with their vision for the city.

“I have been concerned about how many apartments we have coming in,” said Councilman Jeff Weninger, echoing other City Council members. “A lot of them make sense and there’s special circumstances. ... But we have to be careful in the future, especially changing from other uses to the multifamily use, that we have the right balance because we could be affecting things for years to come.”

Read more...Chandler sees boom in multifamily housing

Revenue skyrockets as sales of state land strengthen

Aided by the improving economy and land prices, the Arizona State Land Department has brought in more revenue recently, a trend that is likely to continue as the state auctions off more land, including prime property in Phoenix’s Desert Ridge area.

The trust has seen revenue skyrocket from land sales and leases as the economy and land prices have bounced back. The State Land Department brought in more than $318 million in fiscal 2013, which ended June 30 — a near 60 percent jump from the previous year, which saw revenue of a little more than $200 million, according to a department official.

Read more...Revenue skyrockets as sales of state land strengthen

Arizona’s lost homeownership

 
The Phoenix area, Maricopa County and Arizona posted the biggest estimated declines in U.S. homeownership rates in their categories in recent years, confirming that metro Phoenix was in important ways the national epicenter of the housing crash.

Newly released Census Bureau data shows the metro area, the county and the state swung from slightly above-average homeownership from 2007-09 to slightly below-average rates in the 2010-12 period.

Read more...Arizona’s lost homeownership

Phoenix-area foreclosed owners could get thousands

Foreclosures generally don’t have an upside. But more than 1,000 owners who lost their metro Phoenix properties may be eligible to get back thousands of dollars in cash.

Rising home prices mean that houses taken back by lenders are selling for much more — sometimes more than what the borrowers owed. Excess proceeds of sale occur when a foreclosed property goes to auction and sells for more than the amount owed on it.

After the lender is paid off, the remaining money goes to the Maricopa County Treasurer’s Office. It remains there for three years.

Read more...Phoenix-area foreclosed owners could get thousands

Frank Lloyd Wright’s archives net millions, records indicate

 
How much are the Frank Lloyd Wright archives worth?

“Priceless,” says Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation CEO Sean Malone, when posed with the question.

The exact financial components of a deal that permanently relocated the legendary architect’s vast archives from Scottsdale’s Taliesin West to New York City remain unknown. A non-disclosure agreement related to the September 2012 acquisition effectively silences the parties involved.

Read more...Frank Lloyd Wright’s archives net millions, records indicate

Experts offer tips to prevent ID theft

 
Anyone worried about falling prey to identity thieves should think like a wildebeest hoping to elude lions on the plains of Africa: You want to stick near the middle of the pack, remain vigilant and make sure you can outrun your neighbors.

Experts meeting at a recent fraud and privacy conference in Phoenix gave a gloomy assessment of ID theft, noting that the number of crimes continues to rise as crooks find more ways to gain access to Social Security numbers, bank accounts and other sensitive personal information, often doing so by penetrating the defenses of banks, utilities, retailers or government agencies.

Read more...Experts offer tips to prevent ID theft

Smaller home developments gain traction in Scottsdale

Perhaps it is the wave of the future in Scottsdale — small developments on small lots throughout the city.

A dozen new-home developments, none of them bigger than 66 units, are in the works in the city. A few have kicked off construction, and others are still going through the city’s approval process. All of them are on tight sites, averaging a little over 25 acres.

Read more...Smaller home developments gain traction in Scottsdale