Arizona's housing crash showed that too many homes had been built during the boom.
Results from the 2010 census, released Thursday, show for the first time just how overbuilt the state's housing market became and which parts of the Valley were affected the most.
Census data in Arizona | Map of population changes
Arizona's census climb driven by Phoenix, West Valley
Pinal County population more than doubles
Overall, the number of Arizona housing units, including single-family homes, condominiums and apartments, increased 30 percent from 2000 to 2010.
The state's population grew 25 percent during the same time.
In short, the state gained far more homes than it did people.
"The census confirms that most new homes built in metro Phoenix during the boom are still vacant or only temporarily filled by renters because they were bought by investors," said Jim Rounds, an economist with Scottsdale-based Elliott D. Pollack & Co.
The gap between housing and population growth is even greater than the raw numbers suggest because, on average, almost three people live in a home in Arizona. For the growth rates to match, the state would need to add about three new residents for each new housing unit.
Economists and other growth experts suspected Arizona's population estimates during the housing boom were flawed. Houses were built and plans made for far more residents than actually lived here.
During 2005, the peak for homebuilding in the Valley, a record 65,000 new houses were constructed.
A 2008 Arizona Republic analysis found the state's population estimates have long been heavily weighted toward how many homes are built and sold, as opposed to other factors such as birth and death rates. The state count assumed those homes were being filled with new residents.
New suburbs
Many of metro Phoenix's newest, most far-flung communities experienced the highest rates of population growth during the past decade.
But while those cities were growing, their housing supplies were growing even faster, outpacing the number of new residents.
Now, those communities are dealing with some of the highest vacancy rates.
The population of Buckeye in the far west grew by 678 percent during the decade. However, builders constructed homes for even more new residents.
In 2000, the city had 2,348 housing units; in 2010, it had 18,207. Now, Buckeye's housing-vacancy rate is one of the highest in the region at nearly 21 percent.
South of the Valley, the city of Maricopa led the state for growth with a 4,000 percent increase in population from 2000 and 2010. In 2000, the city had 3,216 housings units; in 2010, it had 17,240. About 17 percent of homes there are vacant.
The population of northwest Valley city Surprise grew by 281 percent, even more than expected. Still, 18 percent of its housing inventory is empty.
Arizona's overall housing vacancy rate is 15.6 percent, which is actually much lower than Census Bureau estimates for the past few years.
In 2009, the Census placed the state's vacancy rate at 22.4 percent. Other states saw similar variances, and it's not yet clear why those numbers changed.
Part of the issue could be tracking housing vacancies in areas popular with owners of second homes, who weren't around in April when Census workers tried to contact them.
Second homes
It is unclear how many Arizona vacancies can be attributed to the second-home phenomenon.
Many of Arizona's mountain communities posted extremely high housing-vacancy rates. Those rates would be expected in spots where many homes are used only as summer getaways.
Munds Park, Greer and Christopher Creek all have housing-vacancy rates above 75 percent, according to the census.
The vacancy rates of most metro Phoenix cities could be partly attributed to second-home dwellers who visit only in the winter. Those residents likely were counted in their homes in other states, rather than in Arizona.
Some Phoenix-area cities are popular with those out-of-state residents but have more vacant homes than expected.
Carefree, north of Scottsdale, is home to many million-dollar houses. Almost 27 percent of them are vacant. Gold Canyon, a high-end housing and golf area in the southeast Valley, has a 29 percent vacancy rate.
Accurate counts
The new census data may have some flaws, but it still provides better figures for tracking growth than Arizona used over the past decade.
Governments, utilities, builders and small businesses rely on accurate growth figures to plan for the future.
When Arizona's growth began in the 1950s, population figures were lagging, so state economists and business owners started using data on housing as a gauge of how many people were moving here.
The method, heavily reliant the number of homes constructed, worked well for Arizona until the housing boom. Then, a record number of investors purchased homes that they never planned to live in. Many of those investors were counted as residents.
Now, state officials and housing experts say the method will have to be revamped, based on the disparities the new census shows.
by Catherine Reagor and Ronald J. Hansen The Arizona Republic Mar. 11, 2011 12:00 AM
Census data: Arizona overbuilt during housing boom
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Phoenix-area foreclosures still dominate home resales, study says
The Phoenix-area housing market remains incapable of moving on from a devastating crash in home values that began about five years ago, according to new home-resale data from Arizona State University.
Jay Butler, an associate professor of real estate, was author of the report on home-resale activity, released Wednesday. The report said the long delay in market recovery was a two-pronged monster. The first issue relates to unresolved problems from the housing market's past. The second concerns more recent economic challenges, such as job losses and relatively stagnant population growth.
Among the 8,565 single-family home-resale transactions in February, 3,650 were foreclosures, Butler's report said.
Of the 4,915 non-foreclosure transactions, 40 percent of those were resales of recently foreclosed-on homes.
Foreclosure-related activity represented about two-thirds of the market transactions in February, said Butler, of ASU's W.P. Carey School of Business.
Overall, resale-related activity was up slightly from a year earlier, the report said, with 7,925 transactions overall, including 3,305 foreclosures and 4,620 home resales.
The median price for single-family homes resold in Maricopa County in February was $127,500, a boost from the January median resale price of $125,000 but down from last February's $140,000 median.
Butler also tracks the townhouse and condominium market, which experienced 580 foreclosures in February, up from 500 foreclosures a year earlier.
There were 880 townhome and condo resales, compared with 800 in February 2010; the median resale price was $75,000 - a considerable drop from the February 2010 median price of $95,000.
In the final months of 2010, foreclosures in the single-family home-resale market had come to represent only 30 percent of all transactions, Butler said, offering a ray of hope that foreclosure activity may be tapering off.
But in January that rate shot up to 4 percent, and Wednesday's report showed little change in February.
"We've all been watching to see if the foreclosure rate in late 2010 would carry over into this year, but unfortunately, the good news hasn't come yet," Butler said.
He added that 2010 ended under an unusual set of circumstances, including temporary foreclosure moratoriums, legal challenges to the foreclosure process, and weak economic and job recovery.
"The fundamental uncertainty now is whether the initial months of 2011 represent just a short-term response as the pipeline unclogs after the foreclosure moratoriums, or if it's a continuation of a market being dominated by foreclosures," Butler said.
by J. Craig Anderson The Arizona Republic Mar. 10, 2011 12:00 AM
Phoenix-area foreclosures still dominate home resales, study says
Jay Butler, an associate professor of real estate, was author of the report on home-resale activity, released Wednesday. The report said the long delay in market recovery was a two-pronged monster. The first issue relates to unresolved problems from the housing market's past. The second concerns more recent economic challenges, such as job losses and relatively stagnant population growth.
Among the 8,565 single-family home-resale transactions in February, 3,650 were foreclosures, Butler's report said.
Of the 4,915 non-foreclosure transactions, 40 percent of those were resales of recently foreclosed-on homes.
Foreclosure-related activity represented about two-thirds of the market transactions in February, said Butler, of ASU's W.P. Carey School of Business.
Overall, resale-related activity was up slightly from a year earlier, the report said, with 7,925 transactions overall, including 3,305 foreclosures and 4,620 home resales.
The median price for single-family homes resold in Maricopa County in February was $127,500, a boost from the January median resale price of $125,000 but down from last February's $140,000 median.
Butler also tracks the townhouse and condominium market, which experienced 580 foreclosures in February, up from 500 foreclosures a year earlier.
There were 880 townhome and condo resales, compared with 800 in February 2010; the median resale price was $75,000 - a considerable drop from the February 2010 median price of $95,000.
In the final months of 2010, foreclosures in the single-family home-resale market had come to represent only 30 percent of all transactions, Butler said, offering a ray of hope that foreclosure activity may be tapering off.
But in January that rate shot up to 4 percent, and Wednesday's report showed little change in February.
"We've all been watching to see if the foreclosure rate in late 2010 would carry over into this year, but unfortunately, the good news hasn't come yet," Butler said.
He added that 2010 ended under an unusual set of circumstances, including temporary foreclosure moratoriums, legal challenges to the foreclosure process, and weak economic and job recovery.
"The fundamental uncertainty now is whether the initial months of 2011 represent just a short-term response as the pipeline unclogs after the foreclosure moratoriums, or if it's a continuation of a market being dominated by foreclosures," Butler said.
by J. Craig Anderson The Arizona Republic Mar. 10, 2011 12:00 AM
Phoenix-area foreclosures still dominate home resales, study says
Phoenix-area bankruptcies tumble to 2-year low
Phoenix-area bankruptcies in February tumbled to a two-year low, a fresh sign that the local economy is healing.
The 1,819 filings last month, which were down nearly 12 percent from February 2010, also marked the first year-over-year improvement since October 2006.
Since hitting a post-recessionary peak of 3,063 last March, filings have eased in 10 of the past 11 months.
The bankruptcy improvement coincides with a drop in the Arizona and national unemployment rates and a steady decline in consumer credit-card debt.
"The level of consumer debt is a key barometer," said Joe Volin, a Mesa bankruptcy attorney. "If you lose your job but don't have much debt, you have more staying power to ride it out."
Volin said he has noticed a modest drop in the number of people contacting him for bankruptcy-filing assistance.
Credit-card balances have been trending lower for most of the past two years, primarily because banks have been writing off bad debts or having it removed through bankruptcy proceedings.
This week, CardHub.com reported that credit-card debt fell by $67 billion in 2010, to $809 billion, with defaults accounting for $75 billion of that number. Borrowers added $8 billion in net new debt for the year, it said.
Mike Sullivan, director of education at Take Charge America, a Phoenix-based debt-counseling firm, said he has noticed a leveling off in the number of individuals seeking help.
"There seem to be fewer desperate people," he said. "Many have adjusted and are finding new ways to get by."
The bankruptcy-filing downtrend also is apparent outside metro Phoenix.
Arizona reported 2,440 filings in February, down 10 percent from a year earlier and the lowest tally since statewide filings peaked in March 2010 at 4,135.
Chapter 7 proceedings, which provide a fresh financial start after non-exempt assets are sold to pay creditors, accounted for more than 80 percent of total filings, both in the Valley and for Arizona.
Nationally, the 102,686 consumer filings in February represented a drop of 8 percent from February 2010, the American Bankruptcy Institute reported, using numbers from the National Bankruptcy Research Center.
The U.S. tally was up 11 percent from January. For the Valley, however, February filings were down 8 percent from January.
by Russ Wiles The Arizona Republic Mar. 10, 2011 12:00 AM
Phoenix-area bankruptcies tumble to 2-year low
The 1,819 filings last month, which were down nearly 12 percent from February 2010, also marked the first year-over-year improvement since October 2006.
Since hitting a post-recessionary peak of 3,063 last March, filings have eased in 10 of the past 11 months.
The bankruptcy improvement coincides with a drop in the Arizona and national unemployment rates and a steady decline in consumer credit-card debt.
"The level of consumer debt is a key barometer," said Joe Volin, a Mesa bankruptcy attorney. "If you lose your job but don't have much debt, you have more staying power to ride it out."
Volin said he has noticed a modest drop in the number of people contacting him for bankruptcy-filing assistance.
Credit-card balances have been trending lower for most of the past two years, primarily because banks have been writing off bad debts or having it removed through bankruptcy proceedings.
This week, CardHub.com reported that credit-card debt fell by $67 billion in 2010, to $809 billion, with defaults accounting for $75 billion of that number. Borrowers added $8 billion in net new debt for the year, it said.
Mike Sullivan, director of education at Take Charge America, a Phoenix-based debt-counseling firm, said he has noticed a leveling off in the number of individuals seeking help.
"There seem to be fewer desperate people," he said. "Many have adjusted and are finding new ways to get by."
The bankruptcy-filing downtrend also is apparent outside metro Phoenix.
Arizona reported 2,440 filings in February, down 10 percent from a year earlier and the lowest tally since statewide filings peaked in March 2010 at 4,135.
Chapter 7 proceedings, which provide a fresh financial start after non-exempt assets are sold to pay creditors, accounted for more than 80 percent of total filings, both in the Valley and for Arizona.
Nationally, the 102,686 consumer filings in February represented a drop of 8 percent from February 2010, the American Bankruptcy Institute reported, using numbers from the National Bankruptcy Research Center.
The U.S. tally was up 11 percent from January. For the Valley, however, February filings were down 8 percent from January.
by Russ Wiles The Arizona Republic Mar. 10, 2011 12:00 AM
Phoenix-area bankruptcies tumble to 2-year low
Home prices expected to rise this month
The latest forecast calls for metro Phoenix home prices to climb in March.
The median sales price of a house in the region is expected to reach $114,000 this month, according to the Pending Price Index from the Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service. The area's median price has been hovering around $110,000 for the past few months.
Home sales climbed 9 percent in February, giving prices a little boost.
Housing-data analyst Tom Ruff of the Information Market said he was "starting to see a bottom forming" for the market.
"Sales volumes are up year over year," he said. "New (foreclosure) notices are declining. Pending active (foreclosure) notices are declining. Higher prices are being paid by investors (for homes) at auction. Large hedge funds are taking a close look at our market and are prepared to hit the ground running."
ARMLS' forecast for home prices in April isn't as optimistic. The Realtor index is calling for metro Phoenix's median price to drop to $109,000. But ARMLS is always very open with a disclaimer that its index's prediction for home prices more than a month out is less accurate.
The index shows Phoenix's median home prices dropping to $95,000 in May. But few market watchers believe that will happen.
Commercial values
Homeowners weren't the only ones to receive disappointing reports on their properties' value from the Maricopa County assessor last week.
Apartment owners received the worst news. The median value of metro Phoenix apartments plummeted 33.5 percent. The median decline for single-family homes was 11 percent.
Vacant-land values fell 21.3 percent. Commercial properties, including office and industrial buildings and shopping centers, are down 15.1 percent.
But no property owner can expect a similar drop in their property taxes due to government-budget shortfalls.
Consumer aid
This week, government and non-profit groups are reaching out to consumers reminding them to watch out for scams.
Community Housing Resources of Arizona, as part of the Loan Modification Scam Alert campaign, has these tips:
- Contact your lender first and be persistent.
- Meet with a non-profit housing counselor.
- Avoid anyone who asks for fees up front, guarantees they can lower your payment or tells you to stop making your mortgage payment and pay them instead.
- Call these foreclosure hotlines for help: 888-995-4673 or 877-448-1211.
by Catherine Reagor The Arizona Republic Mar. 9, 2011 12:00 AM
Home prices expected to rise this month
The median sales price of a house in the region is expected to reach $114,000 this month, according to the Pending Price Index from the Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service. The area's median price has been hovering around $110,000 for the past few months.
Home sales climbed 9 percent in February, giving prices a little boost.
Housing-data analyst Tom Ruff of the Information Market said he was "starting to see a bottom forming" for the market.
"Sales volumes are up year over year," he said. "New (foreclosure) notices are declining. Pending active (foreclosure) notices are declining. Higher prices are being paid by investors (for homes) at auction. Large hedge funds are taking a close look at our market and are prepared to hit the ground running."
ARMLS' forecast for home prices in April isn't as optimistic. The Realtor index is calling for metro Phoenix's median price to drop to $109,000. But ARMLS is always very open with a disclaimer that its index's prediction for home prices more than a month out is less accurate.
The index shows Phoenix's median home prices dropping to $95,000 in May. But few market watchers believe that will happen.
Commercial values
Homeowners weren't the only ones to receive disappointing reports on their properties' value from the Maricopa County assessor last week.
Apartment owners received the worst news. The median value of metro Phoenix apartments plummeted 33.5 percent. The median decline for single-family homes was 11 percent.
Vacant-land values fell 21.3 percent. Commercial properties, including office and industrial buildings and shopping centers, are down 15.1 percent.
But no property owner can expect a similar drop in their property taxes due to government-budget shortfalls.
Consumer aid
This week, government and non-profit groups are reaching out to consumers reminding them to watch out for scams.
Community Housing Resources of Arizona, as part of the Loan Modification Scam Alert campaign, has these tips:
- Contact your lender first and be persistent.
- Meet with a non-profit housing counselor.
- Avoid anyone who asks for fees up front, guarantees they can lower your payment or tells you to stop making your mortgage payment and pay them instead.
- Call these foreclosure hotlines for help: 888-995-4673 or 877-448-1211.
by Catherine Reagor The Arizona Republic Mar. 9, 2011 12:00 AM
Home prices expected to rise this month
Tempe Centerpoint Condominiums deal almost complete
The deed is done.
Or, more aptly, the deed now belongs to Zaremba Group, a Cleveland-headquartered developer with an office in Scottsdale. And so does the job of transforming downtown Tempe's tallest towers into luxury apartments by summer.
"It is really in their hands (now)," said Elliot Pollack, chair of ML Manager, successor of Mortgages Ltd.
The Centerpoint Condominiums project was ML Manager's biggest asset and investment. The loan to developer Tempe Land Co. was estimated at $135 million. After Mortgages Ltd., once Arizona's largest private commercial-real-estate lender, filed for bankruptcy in 2008, Centerpoint became an albatross for the company to unload.
Keith Hendricks, a Fennemore Craig attorney representing ML Manager, called the deal the "most complicated and contentious closing I've ever seen."
To close the deal last month, ML Manager and Zaremba had to contend with five bankruptcies, angry investors, 29 companies that filed liens on the project for unpaid work, two wary title companies and countless lawsuits.
After more than two years of fighting the legal red tape to own the 22- and 30-story skyscrapers, Kent Chantung, director of development for Zaremba's Scottsdale office, said that renaming the stalled project to West Sixth signals a fresh start.
Chantung, sitting in an interview last week next to Ethan Minkin, the lawyer he credits with guiding him through the legal twists and turns, shook his head at the thought of the hurdles Zaremba had to overcome to own West Sixth.
"Ethan explained . . . it could be impossible," he said. "(But) this was an opportunity to complete a project in the center of the Valley and in the heart of Tempe."
From the beginning, the towers faced obstacles. A cache of Valley residents argued that Tempe leaders were flooding the market with condos, and it was unrealistic to think that there was a large enough market to afford 375 Centerpoint units priced from $300,000 to $7.5 million. But reviving the beleaguered Mill Avenue District and changing the face of Tempe seemed as tempting to developers then as it does now.
When the Tempe City Council waived height limits in 2005 to make way for the condos, the real-estate market was at its peak. Ken Losch, the key developer in charge of the project, promised that "Tempe (was) becoming a world-class environment. It'll be on par with Miami's South Beach in the next 10 years."
With no end in sight to Arizona's real-estate boom, Losch was persuasive. But a year and a half later, Mortgages Ltd., the towers' primary financier, filed for bankruptcy after the suicide of its CEO in summer 2008. As the real-estate bubble exploded, Centerpoint developers worked to get court approval for a second financier to back the project, but they were unsuccessful and filed for bankruptcy.
With the first tower nearly complete and the second tower about half-finished, ML Manager took back the project on behalf of investors. At a trustee-sale auction, ML Manager purchased the property through a credit bid and then placed it on the market for the highest bidder.
Centerpoint sank into a legal quagmire as the company worked to reorganize after bankruptcy. The company fought legal claims by Radical Bunny, an investment group that was being investigated by the federal Securities and Exchange Commission in illegally funding Mortgages Ltd., and contended with investors and countless companies standing in line to get paid for work on the towers.
Radical Bunny, an entity of more than 500 investors, had provided the majority of the money to finance Centerpoint. As part of Mortgages Ltd.'s bankruptcy, Hendricks, the ML Manager attorney, said any major decisions about ML Manager's properties had to be voted on by members of the loan LLC that had invested in the projects.
For Centerpoint, that meant getting Radical Bunny's board to vote in favor of the sale to Zaremba and sending out ballots to hundreds of other investors. The ballot vote was overwhelmingly in favor of the sale, Hendricks said. But a handful of Radical Bunny investors filed legal objections and appeared at the Feb. 10 court hearing where the bankruptcy judge ultimately approved the sale.
Meanwhile, Chantung had to get a new title company to approve the sale. Title-company approval stymied Zaremba's first attempt last fall to buy the towers.
"It was literally the night before the deal was supposed to close last year that they (the original title company) said it was too big of a risk," he said.
To get First American Title Insurance Co. to approve the deal last month, Chantung said he got permission from ML Manager to personally appeal to companies that were owed money on Centerpoint's construction.
In January, the Bankruptcy Court approved a deal in which an LLC formed by Radical Bunny would use $13.5 million of the $30 million to purchase the liens on Centerpoint, satisfying a stipulation by First American in order to approve the title.
Although the sale is complete, the lawsuits surrounding the deal linger. Pollack said that ML Manager intended to file a lawsuit against the first title company, claiming that it should cover the liens.
Pollack said, "If someone doesn't write a book about this, I'll be surprised," he said. "Since Mortgages came out of bankruptcy, this whole thing has had everything. It's got death. It's got good guys. It's got bad guys."
by Dianna M. Náñez The Arizona Republic Mar. 9, 2011 12:00 AM
Tempe Centerpoint Condominiums deal almost complete
Or, more aptly, the deed now belongs to Zaremba Group, a Cleveland-headquartered developer with an office in Scottsdale. And so does the job of transforming downtown Tempe's tallest towers into luxury apartments by summer.
"It is really in their hands (now)," said Elliot Pollack, chair of ML Manager, successor of Mortgages Ltd.
The Centerpoint Condominiums project was ML Manager's biggest asset and investment. The loan to developer Tempe Land Co. was estimated at $135 million. After Mortgages Ltd., once Arizona's largest private commercial-real-estate lender, filed for bankruptcy in 2008, Centerpoint became an albatross for the company to unload.
Keith Hendricks, a Fennemore Craig attorney representing ML Manager, called the deal the "most complicated and contentious closing I've ever seen."
To close the deal last month, ML Manager and Zaremba had to contend with five bankruptcies, angry investors, 29 companies that filed liens on the project for unpaid work, two wary title companies and countless lawsuits.
After more than two years of fighting the legal red tape to own the 22- and 30-story skyscrapers, Kent Chantung, director of development for Zaremba's Scottsdale office, said that renaming the stalled project to West Sixth signals a fresh start.
Chantung, sitting in an interview last week next to Ethan Minkin, the lawyer he credits with guiding him through the legal twists and turns, shook his head at the thought of the hurdles Zaremba had to overcome to own West Sixth.
"Ethan explained . . . it could be impossible," he said. "(But) this was an opportunity to complete a project in the center of the Valley and in the heart of Tempe."
From the beginning, the towers faced obstacles. A cache of Valley residents argued that Tempe leaders were flooding the market with condos, and it was unrealistic to think that there was a large enough market to afford 375 Centerpoint units priced from $300,000 to $7.5 million. But reviving the beleaguered Mill Avenue District and changing the face of Tempe seemed as tempting to developers then as it does now.
When the Tempe City Council waived height limits in 2005 to make way for the condos, the real-estate market was at its peak. Ken Losch, the key developer in charge of the project, promised that "Tempe (was) becoming a world-class environment. It'll be on par with Miami's South Beach in the next 10 years."
With no end in sight to Arizona's real-estate boom, Losch was persuasive. But a year and a half later, Mortgages Ltd., the towers' primary financier, filed for bankruptcy after the suicide of its CEO in summer 2008. As the real-estate bubble exploded, Centerpoint developers worked to get court approval for a second financier to back the project, but they were unsuccessful and filed for bankruptcy.
With the first tower nearly complete and the second tower about half-finished, ML Manager took back the project on behalf of investors. At a trustee-sale auction, ML Manager purchased the property through a credit bid and then placed it on the market for the highest bidder.
Centerpoint sank into a legal quagmire as the company worked to reorganize after bankruptcy. The company fought legal claims by Radical Bunny, an investment group that was being investigated by the federal Securities and Exchange Commission in illegally funding Mortgages Ltd., and contended with investors and countless companies standing in line to get paid for work on the towers.
Radical Bunny, an entity of more than 500 investors, had provided the majority of the money to finance Centerpoint. As part of Mortgages Ltd.'s bankruptcy, Hendricks, the ML Manager attorney, said any major decisions about ML Manager's properties had to be voted on by members of the loan LLC that had invested in the projects.
For Centerpoint, that meant getting Radical Bunny's board to vote in favor of the sale to Zaremba and sending out ballots to hundreds of other investors. The ballot vote was overwhelmingly in favor of the sale, Hendricks said. But a handful of Radical Bunny investors filed legal objections and appeared at the Feb. 10 court hearing where the bankruptcy judge ultimately approved the sale.
Meanwhile, Chantung had to get a new title company to approve the sale. Title-company approval stymied Zaremba's first attempt last fall to buy the towers.
"It was literally the night before the deal was supposed to close last year that they (the original title company) said it was too big of a risk," he said.
To get First American Title Insurance Co. to approve the deal last month, Chantung said he got permission from ML Manager to personally appeal to companies that were owed money on Centerpoint's construction.
In January, the Bankruptcy Court approved a deal in which an LLC formed by Radical Bunny would use $13.5 million of the $30 million to purchase the liens on Centerpoint, satisfying a stipulation by First American in order to approve the title.
Although the sale is complete, the lawsuits surrounding the deal linger. Pollack said that ML Manager intended to file a lawsuit against the first title company, claiming that it should cover the liens.
Pollack said, "If someone doesn't write a book about this, I'll be surprised," he said. "Since Mortgages came out of bankruptcy, this whole thing has had everything. It's got death. It's got good guys. It's got bad guys."
by Dianna M. Náñez The Arizona Republic Mar. 9, 2011 12:00 AM
Tempe Centerpoint Condominiums deal almost complete
Arizona Center sold for $136 mil
The Arizona Center mixed-use development in downtown Phoenix has been sold to CommonWealth REIT of Newton, Mass., for $136.5 million.
When it opened 21 years ago, the center was envisioned as a retail and entertainment magnet. When that concept fizzled, much of the retail space was eventually converted to offices.
The sale of the property puts discussions about its future on the front burner again.
CommonWealth REIT controls a $6.4 billion national portfolio of office and industrial properties, including five other projects in Arizona. It did not immediately respond to a request for information about its plans for the property.
The center includes over 1 million square feet of office and retail space. It was sold by General Growth Properties Inc., which intends to focus on its regional malls.
General Growth, the nation's second-largest mall owner behind Simon Property Group, emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November and has been shedding non-core assets such as the Arizona Center.
"Hopefully, CommonWealth REIT will bring new energy to the project," said Dave Roderique, president and CEO of the Downtown Phoenix Partnership.
The Arizona Center was developed by high-profile mall developer Rouse Co. in 1990 in an effort to jump-start redevelopment in downtown Phoenix.
The city contributed the land, then worth about $8 million, and granted the developer $40 million in sales-tax rebates.
General Growth acquired the Arizona Center in 2004 through its $12.6 billion acquisition of Rouse.
The company is primarily a regional mall developer and didn't seem to know what do with a mixed-use project such as the Arizona Center.
Roderique said the addition of the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown Hotel, Arizona State University's downtown campus and the new convention center have made the area more viable and a retail and entertainment destination.
The 16-plus-acre Arizona Center consists of roughly 800,000 square feet of offices in two high-rises; 160,000 square feet of retail space, including an AMC Theatres complex; and several parking garages.
Included in the deal were three development sites that were originally zones for two more office towers and a hotel.
Bob Young, a CBRE agent who represented the seller in the transaction, said the development parcels give the buyer the opportunity to substantially increase the size and value of the project at some point down the road.
"In addition to acquiring an iconic asset, Arizona Center provides the future upside potential with the development of three pad sites," he said.
Steve Brabant, Glenn Smigiel and Rick Abraham of CBRE's Phoenix office also worked on the deal.
David Keating, a spokesman for General Growth Properties, said the company intended to retain ownership of the Tucson and Park Place malls in Tucson and the Mall at Sierra Vista in Sierra Vista.
General Growth Properties also is a part owner, with Westcor parent Macerich Co., of Arrowhead Towne Center in Glendale and Superstition Springs Center in Mesa.
by Max Jarman The Arizona Republic Mar. 8, 2011 06:21 PM
Arizona Center sold for $136 mil
When it opened 21 years ago, the center was envisioned as a retail and entertainment magnet. When that concept fizzled, much of the retail space was eventually converted to offices.
The sale of the property puts discussions about its future on the front burner again.
CommonWealth REIT controls a $6.4 billion national portfolio of office and industrial properties, including five other projects in Arizona. It did not immediately respond to a request for information about its plans for the property.
The center includes over 1 million square feet of office and retail space. It was sold by General Growth Properties Inc., which intends to focus on its regional malls.
General Growth, the nation's second-largest mall owner behind Simon Property Group, emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November and has been shedding non-core assets such as the Arizona Center.
"Hopefully, CommonWealth REIT will bring new energy to the project," said Dave Roderique, president and CEO of the Downtown Phoenix Partnership.
The Arizona Center was developed by high-profile mall developer Rouse Co. in 1990 in an effort to jump-start redevelopment in downtown Phoenix.
The city contributed the land, then worth about $8 million, and granted the developer $40 million in sales-tax rebates.
General Growth acquired the Arizona Center in 2004 through its $12.6 billion acquisition of Rouse.
The company is primarily a regional mall developer and didn't seem to know what do with a mixed-use project such as the Arizona Center.
Roderique said the addition of the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown Hotel, Arizona State University's downtown campus and the new convention center have made the area more viable and a retail and entertainment destination.
The 16-plus-acre Arizona Center consists of roughly 800,000 square feet of offices in two high-rises; 160,000 square feet of retail space, including an AMC Theatres complex; and several parking garages.
Included in the deal were three development sites that were originally zones for two more office towers and a hotel.
Bob Young, a CBRE agent who represented the seller in the transaction, said the development parcels give the buyer the opportunity to substantially increase the size and value of the project at some point down the road.
"In addition to acquiring an iconic asset, Arizona Center provides the future upside potential with the development of three pad sites," he said.
Steve Brabant, Glenn Smigiel and Rick Abraham of CBRE's Phoenix office also worked on the deal.
David Keating, a spokesman for General Growth Properties, said the company intended to retain ownership of the Tucson and Park Place malls in Tucson and the Mall at Sierra Vista in Sierra Vista.
General Growth Properties also is a part owner, with Westcor parent Macerich Co., of Arrowhead Towne Center in Glendale and Superstition Springs Center in Mesa.
by Max Jarman The Arizona Republic Mar. 8, 2011 06:21 PM
Arizona Center sold for $136 mil
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
NAMB files 2nd lawsuit this week against Federal Reserve
NAMB, the National Association of Mortgage Brokers today filed the second lawsuit this week against Federal Reserve Board over the new Lender Compensation rules set to begin April 1, 2011.
NAMB’s lawsuit seeks to obtain a temporary restraining order, and is using different arguments than the lawsuit filed by NAIHP on March 7th to stop the new mortgage lender rules.
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