By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorPhoenix–La Siena, a 190-unit high-end independent senior living facility located in Phoenix, will open next week.“Phoenix has always had the retiree demographic but lately it has become a high-growth city for senior housing,” John Boyd, Opus West senior director of real estate development, tells MHN.Opus West Corp. and RED Group LLC, in partnership with Seattle-based Leisure Care LLC, developed the four-story community, located on 6.2 acres at the site of the former Bud Brown’s Barn at 909 E. Northern Ave., just east of 7th St. in north central Phoenix. It is open to people 65…

By Anuradha kher, Online News EditorCollege Station, Texas–Asset Plus has broken ground on The Lofts at Wolf Pen Creek, an 8.6-acre mixed-use student housing development located in the Wolf Pen Creek Corridor in College Station, Texas. The community will open in the summer of 2009.The luxury 679-bed pedestrian-oriented student housing community features a four-story stucco and brick structure and offers a mix of 253 stacked apartments and 11 townhouses. The property also includes three landscaped courtyards, a seven-level structured parking garage, community center and a 9,000 sq. ft. retail center.“We have had a long standing relationship with the A&M University…

Adrienne Faulkner (pictured) is the founder of Dallas-based Faulkner Design Group. Her passion for design is rightly inherited – her grandfather, architect George L. Dahl, FAIA, was the creator of Dallas’ famed 1936 Fair Park Centennial Expo. She is also the president of Architectural – Images, an art company showcasing Dahl’s artwork. Faulkner has completed work on more than 600 projects since 1991, and currently works on 40 projects annually from Manhattan and the Canadian provinces to Santa Monica and Los Angeles. She is a registered interior designer with the Texas Board of Architectural Examiners and an Allied Member of…

Washington, D.C.–The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced a new plan Tuesday for disaster housing that gives governors the right to use units that exceed FEMA’s new formaldehyde standards and accept or refuse travel trailers.Washington, D.C.-headquartered FEMA says that, with the state governor’s permission, it will use trailers only when absolutely necessary on private property containing homes that can be repaired within six months, the Times-Picayune reported Wednesday.Any new trailers FEMA buys must meet strict air quality requirements, testing below .016 parts per million. States can use existing housing units with higher formaldehyde levels, which FEMA will test for the states,…

New York–The banks most exposed to bond insurers Ambac and MBIA–Citigroup, Merrill Lynch and UBS–could see further losses of up to $10 billion because the bond insurers lost their triple A credit ratings last week, the Financial Times said Wednesday.The banks used New York-based Ambac and Armonk, N.Y.-headquartered MBIA–which were downgraded by Standards and Poor’s last week and are expected to be downgraded by Moody’s Investors Service–to hedge holdings of complex bonds, including mortgage-backed securities. Ambac and MBIA guarantee more than $1,000 billion of bonds.Any additional bond insurer-related writedowns-also called monolines–could increase panic about the U.S. financial market and European…

London–U.K. housing market fears caused the pound to decline against the euro after a two-day rise and raised new concerns about the overall economy, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.A private report released Wednesday that said U.K. economic growth had fallen to a three-year low in the quarter to May only increased speculation that the U.K. economy was weakening because of sinking home values.The pound’s strength against the dollar did not change drastically.Merrill Lynch & Co.–who said declining home prices could cause land value losses–downgraded homebuilders including Galliford Try Plc and Barratt Developments Plc.”The overall trend is for a further deterioration in the…

London–British banking officials said Tuesday that a new plan to deal with credit market chaos and restore lending market confidence was in the works, the New York Times said.Bank of England governor Mervyn King noted that “the crisis is not yet over” and said that the Bank of England was creating a new method of offering financing to banks. The plan will be released later this year.In a separate announcement, the British Bankers’ Association said it will alter the way it calculates the London interbank offered rate, which is one of the most common benchmarks to establish the cost of…

By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorLivingston, N.J.–When the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) rolled out its new compliance manual for Low Income Tax Credit communities in January 2007, many in the industry perceived some changes in the manual as a potential problem for developers using SureDeposit programs.The IRS has now clarified that SureDeposit does in fact comply with IRS regulation section 1.42-11 for LIHTC units. Specifically, the IRS allows security deposit alternatives in the form of optional tenant-paid insurance policies in lieu of security deposits for LIHTC units without requiring premiums to be included in gross rents. “If the gross rent is…

By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorMiddletown, Del.–Green Park Financial recently provided a $12.5 million refinance loan to Middletown Apartments, a 156-unit Class A apartment community, located in Middletown, Del.Green Park structured the loan with a 10-year term and 30-year amortization. The loan was underwritten to an 80 percent loan-to-cost with a 1.20x debt-service coverage ratio using a base-max loan structure with a letter of credit as additional collateral. The new Fannie Mae Delegated Underwriting and Servicing (DUS) guide allows for borrowers to close loans on properties in lease-up after one month of stabilized collections as opposed to the previous requirement…

By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorNew York–Sky House, a 55-story, 139-unit luxury condominium tower located at 11 East 29th St. in Manhattan, is offering a 3,700-sq.-ft. duplex residence featuring a 300-sq.-ft., glass-enclosed winter garden on its 51st floor terrace. The winter garden duplex is part of what the developer is calling the property’s premier collection.The duplex features four bedrooms and a library, and is priced at $8.2 million. It has not yet been sold but there has been interest from buyers, according to the developer.“We are proud to unveil the exclusive homes that make up the premier collection of Sky…