L.A. to Have Mandatory Green Building Measures
By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorLos Angeles–On the occasion of Earth Day, the Los Angeles City Council voted today on the city’s Green Building Program. The green-building ordinance will provide a platform for more integrated sustainable design and environment throughout the city of Los Angeles. The initiative is based on Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) compliance and will require new developments over 50,000 sq. ft to be 15 percent more energy efficient over current California code standards. “The buildings will not get permits until they comply with these standards,” Renata Simril, senior vice president of Forest City Residential…
Foreclosed Properties Put Budget Pressures on Florida Communities
By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorFt. Lauderdale–Rising mortgage foreclosures are causing revenue shortfalls that pose significant threats to operating and maintenance budgets and to the health and security of many communities, according to a Florida community association mortgage foreclosure survey.The statewide study was conducted online from March 26-April 8 by the Community Association Leadership Lobby, or CALL. The study found that there is a direct correlation between rising mortgage foreclosures and corresponding decline in revenues from maintenance fees and other assessments in the state’s condo and homeowner (HOA) communities.Condominium owners made up the largest segment of respondents (64.5 percent), reflecting…
NYC Buildings Commissioner Resigns Following Construction Accidents
By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorNew York–In the wake of a recent spate of high-profile construction accidents on multifamily high rises in New York City, the city’s buildings commissioner, Patricia Lancaster, has resigned.Patricia Lancaster submitted her resignation to Mayor Michael Bloomberg today morning, amid accusations that the department failed to adequately deal with safety violations at construction sites.“Today I submitted my resignation, which Mayor Bloomberg accepted,” Lancaster said in a statement. “After six years in public service, I made this decision because I felt it was time to return to the private sector.”The announcement comes less than a week after…
Winning Advice for Property Managers
Colorado Springs, Colo.–While property management sometimes seems to be taken for granted, outstanding management performance was recently recognized in the form of four prestigious Multifamily Pillars of the Industry Awards, presented during the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) conference in Colorado Springs, Colo. attended by apartment and condominium developers. NAHB presents the Pillars awards annually to single out excellence in apartment and condominium design, development, marketing and operations. Among the property managers honored was Pinnacle Investment Manager Kevin M. Charcut, who took home the Regional “Property Manager of the Year” award. Based out of Minneapolis, Charcut manages a Midwest…
Perspective: Solution to Decaying Communities
By Kenneth Olson, CEO, POKO Partners LLCTowns throughout the Northeast are engaged in an interesting discussion that is surely happening across the country: what’s the best way to revive a dying community? At POKO, we work with communities to address this situation and although every solution is unique, our initial conversation is almost always the same. Towns are antagonistic to new housing development, particularly multifamily housing, yet they want to increase their tax base and revive a sluggish economy. They want it both ways. Our struggle is to make them realize that the only way to achieve economic development is…
DEAL OF THE DAY: Five-Unit Rental Property Sold for $1,175,000
By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorLos Angeles–Sperry Van Ness has completed the sale of Jessie D’Arche Apartments, a five-unit apartment community near University of Southern California (USC), to Malibu, Calif.-based L33T Student Housing for $1,175,000.The property is located near the 10 and 110 Freeways at 1155–1157 West 27th St. in Los Angeles.Omar Ting and Jeff Pierce of Sperry Van Ness in Los Angeles represented the buyer as well as the seller, Los Angeles-based Circle Park Holdings LLC. Built in 1925, the two-building property is situated on .18 acres of land, and was 100 percent occupied at the close of escrow….
Green Affordable Housing Project Opens for Former Homeless, Disabled Adults
By Erika Schnitzer, Associate EditorSan Francisco–The Essex, an 84-unit green affordable housing redevelopment project, recently opened in San Francisco. Originally a mixed tourist and residential hotel, the property was rehabilitated for homeless adults with disabilities.Citi Community Capital and Enterprise Community Partners financed the project, located in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood.“It’s a neighborhood with a large number of homeless people, low-income and immigrant families, who, 10 years ago, were on the street and in really terrible SRO (single room occupancy) units,” says Rich Gross, vice president of California initiatives at Enterprise.“Anytime any of the SRO hotels are developed into housing, it’s…
Bank of England to Allow Banks to Trade Mortgage-Backed Securities for Government Bonds
London–To soothe the British financial markets, the Bank of England announced Monday that it would let banks exchange mortgage-backed securities valued at about $100 billion for government bonds, the New York Times said.Banks will deposit the securities–which have become hard to sell since credit markets began contracting last summer–in the central bank as collateral at a discount. To increase lending among banks, they in exchange will receive easy-to-trade government bonds.If the securities drop in value, the banks will have to weather the loss; however, there is no “arbitrary limit” on how much can be lent. Banks had suggested previously that…
Bank of America Earnings Drop 80 Percent
Charlotte, N.C.–Hurt by higher credit costs and writedowns, Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America said Monday that its first-quarter earnings had fallen nearly 80 percent to $1.2 billion, the Financial Times said.Bank of America–which is the largest U.S. bank by market value–said home equity, homebuilder and small business loan issues caused its provision for credit losses to increase by $4.78 billion to $6.01 billion.Fallout from the credit and U.S. housing market collapse has hurt the investment bank. With $1.47 billion in writedowns on its collateralized debt obligations and $439 million on its leveraged loan commitments, Bank of America’s numbers were down…
Small Banks Face Potential Subprime-Related Losses
Baltimore–Smaller banks–such as Provident Bankshares Corp. of Baltimore–may experience some of the losses that larger banks have suffered during the subprime crisis, according to The Wall Street Journal.Provident posted a $17.6 million quarterly net loss last week after cutting its dividend and issuing $115 million of new securities to fix a balance sheet filled with real-estate securities. Plainfield, Ind.-based Lincoln Bancorp.’s first-quarter $181,000 earnings were lower than previous forecasts because more than a dozen borrowers–including commercial real estate developers–showed difficult financial conditions.During the economic boom, many small- and mid-sized banks started working in new markets and offered new products; some…