News

By Erika Schnitzer, Associate EditorWashington, D.C.—The National Association of Home Builders’ (NAHB) Certified Green Professional (CGP) designation is growing in popularity, with over 2,700 home building industry professionals having achieved this status.”It is designed to give those who achieve it a better understanding of what green building is and allows them to separate themselves from their competition to their clients,” Chad Reidy, program manager of green building technologies at NAHB, tells MHN.The designation, which was first launched in 2008 at the International Builders Show (IBS), is awarded after the successful completion of 24 hours of classroom instruction on green building…

By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorChicago–The availability of on-site recycling programs at multifamily communities has increased by 16 percent and that of energy-efficient windows by nine percent since 2007, according to a recent study conducted by Apartments.com.Simultaneously, it seems that renters are becoming more conscious of the environmentally friendly measures they can take in their homes. For example, to conserve energy, 52 percent of renters are turning off lights and computers when not in use, setting air conditioners and heaters on timers and using energy-efficient light bulbs, according to the latest national survey conducted by Apartments.com. An additional twenty-two percent…

Irvine, Calif.–NWP Services Corp. (NWP) has signed an agreement with BluTrend LLC to offer the CSASecure service to NWP’s utility billing clients in Texas and Georgia.“CSASecure extends our processing capabilities to prevent occurrences of utility theft by apartment residents and expedites recovery of all costs for our clients’ multifamily communities that would otherwise be lost,” says Michael Radice, president and CEO of NWP Services Corp.While NWP currently offers utility theft recovery services nation-wide as part of its UtilityPay Manager product, the company will also provide the CSASecure service in the deregulated electric and natural gas utility markets of Texas and…

By Erika Schnitzer, Associate Editor Washington, D.C.—This Friday, National Housing Trust-Enterprise Preservation Corp. (NHT-Enterprise) and The Hampstead Development Group will celebrate the grand re-opening of R Street Apartments, a 124-unit green, affordable housing community in Washington D.C.’s Logan Circle neighborhood.“To be able to preserve these apartments in that neighborhood is just huge,” Rob Richardson, senior project manager for NHT-Enterprise, tells MHN. “Most of the city’s affordable housing has been developed or preserved east of the river because that’s where land and buildings are the least expensive. The city recognized that it needs to preserve diversity in all neighborhoods.”Originally built in…

By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorWashington, D.C.–Walker & Dunlop provided a $7 million refinance loan for the Garfield House (pictured top) located on Wisconsin Avenue in Washington, D.C. The loan was structured with a 10-year term and a 30-year amortization and was underwritten to a 52 percent Loan-to-Value with a 1.56 Debt-Service Coverage ratio. Walker & Dunlop utilized Fannie Mae’s Dual DUS ERL commitment to allow the borrower to early rate lock the interest rate on a majority of the total loan proceeds and come back for additional proceeds based on the final due diligence prior to closing. The Garfield…

Rob Käll is a ‘technopreneur’, who in 2008 founded Bookt, a provider of search engine optimization, as well as marketing and other professional services to the global vacation rental industry. He has over 12 years of experience in developing and implementing real estate and property Web sites. He is knowledgeable about emerging Web technologies, especially as they are applied to the travel industry, as well as behavioral targeting and engagement, deciphering marketing trends into widgets and applications, and online distribution hubs beyond the GDS.Käll talks to MHN Online News Editor Anuradha Kher about trends in the vacation rentals industry, how…

Carrollton, Texas–MyNewPlace, one of the largest apartment Internet Listing Services with more than 6 million apartment listings nationwide, has joined the OpsTechnology Supplier Community to enable eBilling for its customers. With the OpsTechnology invoice management solution, customers will receive eBills from MyNewPlace, eliminating the paper handling associated with invoice processing to improve accuracy, and save money and time.”We were immediately excited at how it expedites the pay cycle,” says Kenneth Cluff, vice president of technology and co-founder of MyNewPlace. “With this solution, we send one electronic file directly to OpsTechnology. The system routes the invoices to each property, which guarantees…

By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorWashington, D.C.–The latest starts figures are out, and multifamily starts for March are down again after a slight uptick seen in February. Starts, which were 119,000 units in January, went up slightly to 202,000 in February and are now down to 116,000, according to the latest report released by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).This is a 42 percent drop from February 2009 and a 55 percent drop when compared year-on-year. “From the supply side, this is exactly what we wanted,” Tobey Price Hubbard, managing principal at Blackstar…

By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorNew York–NCB has arranged over $57 million in new loan originations during the month of March for 24 New York area properties. The financings included $41.8 million in mortgages and $15.3 million in lines of credit.  Some of the loans were:$11 million first mortgage for Midland Avenue Owners Corp. a 404-unit co-op located at 1296/1300/1304 Midland Avenue in Yonkers, N.Y. $4.5 million first mortgage and a $1 million line of credit for a 113-unit co-op located at 120 Central Park South in Manhattan$3.1 million first mortgage and a $900,000 line of credit for a 78-unit…