Regions

By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorAtlanta–The Citi Foundation, which has supported Habitat for Humanity International projects for nine years, recently made a $2 million grant to the organization that will go toward supporting the construction of affordable housing in the United States.The grant from Citi will provide more than 50 Habitat affiliates across the country with partial to full-project sponsorships. Each grant ranges in size from $15,000 to $125,000 and will go toward multifamily as well as single-family projects. In New York, Los Angeles and Washington D.C., the Habitat for Humanity projects are mainly multifamily.“This is part of a longstanding…

New York–The upcoming Trump SoHo is being marketed by a unique team–instead of Donald Trump, his children Donald, Eric and Ivanka will be promoting the residences.And Trump SoHo is being marketed to a unique clientele: Businessmen and wealthy foreigners who own several homes–and can foot the price for a unit in the condohotel, where studios will be priced starting at $1.2 million, the Times Online reports.”People in the U.K. and continental Europe are buying at a 30 percent to 40 percent discount,”  Donald Trump Jr. told the Times Online. “It’s probably not benefiting at the low end and the middle…

Washington, D.C.–Recent Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation information is causing regulators to become concerned that, as home values plummet, small U.S. banks may have too high a concentration of real estate development loans, the Financial Times reports.Banks’ real estate development loan losses in the first quarter were more than 15 times the amount of losses in the first quarter of 2007, the Washington, D.C.-based FDIC said. In addition, more than half of banks with assets worth between $1 billion and $10 billion have commercial real estate loan portfolios that are more than 300 percent of their capital.Nearly 30 percent of U.S….

London–As borrowers face tighter lending restrictions, fewer homes will change hands in Britain this year, the Guardian reports.An overall lack of mortgage availability could keep potential buyers out of the market, driving prices down further.In fact, the mortgage decline could drag the number of transactions down to 750,000 for all of 2008–which would be almost a 40 percent drop from 2007, according to Consultancy Capital Economics. Home prices could fall 35 percent.

San Francisco–Tens of thousands of San Francisco homes and businesses could fall in the next large earthquake–a problem that building and city officials haven’t dealt with for decades, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. A large number of the buildings in question are classic San Francisco apartment buildings, which contain a business on the first floor or a home built over a garage.Because there is a glass window, garage door or other space on the ground floor instead of a wall, the wood frames of the “soft-story” buildings are especially susceptible to earthquakes.San Francisco has more soft-story buildings than any other…

Online News EditorSparks, Nev.–The Orange County office of HFF (Holliday Fenoglio Fowler, L.P.) recently arranged a $29.5 million construction loan and $9.5 million joint venture equity for the development of Pioneer Meadows, a 300-unit Class A multifamily development to be built in Sparks, Nev. HFF Director Mark Erland worked on behalf of Fore Property Co. to arrange the three-year construction loan.

By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorHouston–Gables Residential Trust has recently topped out Memorial Hills, a 286-unit rental project located at the intersection of Scott and Jackson Hill Streets in Houston.The eight-story infill project is spread across 2.2 acres of land and is surrounded by hills and several parks. It is expected to be complete in the spring of 2009.“The location of this project is key,” Scott Ziegler, senior principal and principal-in-charge of the Living Place Studio at Ziegler Cooper Architects, which designed the project, tells MHN.“Lush green foliage makes the apartments off Memorial Drive a prime location for people wanting…

By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorAtlanta–After five months of actively pursuing a formal process to sell Post Properties Inc., the company has announced that it received no definitive acquisition proposals. All potential bidders have withdrawn from the sale process and, as a result, the Board of Directors has brought the process to an end. The Board has, however, reaffirmed its commitment to actively pursue other strategies to enhance shareholder value.“We conducted an open and thorough sales process, but conditions in the economy and the financial markets combined to produce a difficult transaction environment,” says David P. Stockert, president and CEO…

By Erika Schnitzer, Associate EditorSeattle–The first building in Seattle developed under the city’s new zoning code has topped out. Developed by Minneapolis-based Opus Northwest LLC, the 440-ft., 38-story Fifteen Twenty-One Second Avenue is comprised of 143 condos.The city’s new zoning code, adopted by the city council in April 2006, allows for residential buildings over 400 ft. tall to be built based upon a number of criteria, including the size of the floorplate, LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Silver certification and a contribution to affordable housing, Tom Parsons, senior vice president and general manager of Opus Northwest, tells MHN.With…

By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorPlainview, N.Y.–Coinmach/ASI recently signed an exclusive distribution agreement with LG Electronics to provide LG laundry machines to its multi-housing customers across the United States.Coinmach/ASI laundry rooms, operating with LG’s new card and coin laundry systems, are expected to deliver greater efficiency and consume less water and energy than conventional washers.Coinmach/ASI has 80,000 customers and close to 800,000 installed machines in multifamily communities. The company plans to offer the LG machines through a phased-out process. It is expected that by the end of the year, all the U.S. markets will have access to them. “We are…