PHOENIX, ARIZONA – Sarah Ludwig has joined NAI Horizon as Director of Marketing and Communications.

Ludwig’s responsibilities will include managing all aspects of marketing for NAI Horizon and its agents including advertising and media; overseeing corporate branding guidelines; and the design and content for marketing materials.

A native of Geneva, Ill., Ludwig joins the Phoenix office after serving as Marketing Director at the NAI LaSala-Sonnenberg Heartland office in Kansas City, Mo., for more than four years.

“We are very excited to have Sarah join our firm,” said Terry Martin-Denning, CEO of NAI Horizon. “Her experience working with our NAI Kansas City office made her transition easier.  She is already impacting the services we provide to our agents.”

Ludwig is a graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia where she earned a degree in early childhood/elementary education.

 

Real Estate Daily News Buzz is designed to give news snippets to readers that our (yet to be award winning) editors thought you could use to start your day. They come from various business perspectives, real estate, government, the Fed, local news, and the stock markets to save you time. Here you will find the headlines and what the news buzz of the day will be.

Tuesday, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 90.74 points, or 0.5 per cent, to 18,313.77. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index lost 13.81 points, or 0.6 per cent, to 2,157.03. The NASDAQ composite slid 46.46 points, or 0.9 per cent, to 5,137.73.

Benchmark U.S. crude fell 55 cents, or 1.4 per cent, to $39.51 in New York. Brent crude, which is used to price international oils, sank 34 cents to $41.80 a barrel London. Wholesale gasoline rose 1 cent to $1.31 a gallon. Heating oil held steady at $1.26 a gallon. Natural gas fell 4 cents to $2.73 per 1,000 cubic feet.

US consumer spending grew a solid 0.4 per cent in June — American consumers turned in another strong month of spending in June despite a decline in spending on autos. Consumer spending rose a solid 0.4 per cent in June after an identical increase in May and a 1 per cent surge in April, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. The strength in June came from a surge in spending on nondurable goods, which offset a drop in spending on autos. Personal income grew a moderate 0.2 per cent in June, matching May’s gain.

New insurance policy: Abandon ACA exchanges to avoid losses — Aetna became the latest health insurer to cast doubt upon its future in the Affordable Care Act’s insurance exchanges after it called off a planned expansion Tuesday and suggested it could abandon that market completely. A departure by Aetna, the nations’ third-largest insurer, could further reduce the number of choices for customers and eventually push insurance prices higher. Aetna said Thursday it has been swamped with higher than expected costs, particularly from pricey specialty drugs, and it will take a hard look at its current presence on exchanges in 15 states.

Banks Continue Making Corporate, Commercial Real Estate Loans Tougher to Get, Fed Survey Shows “Loan standards to commercial and industrial firms and commercial real estate tightened for the fourth straight quarter in the three months ended in June, the Federal Reserve said Monday in its senior loan officer survey. That came in a quarter when commercial and industrial loan demand was little changed and demand had weakened somewhat but was little changed but commercial real estate demand picked up.” (MarketWatch)

Coach Sells Headquarters for $707 Million in Lease-Back Deal “Coach Inc. sold its headquarters in New York’s Hudson Yards development for $707 million under a sale and lease-back agreement, the luxury retailer said Monday. The sale is part of a broader deal under which Allianz Real Estate, the property-management unit of the German insurer, bought a 44% stake in 10 Hudson Yards, the first building completed in the massive redevelopment project on Manhattan’s West Side.” (Wall Street Journal)

Here’s Why S.F. Residents Won’t Be Voting on Taxing Tech Companies After All “Taxing the rich tech companies to give back to the poor of San Francisco won’t be happening through a recently proposed tax, but was it even a good idea to begin with? On Monday, the ‘Homelessness and Housing Impact Technology Tax,’ as it’s known, failed to pass during a meeting of San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors Budget and Finance Committee, according to media reports. The proposed tax would have added an extra 1.5% payroll tax for tech companies and decreased the business registration fees for companies with less than $1 million in gross annual receipts.” (Fortune)

Extell Looks to Have Brought In Chinese Equity Partner at Central Park Tower “Gary Barnett’s Extell Development appears to have scored a capital partner for one if its most ambitious projects yet, the Central Park Tower at 217 West 57th Street. New documents filed with the New York Attorney General’s office indicate that the firm’s new partner on the Billionaires’ Row luxury condominium may be SMI USA, the U.S. subsidiary of Shanghai Municipal Investment, the largest state-owned enterprise in Shanghai.” (The Real Deal)

Starwood Energy Seals $760M Deal with NextEra “NextEra Energy Resources LLC will soon sell its only two natural gas-fired power plants in Pennsylvania, but the company will have three quarters of a billion dollars to fill the hole left in its portfolio. A NextEra subsidiary has signed on to sell the Marcus Hook Energy Center facilities, located 20 miles outside Philadelphia in Marcus Hook, Pa., to an investment affiliate of Starwood Energy Group Global LLC, for $760 million.” (Commercial Property Executive)

GameStop Buys 507 AT&T Stores in Diversification Plan “GameStop Corp. acquired 507 AT&T wireless stores as part of a drive to diversify and reduce its dependence on sales of video games. The stores are located in 26 states, with the biggest share in Texas, Missouri and Oklahoma, Tony Bartel, GameStop’s chief operating officer, said in an interview. He declined to reveal the purchase price but said it amounted to the bulk of the $475 million the Grapevine, Texas-based company raised in a debt offering this year.” (Bloomberg)

Partners Group, Spear Street Go on Office Shopping Spree “Funds managed by Partners Group AG or its affiliates joined forces with affiliates of Spear Street Capital LLC to acquire the Whetstone Portfolio, which comprises roughly 2.2 million square feet of office space across five states. The joint venture partners will acquire a number of premier office assets located in suburban markets in Dallas, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Austin and Boston. Financial details of the acquisition have not been disclosed.” (Commercial Property Executive)

Understand Why There’s Not Enough Affordable Housing with This Real Estate Game “If you’re working at a minimum wage job in the U.S., there’s a very good chance you won’t be able to find an apartment you can afford, no matter where you live. For every 100 extremely low-income households, there are only 29 affordable, non-slum apartments on the market. Developers aren’t building enough to keep up with demand as the number of low-income households grows. This isn’t just because most developers would prefer to reap in profits with luxury apartments that can bring in the highest rents. As a simple new game explains, the math just doesn’t work.” (FastCoExist.com)

Saudis Prepare Rules for Real Estate Funds amid Housing Push “Saudi Arabia’s capital markets regulator issued draft rules for exchange-listed real estate funds on Tuesday as the kingdom tries to draw more private investors into its housing sector. Under an economic reform programme announced in June, Saudi Arabia aims to build 1.5 million homes over the next seven or eight years to ease a shortage of affordable housing. But with state revenues slashed by low oil prices, Riyadh can no longer afford to finance construction mainly with state money. So it is seeking ways to get private capital involved, and the new funds could provide one channel.” (Reuters)

Bojangles’ to Expand Beyond Core Market “Bojangles’ Inc. has signed a development deal to expand outside its core markets of North Carolina and South Carolina, the company said Monday. The Charlotte, N.C.-based quick-service chicken chain said Gautier, Miss.-based Angle Inc. would develop multiple Bojangles’ units in southern Alabama and southeast Mississippi. Bojangles’ currently has 32 restaurants in Alabama.” (Nation’s Restaurant News)

 

By: Terri Jo Neff, originally published in the Cochise County Record

Developer: County staff had previously confirmed that the Tentative Plat satisfied all of the County subdivision regulations  

BENSON – On July 8, the developer of the planned J6 Ranch gated community west of Benson filed a civil lawsuit against Cochise County and its three board supervisors in a dispute about a 2015 vote that has stalled the 556-acre project.

The central issue of the 7-count complaint filed in Cochise County Superior Court and served on the county by property owner Easter Mountain Ranch LLC (EMR) is the interpretation of a condition the board added to a 2011 rezoning approval that requires EMR to provide public access to nearby federal lands.

The Superior Court came just two weeks after the board convened a special executive session to consider an agreement proposed by developer EMR that would have prevented court action while the County Attorney’s Office tried to resolve the access issue.

EMR’s property, which is located on the south end of J-Six Ranch Road, abuts the Coronado National Forest (CNR) on the north side of the Whetstone Mountains, in an area that has long been looked at for establishing public access.

After the board approved rezoning the property from RU4 to RU2 (allowing smaller lot sizes), county staff prepared an “Acceptance of Conditions” document that spelled out the terms of the condition. It reads “Prior to plat approval, the Applicant (Easter Mountain Ranch LLC) must provide either on-site or off-site multi-purpose (vehicle, pedestrian, equestrian, etc) legal access to federal lands.”

EMR and the county signed the document, which was then filed with the County Recorder’s Office. Since then, the developer has moved forward with plans for the first phase of the project, which includes lots 1-42.  They also secured an easement from a nearby property owner that would allow for access to the CNF.

However, on July 14, 2015 the board denied EMR’s application for a subdivision tentative plat for those initial lots because the board was not satisfied with the developer’s forest access plan. A second easement proposal addressing the access requirement was also rejected by the county.

In a recent phone interview, EMR’s development manager Duff Hearon explained that EMR started planning the J6 Ranch project “a decade ago” and he has been frustrated by the drawn out process “which normally should only take two or three years.”

Without the board’s approval, the developer must redesign the entire project to include only 139 homes under the old zoning instead of 278 homes under the new zoning.

LAWSUIT SEEKS APPROVAL OF 278 HOME DESIGN, MONETARY DAMAGES
Hearon added that “we would have dropped our $10 million claim if the board had agreed to approve our plat,” and he points to the fact that he held off authorizing the lawsuit until a week prior to EMR’s one year deadline.

“We knew it will be costly for the county to defend, and the monetary damages could be devastating for the taxpayers, so we waited,” Hearon said. “But ultimately we had to preserve our rights and protect our partners.”

Britt Hanson, the county’s chief civil deputy attorney, confirmed that his office will handle the civil lawsuit because “our insurer doesn’t cover liability for land-use decisions.”

According to the complaint, the county’s July 2015 denial of EMR’s proposed plat was “arbitrary, capricious and an abuse of discretion.” It adds that the developer has “spent considerable time, effort, resources and money” to ensure “complete compliance” and has “satisfied and fulfilled all of the requirements” of the rezoning conditions.

The complaint also alleges violations of the Arizona Property Rights Protection Act that have caused the developer significant financial costs and future losses. If the case goes to trial, EMR will ask the jury to award “actual and consequential” monetary damages, as well as attorneys fees and other costs.

In addition to financial damages, EMR is seeking an order from judge Wallace Hoggatt that the county approve the tentative plat so the developer can move forward with lots 1-42, and an order providing EMR an extension of any deadlines they face on the project.

OFFER TO RESOLVE DISPUTE FILED IN JANUARY, REJECTED IN FEBRUARY
“We have been trying in good faith to resolve the forest access for a very long time,” explained Hearon, adding that the board is requiring a level of public access not specified in the signed 2011 agreement.

In Jan. of this year, EMR submitted a notice of claim to the board clerk seeking $10 million in damages to resolve the dispute.  That figure, according to Easter Mountain attorney Steven Lenihan, represents lost profits for building only 139 homes and other costs the developer has occurred, including attorney fees.

A notice of claim is required under state law before a public entity can be sued.

The county rejected EMR’s claim in Feb., but emails released by the county attorney’s office reveal efforts have been ongoing for months to identify potential routes that could satisfy the board’s interpretation of the 2011 access condition.

THE HOLD-UP: APPROVED PUBLIC ROUTE TO NATIONAL FOREST
Those emails show Hanson of the county attorney’s office has been in frequent contact with Arizona Game and Fish Dept.  and US Forest Service to work toward a deal for an easement on land owned by El Dorado Holdings, the developer of the 12,000 acre Villages at Vigneto project in Benson.

That property abuts the east side of the Whetstone Mountains and could provide an access road off State Route 90 that would eventually connect to existing Coronado National Forest roads.

As recently as June 2, Hanson advised top county officials that “it looks as though the forest access issue is going to be resolved, with the County, Game and Fish and the Forest Service working with Mike Reinbold (El Dorado).”

Included in that email was a communication from Matt Walton of AZGF stating “a feasible route” had been identified and was currently “under review by El Dorado.” That route was flagged by USFS road manager Walt Keyes after several stakeholders took a walking tour of the property to look at access options.

District 3 supervisor Richard Searle, who represents the J-Six and Benson area, shared the June 2 update with EMR, which Hearon says is another reason he held off as long as possible before filing the court action.

“We kept hearing from the county that ‘we’re close’ to a resolution, but without clear communication we are left with no option but to move forward with a lawsuit,” he explained.

“STOP THE CLOCK” PROPOSAL REJECTED
While Hanson continued working toward a deal for CNF public access via El Dorado Holdings, the statute of limitations clock continued to tick for Easter Mountain Ranch. Under Arizona law, a party normally has a deadline of one year from the date damages first occur in order to file a court action.

With the one year anniversary of the July 14, 2015 vote approaching, Lenihan proposed a tolling agreement with the county. A tolling agreement is a legal maneuver that freezes the statute of limitations clock, allowing parties additional time to resolve issues or disputes without worrying about the calendar.

If a resolution cannot be worked out during the tolling period, the amount of days the agreement was in place does not count toward the deadline for filing a lawsuit.

Chief (civil division) deputy county attorney Hanson originally turned down the tolling agreement but the matter was later considered by the board in a special meeting on June 21.  Although minutes of the executive session are not public, Hanson explained that the county declined “to sign the tolling agreement because we think the lawsuit has no merit.”

With the developer’s one year clock winding down and no tolling agreement in place, Hearon said he authorized legal action as a “last resort.”

When asked about the decision to forego the tolling agreement, supervisor Searle replied that he is prevented by state law from commenting on the matter. He referred any questions to Hanson, who responded that “nothing has changed” from the county’s previous position that EMR’s claims are without merit.

The county has until Aug. 1 to file an answer to EMR’s complaint.