Real Estate Daily News Buzz April 26, 2017

Reserve-White-house-dome
Real Estate Daily News Buzz April 26, 2017

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.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 14.46 points, or 0.6 percent, to 2,388.61. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 232.23 points, or 1.1 percent, to 20,996.12. The Nasdaq composite rose 41.67, or 0.7 percent, to 6,025.49.

Benchmark U.S. crude oil rose 33 cents to $49.56 per barrel. Brent crude, which is used to price international oils, rose 50 cents to $52.10 per barrel. Natural gas fell 2 cents to $3.04 per 1,000 cubic feet, heating oil inched up a fraction of a penny to $1.55 per gallon and wholesale gasoline was close to flat at $1.62 per gallon.

Healthy profits push stocks higher yet; Nasdaq crosses 6,000 — Profits are climbing for companies, and so are their stock prices. More big businesses joined the earnings parade Tuesday, saying their profits were even larger in the first three months of the year than analysts were expecting, including Caterpillar and McDonald’s. The encouraging reports pushed U.S. indexes to their second straight day of big gains, placing them either close to or firmly in record territory.

Lazy K Ranch Developer Attempts New Rezoning Plan — A new development proposal for the Lazy K Bar Guest Ranch property in Marana, Arizona is under consideration this week by the Marana Planning Commission. A new development proposal for the Lazy K Bar Guest Ranch property in Marana, Arizona is under consideration this week by the Marana Planning Commission, which will vote on whether to recommend the plan to the full Town Council in May or June. If approved, the 138-acre site would be rezoned for up to 178 homes, instead of 42. A similar proposal failed to receive a supermajority of Town Council votes two years ago, owing to concerns about the project’s density and proximity to a “critical wildlife corridor.”  Under Arizona land statutes, a development proposal must be approved by a supermajority of council members if 20 percent of adjacent property members oppose a zoning change. The project’s developer has attempted to circumvent this statute by adding a 150-foot strip of empty land at the perimeter of its plan that will not be rezoned, nullifying the neighbors’ complaints under law. The rezoning plan now requires a simple majority in order to pass. Lazy K’s land owners are in informal talks with Meritage Homes, but only plan to sell to a home builder when the property is officially rezoned.

 PACC launches “Go Big and Go Home” dog sale – Pima County Adopters who take home a dog 30lbs and up get to name their adoption fee – With only two empty kennels in the tent to spare, Pima Animal Care officials decided to launch a big dog sale that encourages adopters to “Go Big and Go Home” with a new best friend. From April 25 – 30, adopters who find a furry four-legged friend who weighs over 30 pounds will get to name their own adoption fee. As of Monday evening, PACC had 370 dogs in its care and only two open dog kennels remained in the tent, which is used to house all incoming dogs. In the summer, PACC can take in over 50 pets a day. Shelter officials directed the “Go Big and Go Home” sale to larger dogs, because they comprise over 90 percent of the shelter’s current dog population, and they’re the ones who often get overlooked.  If you’re considering adding a new family member to your home, visit PACC’s shelter, 4000 N. Silverbell Road, through April 30 and name-your-own-price adoption fee. Your pet will come spayed or neutered, with age-appropriate vaccinations, a microchip and a voucher for its first vet visit. A standard $17 licensing fee will also apply to all adult dogs. See PACC’s adoptable pets online.

Trump Wants Plan to Cut Corporate Tax Rate to 15% “President Donald Trump has ordered White House aides to draft a tax plan that slashes the corporate tax rate to 15%, even if that means a loss of revenue and exacerbating the procedural and partisan hurdles he faces in search of his first major legislative victory, according to people familiar with the directive.” (Wall Street Journal, subscription required)

If Albertsons Wants to Buy Whole Foods, Here’s How Much It Should Be Prepared to Pay “Let the fight for Whole Foods (WFM) begin. Shares of the organic grocer were higher by 3.44% to $36.99 on Monday afternoon, following a report from the Financial Times noting that U.S. supermarket operator Albertsons is exploring a takeover of the grocery giant. Albertsons should be prepared to pay through their nose to land Whole Foods. Credit Suisse analyst Edward Kelly recently estimated that Whole Foods could fetch $40 to $45 per share, or an equity value of $12.7 billion to $14.3 billion.” (The Street)

1031 Exchanges Increasingly Attractive as Prices Climb “Section 1031 of the IRS Code may seem like an arcane — and perhaps even unnecessary — subject for an adviser to be expert in. But now that property prices have risen to pre-2008 levels in most parts of the nation, it is essential to know about 1031 exchanges, according to Steve Dudash, president of Chicago-based IHT Wealth Management. ‘If you are not able to hold conversations about like 1031 strategies with your clients, you are obsolete,’ Dudash says. ‘You won’t have a job in five or 10 years.’” (Financial Planning)

Sears Tops List of Retailers Most Vulnerable to Defaulting on Debt “Sears Holdings Corp. tops the list of retailers that are most vulnerable to defaulting on their debt in the next year, as the sector continues to be hammered by bankruptcies and high levels of credit risk, S&P Global said Monday. There have been 14 retail bankruptcies in 2017 through April 6, said the rating agency, close to the 18 that filed for all of 2016. U.S. retailers have borne the brunt of the damage, with the most recent filing coming from discounter Payless Inc., operator of Payless ShoeSource, which filed on April 4.” (MarketWatch)

State Departments Uses Website to Promote Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Resort “Package deal! Three nights in a suite at Mar-a-Lago and what’s left of America’s dignity. President Trump’s administration has come under fire for promoting his Palm Beach resort using the State Department and its taxpayer-funded resources. A blog post from the U.S. Embassy in the U.K. published earlier this month resurfaced Monday when observers noticed the congratulatory tone it used to praise Trump’s frequent visits down to Florida.” (New York Daily News)

These Are the Tallest Buildings in Each State “Hike to the top of the tallest building in Vermont, and you’ll barely break a sweat. The teeny, tiny Decker Towers apartment complex in Burlington is the tallest building in the Green Mountain State. Imagine the view from the top of the tallest building in America — the 104-floor, 1,776-foot One World Trade Center in New York City — and those people at the base of Decker Towers would look like ants. HighRises.com compiled a list of the tallest building in each U.S. state, and the results are rather varied.” (MarketWatch)

Real Estate Investors Enters Pennsylvania’s Senate Race “There’s a new face in the crowd that’s vying to challenge the re-election bid by Pennsylvania’s Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey. Real estate investor Jeffrey Bartos announced Monday that he’ll seek the Republican Party nomination to challenge Casey in 2018. The 44-year-old Bartos lives in Montgomery County and has never run for office before. Those already announcing their candidacy or filing paperwork with the Federal Election Commission include Republican state Reps. Rick Saccone and Jim Christiana, Republican Andrew Shecktor and Libertarian Dale Kerns.” (Associated Press)

Optimism Improves Among CRE Execs, Despite Uncertainty “The U.S. CRE market is looking at a rising level of confidence, stiffer competition from single-family residential for the nation’s housing dollar, and concerns over rising prices and falling cap rates, according to the eighth annual Akerman U.S. Real Estate Sector Report, released last week. Since the U.S. presidential election, the report from U.S. law firm Akerman LLP indicates that 53 percent of investors and lenders are more optimistic about the 2017 outlook for the U.S. CRE market, compared to last year’s 38 percent.” (Commercial Property Executive)

Here Are the Hundreds of Storefronts That Are Sitting Empty in New York City “If you walk through Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood, you’ll likely find upscale coffee shops or clothing stores. But on almost every block, you’ll also see abandoned storefronts sporting ‘For Lease’ signs. A new site called Vacant New York highlights the city’s vacancy problem in detail. Launched in 2016 by freelance software developer Justin Levinson, the site features an interactive map that shows almost every unoccupied storefront in Manhattan.” (Business Insider)

Terreno Realty Acquires 1MSF South Bay Industrial Property “Terreno Realty Corp. acquired a one million-square-foot industrial property in the South Bay submarket of Los Angeles for $31.4 million. According to Yardi Matrix, the property was owned by Comstock Homes. The estimated stabilized cap rate of the property is 3.9 percent. Located at 11840 and 11852 Alameda St. and 2800 Lynwood Road, in Lynwood, Calif., just off Interstate 105 and between Interstates 110 and 710, the facility is around 15 miles south of Los Angeles.” (Commercial Property Executive)