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.
Wednesday, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 3.41 points, or less than 0.1%, to 18,050.17. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index dropped 1.55 points, or less than 0.1%, to 2,107.40. The NASDAQ composite dropped 5.95 points, or 0.1% to 5,098.94.
Benchmark U.S. crude fell $1.63, or 3 per cent, to close at $51.41 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils used by many U.S. refineries, dipped $1.46 to close at $57.05 a barrel in London. Wholesale gasoline fell 7 cents to close at $1.86 a gallon. Heating oil slipped 5.6 cents to close at $1.67 a gallon. Natural gas rose 8 cents to close at $2.92 per 1,000 cubic feet.
CITY TO HOST PUBLIC PRESENTATIONS ON RONSTADT DEVELOPMENT SITE - The City of Tucson will host public presentations next week of the two proposals for the Ronstadt Transit Center Joint Development Project, with an opportunity for attendees to ask questions and fill out comment cards. The Alexander Company/Oasis Tucson and Peach Properties will each present a design concept for mixed-use, multi-modal development to be located on the 4.7-acre downtown site. The presentations will be held on Wednesday, July 22 beginning at 5 p.m. at the Tucson Convention Center (TCC), 260 S. Church Ave., in the Mohave and Maricopa Rooms. Free parking will be available in Lot A, and public transit options to the TCC can be found at the event link below. A final development agreement would need to be approved by the Mayor and Tucson City Council.
VOTERS TO DECIDE THE FATE OF RED LIGHT CAMERAS - The City Clerk and Pima County Recorder have certified enough valid signatures to send to November's ballot an initiative to ban red light cameras in Tucson city limits. The group Tucson Traffic Justice last month submitted petitions with more than 40,000 signatures. A random sampling of more than 2,000 petitions signatures showed there are enough legitimate signatures to project about 27,000 of the submitted signatures are valid. The required amount to get on the ballot is 12,730. Tucson currently contracts with American Traffic Solutions to operate eight cameras around the city that snap photos when a vehicle runs a red light. The Tucson Police Department reviews the citations before issuing them to drivers.
DANCING WITH THE STARS TOUR LIVE IN TUCSON TOMORROW - Dancing with the Stars Live! is coming to the Tucson Convention Center's (TCC) Music Hall tomorrow night. Dancing with the Stars All-Stars champion Melissa Rycroft will host the stage show, featuring pro dancers Witney Carson, Valentin Chmerkovskiy, Artem Chigvintsev, Peta Murgatroyd, Emma Slater, and troupe dancers Alan Bersten, Brittany Cherry, Sasha Farber and Jenna Johnson. The dancers will perform in a 90-minute live show. Tickets still are available at the Tucson Convention Center Ticket Office (260 S. Church Ave.), Ticketmaster, or by calling 1-800-745-3000.
CITY OF TUCSON HOLDS WORKSHOPS ON LICENSE AND SALES TAX REPORTING - Learn your rights and responsibilities for Transaction Privilege (sales) Taxation by attending a Tax and License Workshop sponsored by the City of Tucson Finance Department. Questions will be answered, and written materials will be available. Samples of sales tax records, worksheets, and monthly returns will be explained. You should bring a calculator and a pencil. A workshop for retail and contracting questions will be held tomorrow, 10:30 a.m.-noon, at the Westside Police Service Center, 1310 W. Miracle Mile. Another workshop will be held Thursday, July 30, at the same time and location.
Lennar Forms $1.1 Billion Fund for Multifamily-Home Projects “Lennar Corp., the largest U.S. homebuilder by market capitalization, formed a $1.1 billion joint venture that will develop multifamily communities in 25 U.S. metropolitan markets. Lennar, a Miami-based builder primarily focused on single-family home construction, will invest $504 million in the venture and provide 19 undeveloped assets it already owns.” (Bloomberg)
Hotelier Standard Strikes a Rare Deal “Standard International, the hotel-management company founded by hotelier André Balazs, is expanding its reach through its first acquisition and fresh money from outside investors. The New York-based hotel company, which manages five properties in Los Angeles, Miami Beach and New York, said it has acquired a 51% stake in Bunkhouse, an Austin, Texas-based owner and operator of four small boutique properties in Texas.” (The Wall Street Journal)
Those Energy Upgrades Could Save Landlords $350 Million “The Building Energy Exchange has compiled a cheat sheet explaining how long various energy-saving projects would take to pay back a landlord's investment. Retrofitting Affordabilitym, a blueprint of sorts for the city's 1.5 billion square feet of large multifamily buildings, identified $2.1 billion worth of improvements and found 78% of them would pay back their investment within a decade through energy savings.” (Crain’s New York Business)
Digital Realty Confirms Rumors “Digital Realty Trust, Inc., the largest data center REIT, is getting bigger with the planned acquisition of Telx, a privately owned national provider of collocation, interconnection and cloud enablement solutions, for $1.9 billion. The San Francisco-based REIT, which is a leading global provider of data center and colocation solutions, and Telx, owned by private equity firms ABRY Partners and Berkshire Partners, announced the deal Tuesday.” (Commercial Property Executive)
Independent Will Tower in Texas “Locals here like to say that everything is bigger in Texas, and that will certainly apply to the state capital’s newest planned residential tower. At 685 feet in height, the 58-story building, named the Independent, is slated to be the tallest predominantly residential building west of the Mississippi River.” (The Wall Street Journal)
Reel Deal: AMC Theatres’ New Stars “AMC Theatres, already one of the top three largest movie theater chains in the U.S., is about to grow even larger. The company has entered into a definitive agreement to purchase Starplex Cinemas for $172 million in cash. AMC won’t just increase its footprint with the merger; it will increase its footprint in all the right places. By acquiring Starplex, AMC will grow with little geographic overlap.” (Commercial Property Executive)
A&P’s Future Up in the Air “Leaders of the two main North Jersey unions representing workers at A&P and Pathmark stores said Tuesday they are still waiting to see what will happen, after being told last month by company representatives that it was able to meet its obligations, and that no crisis was imminent. But despite company assertions that everything remains business as usual while it explores strategic options, reports continue to surface of vendors refusing to extend credit to the company, and of landlords not receiving rent checks.” (NorthJersey.com)
What Millennials Want “As they begin to form households of their own, millennials ages 20 to 37 voice their housing desires and, often, contradictory realities. Fifty percent is the share of millennials who are renters; among the remainder, 26% own a home and 21% live with family.” (Multifamily Executive)
Meet the Mastermind Behind This REIT Merger “Gramercy has been a dream REIT, and while I was reluctant to hop in early, I have been very pleased with the overall performance, especially when the dividend was reinstated. I knew that my initial investment in Gramercy was somewhat speculative given the volatile history of the previous operating model. However, I decided to take the initial dip after examining the experience of the management team, namely Gordon Dugan.” (Seeking Alpha)
Remembering FAO Schwarz, the Iconic Toy Store “Its flagship on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, the last store of a chain that once had 40 locations, is shuttering, felled by rising rents and the rise of online shopping. But the brand will live on in the form of FAO boutiques inside stores run by its parent company, Toys “R” Us, which bought it in 2009.” (Fortune)
US factory output flat for 2nd straight month - U.S. factory production was unchanged for a second straight month in June as a sharp drop in auto manufacturing was offset by greater output of furniture and chemicals. The cutback in auto production comes after three months of healthy gains and is likely temporary. Still, manufacturers are struggling to overcome several challenges, including the strong dollar, weak overseas growth, and cheaper oil. Sales at retail stores also fell in June, suggesting consumers are still cautious about spending, limiting demand for factory goods. (Reuters)
Employee or contractor? Labor seeks to clarify rules - When are workers employees? When are they contractors? The Labor Department issued new guidance Wednesday intended to help companies answer that increasingly fraught question. The issue has taken on greater urgency with the growth of sharing-economy firms such as Uber and TaskRabbit, which increasingly rely on independent workers, often for short-term projects. (LA Times)