TUCSON. Arizona  – Located less than one half mile south of The University of Arizona Campus, Cherry Park Studios student housing complex closed for $2.695 million ($165.32 PSF / $158,500 per unit).

Cherry Park Studios consists of 17 student housing apartments. The property was originally built in 1952, then expanded by the American Red Cross in 1985. Roja Cruz Apartments, LLC purchased the building in 2012 and completely gutted it, leaving only the original brick walls and rafters. Renovations were completed in 2013. The property was 95% occupied at close of escrow, with 40 of 42 beds currently rented by students at The University of Arizona.

Zack Mishkin and Jamie Canute at ORION Investment Real Estate represented the Seller in this transaction – Roja Cruz Apartments, LLC, an Arizona entity. Nevada-based Riverhill Drive, LLC was the Buyer, represented by Chris Cunning at Marcus & Millichap out of Las Vegas.

“CPS was one of the most unique properties I’ve had the pleasure of listing,” Zack Mishkin said. “The Owners took an abandoned Red Cross building and turned it into a premier luxury apartment complex, catering to students at the University of Arizona. The beautiful design, unique character, and meticulous craftsmanship helped us obtain a benchmark price of over $158,000 per unit. It is a spectacular trophy property that any owner would love to have in their portfolio. We had a blast marketing this property and obtaining a huge figure for the Seller,” Mishkin continued.

For more information Mishkin can be reached at 480.634.6934 and Canute is at 480.634.6934. Cunnings should be contacted at 702.215.7116.

To learn more, see RED Comp #4383.

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 204.91 points, or 1.3%, to 15,666.44. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index lost 25.60 points, or 1.4%, to 1,867.61. The NASDAQ composite declined 19.76 points, or 0.4%, to 4,506.49.

U.S. crude rose $1.07 to close at $39.31 in New York. Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils used by many U.S. refineries, gained 52 cents to close at $43.21 in London. Wholesale gasoline fell 1.8 cents to close at $1.535 a gallon. Heating oil edged up a fraction of a cent at $1.395 a gallon. Natural gas rose 3.5 cents to close at $2.685 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Partnership Between Uber and U A Announced – At this morning’s news conference, the app-driven ride service Uber announced that it will be partnering with the University of Arizona to help develop mapping technology for self-driving cars. Arizona dignitaries, including Mayor Jonathan Rothschild and Gov. Doug Ducey, were on hand to announce the partnership, which includes $25,000 for the College of Optical Sciences to develop new lens technology. Headquartered in San Francisco, Uber service is available in 58 countries and 300 cities.

US home prices rise steadily in June as sales pick up — U.S. home prices rose solidly in June, another sign of health in the housing market.The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index rose 5 per cent from a year earlier, a slight improvement on May’s 4.9 per cent increase, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices. Prices rose 10.2 per cent in Denver, 9.5 per cent in San Francisco and 8.2 per cent in Dallas. Chicago posted the smallest gain, just 1.4 per cent. (News Advance)

US new-home sales rebound in July — Americans stepped up their purchases of new homes in July, with sales surging in the Northeast. The Commerce Department says new-home sales rose 5.4 per cent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 507,000, recovering from a slide in purchases in June. Buyers have crowded into the housing market this year. Backed by solid job growth over the past two years and relatively low mortgage rates, sales of new homes jumped 21.2 per cent through the first half of 2015, although the government sales report is volatile on a monthly basis. (Yahoo)

US consumer confidence shows sharp rebound in August — U.S. consumer confidence rebounded in August to the strongest reading in seven months after having fallen sharply in July. The Conference Board said Tuesday that its index of consumer confidence increased to 101.5 in August, up from a revised July reading of 91.0. It was the best showing since January. Conference Board economist Lynn Franco says that consumers’ assessment of current conditions was considerably more upbeat in August, primarily due to a more favorable view of the labor market. (Yahoo)

Firm Pays $200 Million for Majority Stake in St. John’s Terminal, Eyes Big Redevelopment “A sprawling building, ripe for development and seen as a savior to the decaying Pier 40, now has a single controlling owner for the first time in years.” (Crain’s New York Business)

In Demand: Top Cities for Multi-Family Rentals “The demand for rental housing is increasing nationwide, with more and more people turning to renting in America’s largest cities. A combination of factors – including limited inventory levels, declining vacancy rates and continued job growth – have pushed rental prices up by 6.5 percent over the past year, to reach a record high of $1,155 in July 2015.” (Commercial Property Executive)

Belk Agrees to Be Bought by Sycamore for About $2.7 Billion “Belk Inc., the 127-year-old department-store chain concentrated in the southern U.S., agreed to be acquired by Sycamore Partners for about $2.7 billion in cash.” (Bloomberg)

Barclays: Fed Unlikely to Hike Before March 2016 “The Federal Reserve’s first rate hike will likely occur in March of next year amid financial volatility and uncertainty surrounding growth in emerging markets, according to Barclays.” (CNBC)

Northeast Ohio’s Retail Gluttony: Old Malls Rot While New Shopping Centers Sprawl “Even as vacancy climbs at Northeast Ohio shopping centers, ambitious developers are culling new land in far-out suburbs to build more shopping space.” (Cleveland.com)

Chinese-Americans Spent $105.1 Billion on U.S. Real Estate in 2014  “According to a new report by Juwai.com, Chinese-Americans outspent offshore (mainland Chinese) buyers of US real estate by nearly 5 to 1 in 2014. Chinese-Americans invested $105.5 billion in US real estate, compared to the $22 billion invested by Mainland Chinese.” (World Property Journal)

The Sidewalk Shed, a Ubiquitous New York Eyesore, Gets a Makeover “Zaha Hadid has designed some of the most remarkable buildings of this generation. Whether a striking factory for BMW, daring Olympic venues or museums in Rome, Glasgow and Cincinnati, the work of the Iraqi-born, London-based Ms. Hadid has brought her global renown and a Pritzker Prize, considered architecture’s Nobel Prize.” (New York Times)

3 Retail Stocks That Are Great Bargains Now “What goes down often comes back up, at least when it comes to the right kinds of companies and stocks.” (The Street)

Green Bonds Grow Up “‘Impact’ investors, those interested in environmental, social or governance issues, are finding increasingly fertile ground in green bonds.” (Wealth Management)

C&W Makes History in Tampa Industrial Market “High Street Realty has acquired the Tampa Distribution Center, a 955,000-square-foot industrial campus in Tampa, from MetLife Real Estate Investors.” (Commercial Property Executive)

Competition Contenders Prepare for CCIM Forecast Match February 10^th

This year’s Joint-Platinum sponsors of the 24^th Annual Southern Arizona CCIM Forecast Competition will be the University of Arizona’s, Master of Real Estate Development (MRED) in conjunction with the Larsen Baker LLC (Don Baker and George Larsen, Principals). A unique partnership of exchange between the local CCIM chapter and the new UA MRED program has been forming this year, with CCIM instructors participating in real-life applications with the MRED students.

With the MRED program delivering cornerstone disciplines in real estate development and the CCIM geared toward real-world problems and solutions, it seems a natural match for a whole spectrum of new development.  The MRED program is housed in the College of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape Architecture, to give students an opportunity to engage in an interdisciplinary program, grounded in finance, planning, landscape architecture, and architecture. CCIM has been adding real-world applications to the program.

Don Baker of Larsen Baker LLC, a well-known real estate speculator and developer in the region, will be among MRED’s first graduating class this year and says he has enjoyed the trans-disciplinary instruction combined with dynamic real-world application.

At this year’s Forecast Competition inductees into Tucson Legends will include Dan Lyons and Andy Romo of Lyons Romo Inc. and the keynote speaker will be Greg Byrne, Vice-President for Athletics at the University of Arizona.

The line-up for this year’s CCIM Forecast Panels has been released and the competition looks stiff but fairly matched, with last year’s winners returning to defend their title against new contenders who have been preparing all year their predictions to be the most accurate for 2015 in order to ‘take home the gold’ trophy.

Here’s how the contest is breaking out:

The 2014 Forecast Winner in the Retail category, Nancy McClure, First Vice-President of CBRE will be combined with challengers Craig Finfrock, Principal at Commercial Retail Advisors, Kevin Volk, Agent at Volk Company and Jim Bradley, Principal Appraiser at Axia Appraisers.

Our 2014 Office Forecast Winner was Rick Kleiner, Principal at Cushman & Wakefield | Picor who will be put together with challengers Bruce Suppes, Vice-President of CBRE, Andrew Sternberg, Agent with Oxford Realty Advisors and, Kent Ahrens Appraiser with Axia Appraisers.

Last year’s Forecast Winner in the Land category was John Carroll, Agent with Land Advisors Organization, who will have a run this year from challengers Terry Klipp, Principal at Teramar Properties, Jim Marian, Principal at Chapman Lindsey Commercial Real Estate Services, and Appraiser John Ferenchak with Burdick and Ferenchak.

For the Multifamily category, the 2014 Forecast Winner was Art Wadlund, Partner with Berkadia who will now face-off against Tony Reed, Senior Associate at Long Realty, Chuck Corriere, Associate Broker at KW Commercial, and Appraiser, Brandon White of CBRE.

The 2014 Industrial Forecast Winner, Bob Davis is Vice-President at Rein & Grossoehme and ready to face the showdown with challengers Russ Hall, Vice-President of Cushman & Wakefield | Picor, Tom Hunt, Principal at Rein & Grossoehme and Michael Naifeh, Appraiser with Valbridge Property Advisors.

In the Finance category, the 2014 Forecast Winner was Sandra Barton, Vice-President at Alliance Bank who is set to be challenged by Jay Ganske, Sr. Vice-President at Mututal of Omaha, C.Lars Larson, Relationship Vice-President at Bank of the West, and Steve Cole, Senior Appraiser with SW Appraisal.

The 2015 CCIM Market Forecast Competition XXIV promises to be as exciting an afternoon for real estate fans as Super Bowl XLIX was for sports fans and a much more relaxed and friendly contest.

If you haven’t reserved yet, there still may be time. Registration begins at 12:30, Program starts at 1:30-5:00 followed by a networking reception from 5:00–6:30 on Tuesday, February 10^th at the Marriott Tucson University Park, 880 E 2nd Street Tucson AZ 85719.

Click here to register now or contact Aaron Reid by calling him at 520.382.8791 or email sazccim@TucsonRealtors.org