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The Golden State is Crumbling
NewGeography.com :: September 4, 2011
Valley Forward Association has launched the first endeavor from its Arizona Forward project as the group looks to make a larger impression beyond the Phoenix area. That means getting buy-in from communities all along the “Sun Corridor,” the stretch of freeway running from Tucson through Phoenix and connecting Prescott and Flagstaff. It long has been a corridor of regional fights but is home to the vast majority of the state’s population. “Timing is everything, and people are ready for a shift,” said Diane Brossart, president of Valley Forward. The idea for a statewide group that would focus on environmental and business issues has been tossed around at Valley Forward for several years. An $85,000 grant the group received earlier this year kick-started the effort as Brossart lined up nine companies as charter members of Arizona ForwaThe recent announcement that California's unemployment again nudged up to 12 percent—second worst in the nation behind its evil twin, Nevada—should have come as a surprise but frankly did not. From the beginning of the recession, the Golden State has been stuck bringing up a humbled nation's rear and seems mired in that less-than-illustrious position. What has happened to my adopted home state of over last decade is a tragedy, both for Californians and for America. For most of the past century, California has been "golden" not only in name but in every kind of superlative—a global leader in agriculture, energy, entertainment, technology, and most important of all, human aspiration.
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Archstone Draws Bids From Big Names
The Wall Street Journal :: September 7, 2011
Four of the biggest names in real estate have submitted bids for Archstone, but the offers aren't high enough to resolve a dispute among the owners about how and when to unwind the apartment giant, according to people familiar with the matter. Archstone, which played a major role in the sinking of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. nearly three years ago, is being pursued by private-equity firm Blackstone Group LP, Toronto-based Brookfield Asset Management Inc. and apartment owners Equity Residential and AvalonBay Communities Inc., the people said. The four submitted offers in recent weeks for all or parts of the company. The specific bids weren't available. A Lehman-led group bought Archstone in a $22 billion deal in 2007, only to see it plunge in value with the economic downturn. One of the nation's largest apartment landlords, it owns or has stakes in nearly 77,000 apartments, and if it were sold in full, it would mark by far the largest commercial real-estate sale since the downturn. Archstone's owners—a trio of the estate of Lehman, Bank of America Corp. and Barclays PLC—have been arguing over whether to sell the company outright or to take a longer-term sale strategy by bringing it public. With Barclays pushing for a private sale and Lehman favoring an initial public offering, the owners earlier this year agreed to take a dual-track approach by readying papers for an IPO while also reaching out to potential buyers.
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Gym Working Out for Landlords
The Wall Street Journal :: September 7, 2011
Vacancy-plagued shopping centers in the U.S. are getting a lift from tenants who deal in sweat rather than typical retail goods. Health clubs and gyms accounted for 8.8% of new leases signed so far this year by retail chains in the U.S., compared with 7.9% at the same point last year, according to real-estate research company CoStar Inc. The rush into shopping centers has helped fuel a 57% increase in square footage occupied by U.S. health clubs since 2007, to more than 70 million square feet. The influx of health clubs comes at a time when retail landlords are scrounging for new tenants to offset a pullback among many traditional retailers. Retail vacancies in the top 80 U.S. markets remain near multiyear highs, reaching 11% for neighborhood shopping centers and 9.3% for regional malls in the second quarter, according to Reis Inc. To compensate, retail landlords are focusing more effort on recruiting nonretail tenants such as dentists, medical offices, classrooms and insurance agents. Gyms, typically overlooked in boom times by landlords flush with other options, are emerging as big favorites in this category.
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High Online Sales Are Major Retail Challenge
GlobeSt.com :: September 9, 2011
The Internet both gives and takes in the retail world. It gives retailers another channel for selling their goods, but it also takes something away from real estate owners who rely on retailers. That was one part of the message from David Henry, president and CEO of Kimco Realty Corp., at the ICSC Western Division Conference on Thursday. Henry, the new ICSC chairman, cited the Internet's impact on retailers as one of three major challenges that the retail industry is facing. He delivered his remarks at an ICSC conference that drew more than 3,400 attendees at the San Diego Conventon Center, where the tone of the day was mostly optimistic. “The geometric growth of online sales will have a significant impact on brick-and-mortar sales,” Henry said. He pointed out that online sales are growing four times faster than sales at shopping centers. He said it is a common misconception to think that selling staples and necessary services would give immunity from this problem.
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Google Details, and Defends, Its Use of Electricity
The New York Times :: September 8, 2011
Google disclosed Thursday that it continuously uses enough electricity to power 200,000 homes, but it says that in doing so, it also makes the planet greener. Every time a person runs a Google search, watches a YouTube video or sends a message through Gmail, the company’s data centers full of computers use electricity. Those data centers around the world continuously draw almost 260 million watts — about a quarter of the output of a nuclear power plant. Up to now, the company has kept statistics about its energy use secret. Industry analysts speculate it was because the information was embarrassing and would also give competitors a clue to how Google runs its operations.
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