Published: Tuesday, January 31, 2012, 2:07 PM Updated: Tuesday, January 31, 2012, 7:37 PM
By Kathy Jumper, Mobile, AL Press-Register
DAPHNE, Alabama -- Renaissance Center on U.S. 90 first hit the market with commercial lots selling for $7.50 per square foot in early 2007, but prices tumbled, along with the economy, to a low of $1.59 per square foot last summer, according to Realtors.
On Feb. 23, the local owners plan to offer the remaining 13 lots for sale at absolute auction, according to the National Auction Group in Gadsden.
The 17-lot commercial center has the key location just off Interstate 10, adjacent to Sam's Club and Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse -- and across the interstate from the Eastern Shore Centre on Ala. 181, which now sports a Publix Super Market and has a bowling alley on the way.
And, Renaissance's existing businesses draw plenty of traffic, thanks to Chris Myers Nissan, which paid $6.50 per square foot for 10 acres, and Halls Motorsports, which paid $976,000 or $7.50 per square foot, for 2.99 acres, court records show.
Still, the original developers fell on hard times a couple of years ago, and the lot sales never seemed to revive, according to Realtors and one of the center owners.
"We were passive investors," said Terry Ogletree, a businessman on the Eastern Shore. "None of us are real estate people. All of a sudden we're land owners. We did what it took to complete it and paid off all the debt."
By late last year, they had decided to liquidate. "None of us have the time to devote to it," he said.
The auctioneer advised them to sell the lots without a minimum bid, he said.
Some of the lot buyers have taken a hit and sold at a loss. Perhaps the most notable was the Louisiana investor who paid $1.38 million for a 4-acre lot in 2008 and sold the vacant lot last year for $276,000, according to court records.
Much of the retail center at U.S. 90 and Alabama Highway 181 remains vacant. (Gulf Coast Business/Mike Kittrell)
The annual assessments of $14,000 per acre did not help lot sales, agents said. The development was partly built using improvement bonds in a special-tax district approved by the city of Daphne. The city committed to backing an estimated $8 million bond issue to construct roads, traffic lights and other infrastructure. The bonds are repaid using tax revenues.
The 30-year bond issue has about 27 years remaining, according to Ogletree.
The businesses can reduce their annual assessments depending on the amount of sales tax revenue their business generates.
Retailers and businesses such as car dealerships and hotels can make the sales tax revenues to offset the assessment, according to Ogletree. But, he said, "when the economy died, we were told retail is going to be slow in coming back."
Retailers looking for sites can go where deals are in a slower commercial market, and there are plenty of discounts out there, according to Haran Hunter of REMAX of Orange Beach. He was listing agent for the Renaissance Center when sales started in December 2006, and he moved eight lots in quick order.
At one time, Renaissance was the preferred site for an Academy Sports & Outdoors store and a bowling and entertainment center, according to Hunter. Academy was then wooed away by Jubilee Square on U.S. 90 in Daphne. Ultimately, Jubilee signed a deal with Dick's Sporting Goods, which opened last spring.
"The yearly assessment killed the bowling alley deal," Hunter said. The owners of Gulf Bowl in Foley had 4 acres under contract at Renaissance, but canceled after figuring what they would pay in assessments, he said.
Instead, the Gulf Bowl owners paid $400,000 for 4.23 acres at the Eastern Shore Centre and plan to open 24 bowling lanes, a sports bar, arcade and laser tag in late spring.
"I think the recession has made the site more challenging," said Jeremy Milling of White-Spunner & Associates in Mobile, who sold a Renaissance lot to a used-car dealership for $7.86 per square foot last June. "It would be a great office location, but the office doesn't generate the sales tax to negate the assessment."
The best use for the lots are office, warehouse or possibly an apartment complex, said Tim Herrington of Herrington Realty in Mobile. "You're not going to get a retailer in there," he said. "There's not the visibility for retailers. It's on a highway, but it's a secondary road in comparison to 181. And it's priced a little high."
The owners are motivated to sell the 13 lots, which total about 16.8 acres, according to auctioneers. The auction will be held at La Quinta Inn & Suites at 8946 Sawwood St., at Exit 38 off I-10 in Daphne.
For more information, call 800-650-0882 or 256-547-3434, or go to www.national-auction.com.
© 2012 al.com. All rights reserved.
www.ApartmentsAlabama.com

FEBRUARY 21, 2012, BETHESDA, MD – Beech Street Capital, LLC announced today that it has provided a $3.36 million Freddie Mac CME loan for the acquisition of Blackberry Creek Apartments, a 69-unit townhouse-style multifamily apartment community in Soddy Daisy, Tennessee. The transaction was originated by Chad Thomas Hagwood, executive vice president based out of Beech Street’s Birmingham, Alabama office.
Blackberry Creek Apartments is located in close proximity to the Chattanooga central business district and as of December, is 100% occupied. Constructed in 2006 and 2007, the property consists of 12 two-story apartment buildings on over eight-acres. Amenities include private patios and a leasing center.
The fixed-rate loan has a ten-year term with a 9.5 year yield maintenance payable on a 30-year amortization schedule.
About Beech Street Capital, LLC
Beech Street Capital, LLC is a mortgage banking company engaged in originating, underwriting, closing, and servicing high-quality multifamily mortgage loans for existing and proposed apartment buildings and manufactured home communities throughout the United States. Beech Street is a Fannie Mae DUS® lender, a Freddie Mac Program Plus® Seller Servicer, and an FHA MAP and LEAN lender. Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Beech Street has offices in California, New York, Massachusetts, Illinois, Texas, Georgia, Alabama and Washington. Web site: www.beechstcap.com
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www.ApartmentsAlabama.com

Published: Friday, February 17, 2012, 2:19 PM
By Roy L. Williams -- The Birmingham News The Birmingham News
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- The BJCC entertainment district is drawing interest from potential tenants.
A leasing agent for Bayer Properties, the firm hired to recruit tenants to the entertainment district under construction adjacent to the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex, told BJCC board members during a meeting today that the company has received strong interest from retailers, restaurant and night club operators interested in opening venues in the project.
Sam Heide, Bayer's director of leasing, said the company has seven leasing agents who have been promoting the $20 million 60,000-square-foot entertainment district to potential tenants across the country. They have marketed the district in Dallas and New Orleans, and have a sales trip planned to Nashville next week.
Bayer, best known for developing The Summit retail center on U.S. 280, has also been marketing the project at shopping center trade shows and online through a flashy video they hired Birmingham-based Big Communications to produce for potential tenants.
"We're making a lot of progress," Heide said. "We have talked to several interested prospects with a goal of getting site visits. We hosted a group over the past few days. Several have expressed interest and we're negotiating letters of intent right now."
The entertainment district is being built adjacent to a $50 million Westin Hotel under construction on Richard Arrington Jr. Boulevard across from the BJCC. The 300-room hotel is projected to open in January 2013, with the district making its debut a few months later.
BJCC Executive Director Tad Snider has said the BJCC wants to attract tenants unique to Birmingham that can be a drawing card for downtown.
www.ApartmentsAlabama.com

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Commercial Property Directory, Published for 30+ YearsPublished: Thursday, February 16, 2012, 5:30 AM Updated: Thursday, February 16, 2012, 7:02 AM
By Michael Tomberlin -- The Birmingham News The Birmingham News
Birmingham's Litho Publishing Co. will no longer publish the statewide Commercial Property Directory, ending the run for a publication that has been an industry mainstay for more than 30 years.
Jim Andrews, president of Litho, said the publication has suffered from a "double whammy" of an economic slowdown that has been particularly hard on the real estate and publishing industries.
"It got to where half our energy, effort, time and attention was going into publishing it, and we were 35 percent off our sustained peak advertising revenues," Andrews said. "It made more sense to stop publishing now rather than to keep riding it down."
Andrews said the current fall 2011-winter 2012 edition of the publication, which normally publishes twice a year, will be its last.
To continue publishing would have required a major expenditure to upgrade some of the directory's technology without any significant projected return on the investment. Meanwhile, competition from other web-based directory services has had an effect, as has the lack of new development during and following the recession.
Andrews said he has considered selling the publication if another publisher had resources to devote to it. He is also considering breaking up and selling its separate components -- the published directory, websites, and the property, owners, agents and distribution databases.
Litho will now turn its focus and resources on its other, more profitable publications.
Litho prints apartment guides for Tuscaloosa; Auburn-Opelika; Troy, Anniston-Gadsden-Jacksonville; Merdian, Miss.; and West Georgia. It also publishes the Tuscaloosa Bridal Directory twice a year.
Andrews said while ad revenues are down for the Commercial Property Directory, the apartment guide revenues this year are expected to be up 9 percent while the bridal directory is expected to be up as much as 5 percent. Andrews said the company is also expanding its Internet, social media and mobile application tools for those and other products.
Andrews began working with the Commercial Property Directory in 1987 when he went to work for Quest Publications, which was publishing the directory at the time. He became the publication's editor and took it from being a Birmingham-only directory to one that has marketed properties in 22 states and uses more than just print. Andrews formed Litho in 1999 and eventually took over publishing the directory.
"It was clearly a labor of love," he said of the directory. "It's bittersweet to be bringing the publication to an end."
The directory offers detailed listings on office, industrial, retail and vacant land for sale or lease throughout Alabama. Commercial real estate companies have used it to list their properties as well as advertise their companies or new projects. The final issue is more than 200 pages with thousands of listings.
"What was great about the Commercial Property Directory was the advertising vehicle on the print side," said John Hardin, a broker with J.H. Berry & Gilbert Inc., a prominent advertiser in the directory. "There have since been some very good online products that have come on the market with a national reach and bigger budgets, so I can see where the competition would be greater."
Hardin noted that online property directories by Xceligent and CoStar have been very active in adding Birmingham customers.
Andrews said he is exploring other ways of leveraging his 25 years of experience working with the commercial real estate industry and hopes to have news on that front in the weeks ahead.
Ending the publication now will give the company a big boost to its bottom line this year and allow Litho to pursue other growth opportunities.
"We are very excited about the future as we turn this page and embark on new projects, opportunities and ideas," Andrews said.
Join the conversation by clicking to comment or email Tomberlin at mtomberlin@bhamnews.com.
© 2012 al.com. All rights reserved.
www.CommercialPropertyDirectory.com

By Ross Larsen and David M. Levitt - Feb 13, 2012 The company that controls the Empire State Building plans to raise as much as $1 billion in an initial public offering, giving investors the opportunity to own a piece of the landmark 102-story Manhattan (COLA) skyscraper.
Empire State Realty Trust Inc. plans to become a real estate investment trust and list shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “ESB,” the company said in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing today. A group of closely held companies will be consolidated to form the REIT as part of the IPO, according to a separate filing.
The offering would give investors ownership of one of the world’s most famous buildings and other Midtown properties as New York’s real estate values rebound after the recession. Midtown Manhattan office values have gained 87 percent since a mid-2009 trough, according to Green Street Advisors Inc., a REIT research firm in Newport Beach, California.
“Because it’s got an iconic building as a centerpiece, I expect it will be successful anyway, but you’re going to have more or less a higher percentage” of individual investors, said Lawrence Longua, director of the REIT Center at New York University’s Schack Institute of Real Estate. For institutional investors, the owners “are very recognized names in the industry, so I suspect all in all, it’ll do well,” he said.
Malkin Holdings
Malkin Holdings LLC, supervisor of the company that holds the title to the tower, said in November that it had “embarked on a course of action” that might result in it becoming part of a new REIT. Malkin Holdings supervises property partnerships led by Peter Malkin and his son Anthony Malkin. It owns the 2.9 million-square-foot (269,000-square-meter) Empire State Building in conjunction with the estate of Leona Helmsley.
The REIT would consolidate Manhattan and New York area properties owned by companies including Empire State Building Associates LLC (ZZDIR), 60 East 42nd St. Associates LLC and 250 West 57th St. Associates LLC. Participants can opt to receive cash instead of shares for as much as 15 percent of the value.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) will advise on the IPO. No price or number of shares was given in the filing.
The companies that would make up Empire State Realty owned 12 buildings totaling about 7.7 million square feet of rentable offices as of Sept. 30, according to the filing. Seven properties, including the Empire State Building, are in Midtown, totaling 5.8 million square feet. The other five are in New York’s Westchester and Connecticut’s Fairfield counties.
Chain of Ownership
The REIT would also hold rights to develop land near the Metro North railroad station in Stamford, Connecticut, plus four standalone retail properties in Manhattan and two in Westport, Connecticut.
For years, the Empire State Building underperformed because of friction and litigation between parties in a complex chain of ownership. The landlord, Donald Trump’s organization for a time, leased the entire building to a venture controlled by Peter Malkin and Lawrence Wien, which then subleased it to a Helmsley partnership.
The Malkins bought out the Trump Organization in 2002 and settled litigation with Leona Helmsley in 2006, giving them management rights to the tower. They began renovations, making larger office suites to attract higher-paying tenants, at a cost that may exceed $500 million by the end of 2013, according to the filing.
Energy Makeover
The improvements included retrofitting the tower to reduce its energy consumption and carbon emissions, in part by replacing all 6,500 windows. The $20 million makeover, on which former President Bill Clinton’s foundation was a partner, won the building the second-highest rating in September from the U.S. Green Building Council.
In 2010 and 2011, Li & Fung Ltd., a Hong Kong-based consumer products marketing company, signed leases for 588,944 square feet in the tower.
The Empire State Building -- the tallest in the world from its completion in 1931 until the World Trade Center’s north tower was finished in 1972 -- accounted for 41 percent of Empire Realty’s revenue in the nine months through September, the company said in the filing. The tower’s observatory, one of New York’s most popular tourist attractions, provided 17 percent of the company’s revenue during that period.
Some proceeds from the public offering will be used as payment to investors who choose to receive cash for their equity in existing Malkin entities, according to the filing. Other proceeds will be used to pay fees in connection with debt, and possibly for future acquisitions.
Competition for Assets
Funds the Malkins raise in the public markets should strengthen their hand in the competition to acquire assets, according to Stuart Saft, chairman of the global real estate practice at law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP in New York.
The offering is “well-timed because the market is looking for investment vehicles,” Saft said in a telephone interview. “It frees up equity in their properties, enables them to invest in other ways, and it gives them interest in the IPO that they can use to trade for additional properties.”
The money also will help defray the renovation costs, he said. The company needs $55 million to $65 million more to complete the work, according to the filing.
“From the Malkins’ point of view, the only risk is all the public exposure they’re going to have to give when they file their quarterly reports,” Saft said. “The problem with going public is the fact that you’re public.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Ross Larsen in London at rlarsen2@bloomberg.net; David M. Levitt in New York at dlevitt@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Daniel Taub at dtaub@bloomberg.net
www.CommercialPropertyDirectory.com

BOSTON—This city is finally preparing to heal a hole in its heart: the site of the former Filene's department store that for more than three years has been a stalled real-estate development in the center of downtown.
A New York developer, Millennium Partners, has agreed to buy a controlling stake in the long-delayed project with new plans for developing a mixed-use tower, the city announced earlier this month. If finalized, the deal would bring to an end a high-profile war waged by Boston Mayor Thomas Menino against Vornado Realty Trust, which has controlled the site for years.
A five-term mayor, Mr. Menino tried for two years to publicly bully Vornado into restarting its planned project, a 39-story hotel-office-apartment tower that was halted in the middle of excavation as the economy soured. He called the developer arrogant, threatened to use eminent domain and revoked its permits to build.
"It's my fiduciary responsibility to make sure a property like that gets redeveloped as quickly as possible," Mr. Menino said in an interview at City Hall. "You're not going to hold up the city of Boston."
CloseMr. Menino said he met recently with officials of Vornado, one of the country's largest owners of office and retail property, and they agreed the company and city would start a new chapter. Vornado had previously said the drop in property values and the economy meant it couldn't restart the project.
Under the Millennium agreement, Vornado would keep a noncontrolling stake in the project, according to the mayor's office.
Millennium declined to go into detail about its plans, saying in an emailed statement that it "will design and construct a building worthy of the site's significance and prominence."
Mr. Menino's aggressive approach comes at a time when similar stalled sites dot cities across the U.S., a vestige of the real-estate boom turned bust.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has pledged tax abatements to developers in an attempt to complete the Revel casino in Atlantic City and a stalled $1.8 billion retail and entertainment center previously named Xanadu in the Meadowlands outside Manhattan.
In New York, an array of government agencies in 2010 pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to aid completion of one to two privately owned office towers at the World Trade Center site, depending on how much space is leased.
Other cities, meanwhile, have taken a more laissez-faire approach such as Chicago, where prominent development sites have remained boarded up, including a giant circular foundation along Lake Shore Drive that was to house what would have been the tallest tower in the U.S. at 2,000 feet.
In Boston, frustrations over the halted Vornado project resonated throughout the city. Ire over the pit has been the subject of numerous editorials in both of Boston's daily papers. The stalled site was the main focus of an environmental design class at Northeastern University last fall, and earlier this year, the City Council president, Stephen Murphy, sought to block an unrelated casino project in which Vornado was an investor until the company made progress downtown.
Such frustrations speak to the nostalgia some Bostonians have for their compact downtown and its rich history. The pit was the site of part of the flagship Filene's Department Store and Filene's Basement, a discount-shopping institution in the center of a once-vibrant shopping district called Downtown Crossing. Both Filene's and Filene's Basement have gone out of business.
The exterior of the oldest portion of Filene's still stands, protected by a historic-preservation designation but awaiting a new use. A Macy's operates across the street in what for decades was Jordan Marsh, Filene's arch rival, while numerous smaller stores draw shoppers past the hole in the ground.
The area declined through the past half-century, and in recent years, the Menino administration made its revitalization a priority. The planned office, condo and retail project was to be the centerpiece. Instead, after Vornado stopped construction in 2008, the pit left more blight.
"It was a key part of the rejuvenation of the area," said Jerold Kayden, an urban planning professor at Harvard University. "To have a hole there is devastating."
To be sure, the start of new construction is by no means a fait accompli. Millennium hasn't yet completed its deal, which involves acquiring the stakes of Vornado's current partners—a fund managed by J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Mack-Cali Realty Corp. and Boston Global Investors—and putting in an unspecified amount of new money, according to the Boston Redevelopment Authority.
It's a tough time to get construction financing for any project, one of the reasons it has taken so long for Vornado to bring in a new partner.
The redevelopment authority said it believes Millennium will be able to start work within a year, and that it enjoys a good relationship with the company, a major developer in New York and Boston that recently started work on an apartment building nearby.
While the deal is still a work in progress, it appears the mayor's public pressure has sped up the process of luring a new partner.
"It had an impact," said John Hynes III, chief executive of Boston Global investors, a minority investor in the project that is getting bought out. The city, he said, "wanted to create a sense of urgency and impatience to get this fixed, and that message was loud and clear."
Write to Eliot Brown at eliot.brown@wsj.com
www.CommercialPropertyDirectory.com

Published: Monday, February 13, 2012, 6:30 AM
By William Thornton -- The Birmingham News The Birmingham News
COMPARING OLD TO NEW
Cost: Old plan, $200 million. New plan, $130-$140 million.
Retail: Old plan, 206,300 square feet. New plan, 166,000 square feet.
Office and commercial: Old plan, 39,626 square feet. New plan, 25,000 square feet.
Inn: Old plan, 99,105 square feet (85 rooms). New plan, 99,000 square feet (100 rooms).
Parking: Old plan, 1,118 spaces. New plan, 1,200 spaces.
Source: Evson Inc.
Evson Inc. is ready to roll out a third version of its Lane Parke at Mountain Brook Village development -- with smaller retail and office space, a lower cost and a residential component.
Evson Inc., owner of the current Mountain Brook Shopping Center, delivered the plan to the city Friday afternoon for the development's 27 acres. John Evans, principal of Evson, said he hopes the $130 million to $140 million incarnation of the four-year-old project will be accepted by the city and that construction can start this fall.
"We still believe this is a legacy project, and we're very satisfied with this design," Evans said. "We believe the community will embrace it in a much more favorable fashion than the past."
Evson first proposed Lane Parke in 2009 as a replacement for the 63,000-square- foot shopping center, which opened in 1955, and the 276-unit Park Lane Apartments, which date from 1948. It went through two other designs before city officials approved Lane Parke for planned unit development zoning in 2010.
Last year, Evson announced it would scale back the project due to the economy. Because of this, Evson will have to seek city approval again for any new version.
Evson brought in Daniel Corp., based in Birmingham, as the project's developer. Daniel has shepherded much larger projects in the area, such as Greystone, Ross Bridge and Grand River.
Jeffrey Brewer is once again the lead architect on the project with Goodwyn, Mills and Cawood. He said the plan for the retail and commercial office space portions of Lane Parke is 22 percent smaller than the design that won city approval.
"With that reduction, obviously the scale, density and parking plans are all reduced," Brewer said. "We think this will be a very comfortable plan."
The new plan, like the previous one, calls for a buffer block of one-story retail buildings facing Culver Road and a new street to be built -- Jemison Lane. Another street, which designers are calling Main Street, will run lengthwise through the project.
A second block of two-story buildings, with office space over retailers, will include a two-story parking garage which will be inside the development and away from public streets, Brewer said. There will also be street level parking in front of shops, along with three green spaces throughout the development. Facing Lane Park Road will be a 100-room inn across from the Birmingham Botanical Gardens.
"Our objective is to continue to provide the same number of units but with a design that is up to today's standards," Evans said.
Brewer said the buildings will be designed to look like a natural extension of the existing village, with some simulated English Tudor along with other styles which had been included in the previous development design. The aim is for a "pedestrian-friendly" shopping experience, he said.
"Having a first class, upscale, multi-faceted development that remains an integral part of the village is the most important part of the plan," said Doug Neil, vice president of development and marketing with Daniel Corp.
Construction is once again slated to be over several phases. The two-story retail portion will begin construction behind the existing shopping center. Once this phase is completed, the shopping center's tenants will move into the new building. The old shopping center will then be demolished to complete the one-story retail section.
The first version of Lane Parke was pulled in late 2009 while city officials were considering a rezoning request on it. Residents and some retailers said the proposed 27-acre development was too big in scope and would threaten the existing shops of the village.
In 2010 a smaller development plan covering 14 acres, with 206,000 square feet of retail space, 20 townhomes and enclosed parking decks won approval from the City Council by a 4-1 vote. The approval process was sometimes contentious, with hundreds turning out for public hearings and signing petitions. The rezoning became an issue in three City Council races.
Join the conversation by clicking to comment or email Thornton at wthornton@bhamnews.com.
© 2012 al.com. All rights reserved.
www.CommercialPropertyDirectory.com

By Patrick Rupinski, Staff Writer, Tuscaloosa News
Published: Sunday, February 12, 2012 at 3:30 a.m.
When the chairman of Mercedes-Benz’s parent company, Daimler AG, held his annual press briefing in Germany on Thursday, he specifically mentioned Tuscaloosa as a city that is key to the automaker’s future.
The comment came from Daimler Chairman Dieter Zetsche as he outlined the company’s auto sales targets, which included being the world leader in premium car sales by no later than 2020.
“All of this requires increased production closer to our customers in growth markets,” Zetsche said. “We are, for example, expanding our manufacturing facility in Tuscaloosa to accommodate C-Class production.
“We will team up with our partner Renault-Nissan to produce Mercedes-Benz four-cylinder gasoline engines in Decherd, Tenn. Production will commence in 2014.”
That’s the year when Mercedes will start its popular C-Class sedan production at Vance in Tuscaloosa County.
The C-Class will be the fourth model to roll off the Vance assembly lines. Last year, Mercedes announced it would add a fifth, still unnamed model to its Vance production in 2015, but Zetsche gave no hint as to what type of vehicle that would be.
Since last year, things have been busy at the Vance assembly plant.
The plant, Mercedes-Benz U.S. International, produced a record number of vehicles in 2011, and Markus Schaefer, MBUSI’s president, said Friday that it expects to set another record this year.
MBUSI is expanding the plant to prepare for launch of the C-Class in two years, and Schaefer said that at mid-year, it will start a third shift.
“We will be a 24-hour operation,” he said, noting the around-the-clock operations will be in place six days a week, with production also scheduled for most Saturdays.
The third shift will coincide with MBUSI taking one of its assembly lines off line so work can begin on retooling and preparing it for C-Class production.
MBUSI also is gearing up to produce its next generation of what is being described as a “much greener” GL-Class, one of the sport utility vehicles made exclusively at Vance. The new GL-Class will be available in September.
Some workers will be moved around to accommodate the around-the-clock production at Vance, Schaefer said.
Schaefer said the plant is hiring, particularly more white-collar professionals. He said he recently spoke to University of Alabama students about future careers in West Alabama’s automotive industry.
White-collar workers are needed in areas like accounting, finance, law, engineering, human resources, quality control and supply management, he said.
MBUSI now has about 2,800 employees. It uses Monster.com and other sources to find its professional workers and has been working with state agencies to find qualified applicants and trainees for its future blue-collar positions.
As for the future C-Class production, Schaefer said prototypes of the next generation of the popular sedan, which will be launched in 2014, have already been developed and tested in Germany.
No timeframe has been set for when they will be unveiled publicly.
Vance will make all the C-Class vehicles that will be sold in the North American market in 2014 and will be one of four Mercedes plants worldwide that will make its top-selling vehicle. The other plants will be in Germany, South Africa and China. Currently, the C-Class is imported to the U.S.
The shift of C-Class production and plans to make a fifth new vehicle in Vance beginning in 2015 are part of major push by Mercedes to increase its sales and add new models.
Zetsche in his Thursday presentation, which has been posted online, indicated Mercedes planned to add 10 new models to its worldwide product line-up by 2015.
One of those new vehicles will be a sport utility vehicle, a segment that Mercedes has concentrated at Vance, which makes all of the company’s M-Class SUVs, R-Class crossover vehicles and GL-Class SUVs.
But the presentation also noted that two new mid-size cars will be among the 10 new models. Mercedes’s mid-sized line currently includes four models, three of which are variations of the C-Class.
Last year, Mercedes’ worldwide sales of all its models made at plants around the globe totaled 1.38 million vehicles.
Zetsche in his presentation said that by 2014, Mercedes plans to sell at least 1.5 million passenger cars, and, by 2016, at least 1.6 million vehicles.
Copyright © 2012 TuscaloosaNews.com — All rights reserved. Restricted use only.
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Published: Monday, February 13, 2012, 2:41 PM Updated: Monday, February 13, 2012, 2:52 PM
By The Birmingham News The Birmingham News
Speculation is rife that Airbus could soon announce a decision to assemble the A320 passenger jet in Alabama.
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- Speculation is building in aviation industry circles thatAirbus soon will begin making an airliner in the United States -- with Alabama the favored site for the factory.
The Seattle Times reports that the talk at a major supplier conference days ago was that Airbus could announce as early as this summer that it intends to build A320 commercial jets in the U.S.
The European areospace company already operates an engineering center in Mobile and said previously that it was considering assembling cargo jets in the Alabama city. Of course, EADS, the Airbus parent, had planned to assemble refueling tankers for the U.S. Air Force in Mobile had the contract not gone to Boeing.
One reason for the move to assemble passenger plans in the U.S.? The company won't seem like a foreign enterprise the next time a big U.S. defense contract comes up for bid, according to the Times.
© 2012 al.com. All rights reserved.
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Bloomberg News
6:29 a.m. Monday, February 6, 2012
Bank of America Plaza, the tallest building in metro Atlanta, is going on the auction block Tuesday.
The 55-story, 1,023-foot building will be sold on the steps of the Fulton County Courthouse after landlord BentleyForbes missed mortgage payments.
The California-based commercial real estate investment firm bought the tower at the height of the real estate boom for an Atlanta-record $436 million. It has been working to avoid default.
The main $363 million loan on the tower went to a special servicer LNR Partners in February, while a second loan had been in default for nonpayment.
The foreclosure of Bank of America Plaza comes as delinquency rates for commercial mortgage backed securities, or CMBS, a type of loan for commercial properties, reached an all-time high in metro Atlanta in December, according to Trepp, a real estate research firm.
With a $12.8 billion CMBS balance outstanding, $2.73 billion, or 21.3 percent was 30-plus days delinquent or worse -- compared with 13.2 percent in December 2010, Trepp said.
If a buyer could snap up the tower at a major discount, they could offer space at below market rent -- a major competitive advantage, said Ronald Glass, a principal at GlassRatner Advisory & Capital Group.
"There is a lot of capital on the sidelines ... looking for opportunities," Glass said.
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By Elliott Brown, Wall Street Journal
Office-building construction is in the midst of a severe drought. This means higher rents may be on the horizon in some cities, if history is any guide.
In the U.S. last year, developers broke ground on office buildings with a total of just 56 million square feet of space, the lowest level tracked by McGraw-Hill Construction since at least 1960.
Even during the early 1990s, in the aftermath of a surge of construction a decade earlier that left cities around the country dotted with empty office buildings, the U.S. never dropped below 80 million square feet of new office-building construction a year, according to McGraw-Hill. And analysts don't expect construction to pick up anytime soon.
ClosePart of the reason for the low level of construction is that vacancy rates stood at 17.2% at the end of 2011, up from 12.3% in 2007, according to real-estate-research firm Reis Inc. And while the economy added 243,000 jobs in January, given the overall sluggish pace of the recovery, it could still take a few years to fill the empty office space. In addition, companies have been packing employees closer together in offices, reducing their needs for space, and putting off large decisions like signing long-term leases in new office buildings.
The arid landscape comes as banks have become skittish about lending, especially for high-risk ventures such as the financing of office buildings.
But if the economic recovery picks up speed, the construction lull could lead to higher rents and property values, particularly in some big cities such as New York and San Francisco, where demand for space can shoot up and companies can quickly gobble up the empty space on the market.
Yet office markets vary, and some hard-hit cities such as Las Vegas and Atlanta may take years to fill the vacant office space, making rents there unlikely to rise significantly.
The past few cycles show rents in some areas are prone to big jumps a few years after low levels of construction, as vacancy rates fall quickly. Following a big drop-off in construction in the early 1990s, rents rose more than 12% a year for four straight years in the top 50 metropolitan areas, according to Reis. For example, after a multiyear slowdown in development that followed the 2001 recession, rents in Manhattan jumped more than 30% between mid-2006 and mid-2007, according to brokerage Cassidy Turley.
Such is the paradox of the office-space market: Developers and lenders don't like to build until demand is strong. Rents must be high, vacancies low. But once those fundamentals fall into place, it takes years for buildings to be constructed. In the meantime, job growth leads to higher demand for space, which pushes rents higher.
"Aligning office construction with future demand can be really inefficient," says Tad Philipp, director of commercial-real-estate research at Moody's Investor Service.
Broadly for the economy, the current lackluster construction activity poses challenges. Fewer office buildings mean fewer jobs for construction workers, from plumbers to ironworkers, contributing to the construction sector's 17.7% unemployment rate.
With relatively few new developments, the existing stock of office buildings is aging. Some urban planners worry that U.S. cities could fall behind other global centers where there has been more construction of modern offices—complete with taller ceilings and other efficiencies—desired by many top-paying tenants.
However, office-building construction isn't likely to bounce back until there is some combination of higher rents and property values, and less restrictive financing. Prices in most markets are still well below their 2007 peak, making the cost of new buildings too expensive to justify in the face of cheap existing buildings.
There are a few markets where property values have come back quickly. Both New York and the San Francisco area, where a technology boom has pushed rents up rapidly, are seeing a few speculative office buildings break ground.
But generally, banks remain conservative in their lending. Unlike past peaks, when they funded construction projects with few or no tenants, banks now generally require developers to have prelease agreements for as much as 50% of a building before getting started. In addition, banks typically require that developers cover around half of a project's cost themselves.
In Portland, Ore., for instance, office builder TMT Development Co. started the foundation for a 26-story downtown office tower in 2008 and then searched for a lender to finish the project. The company shelved the project in November, unable to find a lender.
Traditional lenders "were out of the market," said TMT President Vanessa Sturgeon.
"The pendulum swung from one end of the spectrum to the other," she said.
Now Ms. Sturgeon wants to restart in late 2013. By that time, perhaps rents will be rising fast, giving lenders the comfort they need to come back to the table.
Write to Eliot Brown at eliot.brown@wsj.com
Copyright 2012 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved
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Published: Friday, February 03, 2012, 6:04 AM
By Mobile Press-Register Editorial Board Press-Register
EAGER TO revive its central business district, Mobile is leading a statewide effort to give cities the tools they need to attract new investment.
Expect several bills to be filed in the upcoming legislative session that would use tax incentives to encourage investors, property owners, artists and others to consider downtown districts in Alabama when they’re planning projects.
The bills deserve legislators’ swift approval.
Because the tax incentives apply to new development, they would not detract from current revenues. This is an important point, especially at a time when cities are starving financially.
In fact, these incentives could turn dilapidated properties into revenue-generating ones — helping cities add to their coffers. Many other states have enacted similar measures, with good results.
One proposal for the upcoming session would give businesses and investors an income tax credit for investing in projects in low-income communities in central business districts. Another bill would give property owners a state income tax credit, similar to a federal one, for rehabilitating historic structures downtown or in historic districts. (These two would apply to Birmingham, Mobile, Montgomery and Huntsville.)
A third bill would encourage artists to live and work in cultural districts by exempting their works of art from sales taxes. Birmingham leaders, meanwhile, are backing a bill to encourage “angel” investors to provide capital for downtown startups.
Similar bills have been proposed in previous years, according to proponents, but Alabama’s special interests shot them down, contending that they would steal revenue from schools and state agencies.
But that’s just dead wrong. On the contrary, tax incentives for new investment can increase the size of the entire pie.
Moreover, developed properties would increase in value, resulting in more property tax revenues. The very process of building or revamping them would create jobs for construction workers and other employees later, sending positive economic ripples throughout the community.
Imagine, in a few years, a vibrant downtown district, known regionwide, that draws locals and tourists to visit shops, eateries and other attractions.
The proposed tax incentives provide a way — driven by the private sector — for cities to get there. What a boon that would be for Mobile.
© 2012 al.com. All rights reserved.
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Published: Friday, February 03, 2012, 4:50 PM Updated: Friday, February 03, 2012, 5:07 PM
By Marian Accardi, The Huntsville Times The Huntsville Times
HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- Construction is about to start on an addition to the Huntsville-area apartment market - Providence Place Apartments in west Huntsville's Village of Providence.
The Sterling Group, based in Mishawaka, Ind., is co-developing the apartments with Todd Slyman and David Slyman Jr., the founders of Providence.
Lance Swank, the chief operating officer of The Sterling Group, said site work at the northeast corner of Providence Main Street and Biltmore Drive will start next week. The first phase of Providence Place has 226 units, with completion expected by April 2013.
"The first buildings will be available for occupancy in September," Swank said.
The project could potentially have another 90 units, depending on the success of the first phase, he said.
Why build in this area, and why now?
"We do an extensive amount of research in markets we're interested in," said Swank, and Huntsville has "all the characteristics that draw us to a community," including a diverse economy, a large white-collar workforce and sustained income and population growth.
"There are extremely high occupancy rates in the existing multifamily properties in the submarket" where the Village of Providence is, he said. "It's a supply-constrained market right now."
The property also will have a competitive advantage being in the Providence community, he said.
There are a number of other apartment projects under construction or planned this year.
In downtown Huntsville, Charlie Sealy III and his wife, Sasha, are converting the vacant Belk Hudson building on Washington Street into 75 loft apartments.
"We're under construction right now," said Sealy, who expects Belk Hudson Lofts to be open in the fall, sometime around September or October.
Sealy is the vice president of Tuscaloosa-based Sealy Management, which already owns and manages 2,329 apartment units in Huntsville.
Among other multifamily properties:
• Work is expected to start in early March on Franklin Hills, a 56-unit low-income housing tax credit property for ages 55 and older at 5300 Millennium Drive in northwest Huntsville. Mike Brandt, vice president of construction for the developer, Atlanta-based TBG Residential, said the project should take about 12 months.
• Construction should start in the late summer for roughly 240 luxury, urban-style lofts as part of a planned redevelopment of the former Councill Courts public housing site near Huntsville Hospital, a joint project between Bristol Development Group and PGM Properties.
"It's going to be a game changer for Huntsville," said Sam Yeager, one of the founding partners of Bristol Development Group.
• Depending on the weather, plans are to break ground in March for Limestone Creek, a 528-unit apartment complex in west Huntsville, east of Mooresville Road and north of the I-565 service road.
"We'll probably start with a little over 100 units for the first phase," said Jim Hall, who handles site planning for the developer Edward Rose Properties. "It will probably take us three to four years to build" the entire complex.
© 2012 al.com. All rights reserved.
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BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- A long-planned mixed-use project in Lakeview is now under way, with plans to open its doors this summer.
29 Seven, the $15 million apartment and retail development at 29th Street and Seventh Avenue South, is moving forward after years of delays.
On Friday, a "Going Vertical" event was held, as officials with the city of Birmingham and developer Retail Specialists Inc. surveyed the building's steel frame and ongoing construction.
Plans call for a four-story building with 54 apartments and 19,450 square feet of retail space. It is expected to be complete by Aug. 1.
Huey's 24/7 Diner is the only announced tenant for the retail space, and there are four letters of intent from other potential tenants -- all restaurants, said Dick Schmalz, chief development officer with Retail Specialists Inc.
"(Lakeview is) already established as an entertainment district," he said. "Obviously, this project is going to add even more to that."
Schmalz joked that his company opted to skip a traditional groundbreaking, because the project has had several stops and starts. They figured guests would want proof that it was going to happen.
29 Seven has been in the works for more than six years, but it stalled amid the sour economy. Originally, it was to include 80 for-sale condos, structured parking and, at one time, a possible grocery store, but plans changed along with market conditions.
Schmalz credited city officials and Operation New Birmingham for assistance in getting the project back on track.
An incentives package approved for the project allows up to $1.5 million in sales tax rebates over 10 years.
Birmingham City Councilman Johnathan Austin said he is excited to see the project take shape, and anyone who wants to do similar projects in the city will get support.
Birmingham Mayor William Bell said 29 Seven helps the city create jobs, in addition to bringing more residents to the city center and enhancing a key entertainment district.
Lakeview, the mayor said, "will take on a new character with this project under way."
Join the conversation by clicking to comment or email Kent at dkwi@bhamnews.com.
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By Jill Nolin, Montgomery Advertiser, jnolin@gannett.com
The former Madison Hotel in downtown Montgomery, which has struggled to reinvent itself over the years, will undergo a $5 million overhaul and reopen later this year as Doubletree Hotel, a 130-room facility.
John Tampa, who bought the beleaguered hotel site late last year, said he plans to gut the hotel. He hopes his investment and the drastic renovation project will return the hotel to its former glory of the 1970s. It was most recently called the Clarion Hotel.
"Nothing will stay except the walls," Tampa said Thursday, adding that he hopes to open the new hotel this summer.
The hotel generated a buzz in the community when it was first built in 1973, according to local historian Mary Ann Neeley. At the time it was considered "quite a rarity" because of its decor and unusual mascots -- it kept live birds in cages in the lobby -- and its restaurant offered Montgomerians a chance to taste fine Italian food, according to Neeley.
"It was the first of the nicer hotels in downtown," Neeley said.
The possibility of the hotel seeing a rebirth has been intimated before, but those past failures have not dulled the enthusiasm among city officials. Mayor Todd Strange held a news conference on Thursday to announce Tampa's decision to renovate and reopen the hotel. Construction has already started.
Strange believes the suites that the hotel will offer will create ample space for the families that come to Montgomery for athletic events at Cramton Bowl and the sports complex that is still under construction. He also said the hotel project will allow the city to better market the convention center.
This Doubletree Hotel will serve as an overflow hotel for the Renaissance Montgomery Hotel & Spa at the Convention Center, but that does not mean it is skimping on features. The hotel will have a fitness center, a full-service restaurant and bar, and 10,000 square feet of meeting-room space that would accommodate as many as 500 people.
Tampa already runs three other hotels in the Montgomery area: Two Hampton Inn and Suites hotels -- one in downtown and one in Hope Hull -- and a Fairfield Inn and Suites in Hope Hull that will open in April.
Tampa attributed the site's past struggles with timing -- the momentum of downtown redevelopment just was not there -- and the way the hotel was operated. He also believes the Doubletree brand will lend itself well to the hotel.
"We believe the opportunities in downtown (Montgomery) are better than any other market," Tampa said. "We believe the growth is here."
It is unclear how much demand there is for more hotel rooms in the immediate future, but Dawn Hathcock with the Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce anticipates a growing demand in the next few years.
The occupancy rate of hotels in 2011 was 52 percent, which was up only about 1.5 percent from 2010. The hotels that are the downtown grouping -- that includes the Embassy Suites Hotel, Renaissance and Hampton Inn in downtown and the Homewood Suites and Hilton Garden Inn off Exit 4 -- had an occupancy of 64 percent last year.
Montgomery currently has more than 7,000 rooms throughout the city. So far this fiscal year, the lodging tax proceeds are up 5.2 percent after a particularly strong month in December, according to city records.
"There's a lot of things on the books, but it always comes down to what translates into real numbers so you never know, but I'm optimistic about it," Hathcock said Thursday. "The hard thing, too, is that what we're selling today doesn't happen for two years."
Hathcock likes the location of the new Doubletree Hotel because it is in the middle of the new sports complex on Madison Avenue, government buildings and the convention center.
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Proposed Riverwalk site would combine residential and commercial units
By Patrick Rupinski
Staff Writer
Published: Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 3:30 a.m.
TUSCALOOSA | An Atlanta developer will present a new plan to the City Council on Tuesday for a mixed-use development on one of the prime locations for private development along the city’s Riverwalk.
Carter, the development company, has revised a plan it first presented in December to the city’s planning commission.
The original proposal for the development, called 115 Greensboro, had 270 apartment units for student housing. Student housing complexes typically are rented by the bed and that proposal showed 854 beds.
It also showed 7,500 square feet of retail space.
That plan ran into criticism from some city officials and planners, who said it had too little retail and commercial space and too high of a concentration for student housing for the size of the site — the former Tuscaloosa Chevrolet property at the intersection of Greensboro Avenue and Jack Warner Parkway. It also failed to win the planning commission’s endorsement, which deadlocked in 4-4 vote.
Since then Carter has revised the plan several times, and Carter President Scott Taylor said Friday that revisions are still being made to address concerns expressed by city officials.
Taylor said the final plan won’t be available until it is presented to the City Council on Tuesday and that he expects the plan will see changes up to the last minute.
Information circulated last week by Richard Chaffin, who co-owns the development site, showed a revised plan dated Jan. 20. That plan showed the number of apartment units reduced to 225 with 694 beds and retail space increased to 30,438 square feet.
That plan shows retail space along the ground floor of the development that fronts Jack Warner Parkway and an extension of Greensboro Avenue along the western edge of the site.
Drawings show the complex being three to four stories, compared to the four to five stories originally proposed. The complex still surrounds an interior parking deck, but the deck no longer would be higher than the surrounding apartments.
Mayor Walt Maddox criticized Carter’s original plan in December, saying it was not the best use for one of the Riverwalk’s key parcels.
On Thursday, he said he was not satisfied with the latest proposal.
He said the new proposal had more commercial space but only a small reduction in the student rental housing.
The Riverwalk’s master plan calls for mixed-use developments that have commercial, office and residential space, he said.
“This is one of the last major pieces of the Riverwalk available for development so it must be done right,” he said.
Student housing has a role in the Riverwalk’s mixed-use plan but it should not dominate it, Maddox said.
The mayor said he also was concerned about the development being sold after it is built. If that happens, commitments made by the developer to win City Council approval might not be fulfilled, he said.
Taylor said Carter enters into developments as long-term investment opportunities, but market conditions can affect decisions to sell a property.
He said the development’s apartments would be designed to appeal to young professionals, those who work in the area and students.
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SPANISH FORT, Alabama  -- A California investor paid $1.56 million for a newly built, 6,200-square-foot Advance Auto Parts store on 1 acre on Mill Lane, off Ala. 181, in Spanish Fort, according to Charlie Christmas of Christmas Properties. He is one of the developers of the store, which is across from the Eastern Shore Centre.
Eastern Shore Baseball Academy opens this week in a 7,000-square-foot building in Austin Place Commercial Park on Rand Avenue, off Baldwin County 13, in Daphne, according to owners Tim Cockrell and Jared Myrick. The indoor facility features batting, pitching and catching mounds for baseball and softball, as well as private instructors.
Local investors paid $450,000 for the 15-acre Appaloosa Commercial Park on U.S. 98 in Elberta, according to Peggy Summerville of ERA Class.Com, who represented the buyers. Skip Davis of ERA Class.Com worked for the seller. The property is 7 miles east of the Foley Beach Express.
Six months after paying $250,000 for the bank-owned, five-unit Surf Rider condominium complex on 10th Street in Gulf Shores, the local investor has sold it for $285,000 to Louisiana investors who were represented by Gloria Sims Crump of REMAX of Gulf Shores. Three of the five two-bedroom units were renovated, she said. The 1980's complex is are across the street from the beach.
Dependable Machining Services paid $444,000 for a 15,000-square-foot office warehouse at 23226 Grissom Drive in Robertsdale, according to Philip Hodgson of Coldwell Banker Commercial Reehl Properties, who represented the seller. Pete Riehm of Grubb & Ellis/Peebles & Cameron worked for the buyer.
Beauty & Beyond has leased 11,040 square feet at Westgate Shopping Center on Airport Boulevard in west Mobile, and plans to open in early spring, according to Matt Cummings of Cummings & Associates, who represented the landlord. Christmas Properties worked for the beauty supply business.
PS Services, a tire distributor, has leased an 8,360-square-foot office warehouse at 1800 E. I-65 Service Road N., according to Bob Cooper of Prudential Cooper & Co. commercial division.
Jay A. York PC has relocated to 2,325 square feet in The Executive Center at 917 Western America Circle, according to Janet Keene of Bender Real Estate Group, who worked for the landlord. Tricia Graham of Roberts Brothers West represented the law firm.
Birmingham-based law firm Heninger, Garrison, Davis has opened in 780 square feet at 169 Dauphin St., on Bienville Square, according to Lewis H. Golden of The Drummond Group.
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