Construction Maison

I didn’t cry while searching for a San Diego apartment , but I came close. Moving to the city on a Sunday night, I had a five-day reservation at a Motel 6 and needed to find an apartment fast . I also had my 6-year-old tabby cat with me and a new job as real estate reporter for the San Diego Union -Tribune to start the next day. I was fairly confident I’d find a place quickly because in the last decade I had managed to get apartments in London, Chicago, San Francisco, New York City, rural New Jersey, Northeast Pennsylvania and, most recently, Monterey. Not only did San Diego turn out to be the most difficult, it made me change nearly everything I thought I wanted. My criteria was a one- bedroom apartment near the beach that allows cats, a rent of no more than $1,200 and was fairly close to work. To say the least, I stayed at the Motel 6 longer than expected. Ignorance of what neighborhood I was in most of the time was exacerbated only by a rental market that has seen prices increase...

BRADENTON -- A Chicago company has paid $39.25 million for a set of 336 apartments that have only been off the market for four years. The Inland Real Estate Group 's purchase of the Sawgrass Cove Apartments on Jan. 28 is the fourth major multifamily transaction in the Bradenton area since mid December. Like several of those previous sales, the Sawgrass deal gave a short-term owner a quick gain on its investment. The seller in the transaction, Sawgrass Cove Apartments LLC of North Miami, bought the 24-year-old complex in 2011 for $23 million. Situated on about 28 acres at 4945 49th Avenue W., the complex is grouped in with several other apartment properties south of Cortez Road W. One neighboring property, the Palm Cove Apartments , sold for $31.6 million in early January. In that case, the buyer purchased 298 out of a total of 348 units in the complex, which was converted to condominiums several years ago. Other major recent apartment transactions include the $43 million sal...

SAN FRANCISCO — A forum Thursday on the Bay Area’s egregious housing situation — the high prices, the scarcity of new construction — brought together academics, developers, real estate agents , government officials and housing advocates, all in the name of seeking creative solutions to the crisis. It was both a cry for help and a call to action. “They have their crazies. We need our crazies,” said panelist Laura Foote Clarke , executive director of YIMBY Action, which advocates for housing growth. Yes, that’s YIMBY, as in “Yes In My Backyard,” and the “they” she referred to was the other side — the many and often well-organized “Not In My Backyard” NIMBY opponents of housing development and densification in neighborhoods around the region. For more Bay Area housing affordability , home sales and other real estate news follow us on Flipboard. Held at LinkedIn San Francisco in front of an engaged audience of about 175 people, the forum was titled “California Housing Crisis : Examinin...

Beijing:  The Kushner family came to the United States as refugees, worked hard and made it big - and if you invest in Kushner properties , so can you. That was the message delivered Saturday by White House senior adviser Jared Kushner 's sister Nicole Kushner Meyer to a ballroom full of wealthy Chinese investors in Beijing. Over several hours of slide shows and presentations, representatives from the Kushner family business urged Chinese citizens gathered at a Ritz-Carlton hotel to consider investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in a New Jersey luxury apartment complex that would help them secure what's known as an investor visa. The potential investors were advised to invest sooner rather than later in case visa rules change under the Trump administration."Invest early, and you will invest under the old rules," one speaker said. The tagline on a brochure for the event: "Invest $500,000 and immigrate to the United States." And the highlight of t...

How plunging oil prices are reversing fortunes across Texas. Read all the stories in this series. MIDLAND — Thousands have been laid off. Tax collections are plummeting. Many are on the brink of homelessness.   Rows of drilling rigs and white company trucks sit idle — there’s no telling for how long. And, yet, amid the worst oil bust in decades, the energy capital of West Texas hasn ’t slowed down much. Several oil companies have recently built  office complexes in the area, and drilling continues , albeit at a more sluggish pace. The city plans to build a new convention center, and construction of a municipal courthouse is underway. Several more hotels, apartment complexes and eateries are expected to open   this year, and a second H-E-B grocery store just came online . "For hire" signs are ample, road crews prolific . And people still complain about the traffic. “People from the outside come in expecting to see boarded-up windows, 'for sale' signs everywhere,...

By Sydney.Smith@hollandsentinel.com 616-546-4219 A Grand Rapids developer wants the city of Holland to establish an industrial district in order to receive tax abatements on a speculative development. Brian Sikma, owner and developer at East 64th, LLC, a real estate and development company, submitted his application to Holland on Aug. 3. City council during its Wednesday, Aug. 16, meeting will accept the application for study. Sikma explained that the district will allow the company to ask for an abatement for a speculative 300, 000 square foot industrial facility at 374 E. 64th St. A tax abatement reduces the amount of property taxes an owner would pay. In order to get an abatement, the companies that use the facility need to meet state and local guidelines, Sikma said. “We’re asking for a district on this site so that in the future if we have the right company lease this they could get a tax abatement,” he said. In his application, Sikma estimated a $9.1 million cost fo...

While the lawsuit case is tied up in litigation, nothing is being done with the property at the corner of Market Street and East Aquarium Way. (Image: NewsChannel 9 SkyCam) CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. —  It's been nearly five months since the building housing Cheeburger Cheeburger and other businesses collapsed in downtown Chattanooga . Bits of brick and rubble are all that remain of the restaurant. But since the building was torn down, it's turned into an eyesore in the heart of downtown Chattanooga . It first collapsed in March. Crews tore down the rest of the building in April after a judge called it a danger to the public. Fortunately, no one was hurt, but the whole ordeal was particularly hard on one business owner. Amy Petulla runs Chattanooga Ghost Tours . She had to find a new place to set up shop, and nearly lost her sign in the process. “We had to find a new spot - something we could afford - because we had a really tiny spot. There's not a lot of really small spots aroun...

Cross posted from our sister-site, Santa Monica Next . California state legislators are back in Sacramento after a month- long summer recess and they are looking to tackle the state’s growing housing crisis with a package of bills that could generate more than $3 billion for affordable housing as well as streamline new housing approval and construction. But lawmakers and political observers alike have noted that it won’t be an easy task to get the votes necessary to pass some of bigger-ticket legislation, like S.B. 2 and S.B. 3 , both of which have passed the State Senate but still need to get through the Assembly. And both require a two-thirds supermajority to pass. S.B. 2, introduced by State Senator Toni Atkins (D-San Diego), would place a $75 fee on real estate transactions and generate roughly $250 million a year annually. State Senator Jim Beall (D-San Jose) introduced S.B. 3, which would put a housing bond before the voters in 2018 that would generate $3 billion. “We ne...

MANATEE -- A proposed lakeside apartment complex bordered by newer townhomes and single family homes may soon bring more market-rate rentals to University Parkway. A property owner-controlled by Gilbane Building Co. of Rhode Island has submitted a final site plan to Manatee County that calls for 180 apartment units at 3415 Broadway Ave. The six- building complex would occupy a little more than nine acres in an area with fewer rental options than University Park to the east. Contacted about details the project, a representative of the property owner, University Groves Property LLC , declined to comment. Gilbane operates an office in Lakewood Ranch. Laurie Rastovski, a real estate agent with Michael Saunders & Co. who specializes in rentals, said new apartment units near the west end of University Parkway will be welcome. Having previously worked as a leasing agent at a large apartment complex nearby , she sees the demand. "In that area, it's going to be nice to have s...

A 14,000- foot Colorado mountain was just sold to the highest bidder. cielo vista ranch culebra peak sold 105m" width="700" height="467" /> Towering 14,047 feet above the southern Colorado landscape , Culebra Peak is the highest peak in the world—to be privately owned. At least that’s what real estate firm Mirr Ranch Group claims. The 14er is part of the $105 million sale of the 83,368- acre Cielo Vista Ranch ranch , announced today. Few details of the buyer and the future of hiking Culebra were available following the sale. Previously, the peak was open to climbers for a fee, by reservation. Sold: Culebra Peak, Cielo Vista Ranch Culebra is part of a property that includes 18 peaks over 13,000 feet along 22 miles of the Sangre de Cristo Range ridgeline . It sits in San Luis, Colo., less than 20 miles from the New Mexico border. The sale closes the listing, which went up in 2015. And, according to The Land Report editor Eric O’Keefe, it is “without quest...

Hillary Clinton slept here. The year was 2000. Clinton was in the middle of her first political campaign, running to be New York’s junior senator. Steven Spielberg, an enthusiastic donor to Mrs Clinton who had the use of a pied-à-terre in Trump Tower purchased for him by Universal Pictures, barely stayed at the place, despite its views of Central Park, and offered it to the candidate as a crash pad on gruelling campaign days . Trump Tower in New York. Photo: Bloomberg Donald Trump and Clinton were on good terms back then. He donated money to her candidacy and called her “tough and smart”. Moreover, Trump was skilled in the art of spinning his associations with celebrities into publicity. This was particularly true at Trump Tower. Michael Jackson lived in Donald J. Trump’s gleaming Midtown edifice . So have gamblers, a disgraced dictator, a Ponzi schemer and a stock huckster. Credit Photo Illustration by Peter Horvath; photographs by Chad Batka for The New York Times (Trump); Hiroko...