A rendering of Boston’s Assembly Square
Boston
After two decades of delays and false starts, a $1.5 billion revitalization of Assembly Square in Somerville will begin construction this fall, the Boston Globe reported last month. Developer Federal Realty Investment Trust will receive $104 million in federal and state funds for the project, according to the Globe. The project will transform 60 acres of industrial property into office buildings, a hotel, homes and an Ikea store. Work will also begin this fall on the construction of the long-planned Assembly Square Orange Line T-station, and AvalonBay Communities will break ground on the site’s first two residential complexes. Initially conceived in the late 1990s, the Assembly Square project drew community opposition and later lost funding in the economic downturn. “We’re undoing the mistakes of the past through this project,” said Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone.
Miami
Genting Malaysia Berhad, Asia’s third largest casino company, has agreed to pay $236 million for the Miami Herald’s headquarters and 14 acres of waterfront land surrounding it, the newspaper reported last month. Genting executives said they would spend $2 billion to $5 billion to transform the site into a mixed-use development, which they said would create thousands of jobs. The landmark deal makes Genting Malaysia a major player in the Miami market and may transform the northern edge of downtown, the Herald said. “This is probably the highest price, or close to it, per acre and per square foot for a land deal in Dade history,” said Michael Cannon, a Miami real estate analyst. “It’s a wonderful piece of property, on the bay between the MacArthur and Venetian causeways.” Genting Malaysia purchased the land from the McClatchy Company, parent company of the Herald and El Nuevo Herald. Both newspapers will move to another location within two years.
Meanwhile, a Miami Beach house formerly owned by singer and actress Jennifer Lopez has upped its asking price from $29 million to $34.5 million. The 12,000-square-foot home at 58000 North Bay Road is being sold by Mark Gainor, a healthcare professional who bought the property from Lopez for $13.9 million in 2005. “We’ve had several offers in the $20 [million range],” said listing broker Nelson Gonzalez, a senior vice president at Esslinger-Wooten-Maxwell, “but the seller is looking for more.”
Las Vegas
Two Las Vegas real estate investors, James Adams and Puoy Premsrirut, filed a lawsuit last month against more than 500 neighborhood associations, alleging that the groups charge unlawful fees to the owners of foreclosed homes. According to Business Insider, this suit is the latest development in a long and expensive battle over foreclosed homes in Nevada, which has resulted in various competing bills in the state legislature and dozens of lawsuits. Investors, busy buying up hundreds of homes in the state, say the associations employ debt collectors to charge fees that are illegal. Under Nevada’s real estate laws, the owners of foreclosed homes must pay some, but not all, of the fees normally charged to residents. In most states, homeowners associations receive no fees at all on foreclosed homes. “They’re breaking the law and they know it,” Adams told Business Insider. The associations argue that they need to charge fees to maintain neighborhoods.
Washington, D.C.
As housing prices sank across the country, losing 5 percent from last year, Washington, D.C., has escaped relatively unscathed, according to the Wall Street Journal. In fact, the D.C. metropolitan area remains the only major housing market where prices increased on an annual basis in the first quarter, according to a S & P/Case-Shiller report released in June. In April, 5,170 home-sale contracts were signed in the region, the second-highest figure since 2006, according to the RBI Pending Home Sales Index. The region has been helped by relatively stable employment, with 5.4 percent unemployment in April, down from 6.9 percent at its peak in January 2010, the Journal said.
Seattle
State Senator Maralyn Chase has asked state Attorney General Rob McKenna to investigate the legality of a city program that gives real estate developers a 12-year property-tax exemption if they set aside 20 percent of their units for affordable housing, according to the Seattle Times. The program was created in 1998 to encourage development in Seattle’s poorest neighborhoods, the Times said, but in the last three years, for-profit developers have received nearly $100 million in tax breaks under the program. Councilmember Sally Clark said the tax breaks leave many people “suspicious that we’re leaving too much money in the developers’ pockets.”
New Orleans
A program that helped more than 400 first-time homebuyers purchase houses once damaged by Hurricane Katrina is ending, the Times-Picayune reported. The Finance Authority of New Orleans’ Soft Second Mortgage Program helped moderate-income, first-time buyers get forgivable loans to purchase homes that have been repaired after being damaged by the storm. The $27 million effort first went into effect in 2008, and a second round of subsidies was slated to commence in 2009 before being nixed, resulting in some 60 people missing out on loans they had already gained approval for, according to the Times-Picayune.
Los Angeles
MPG Office Trust sold the Westin Pasadena hotel last month to HEI Hotels and Resorts for $92 million, the Los Angeles Times reported. The 350-room Westin Pasadena, located at 191 North Los Robles Avenue, was developed by MPG’s predecessor, Maguire Thomas Partners. It opened in 1989 as part of an office and hotel complex called Plaza Las Fuentes. MPG, downtown L.A.’s biggest office landlord, has recently offloaded a number of assets in an effort to reduce debt, according to the Times. But the sale is seen as a sign of improvement for the hotel business. Real estate investment trusts, hungry for full-service California hotels, are driving prices of select properties back to 2007 levels, according to consultant Alan Reay of the Atlas Hospitality Group. “[The] market is rebounding off the bottom,” Reay told the Times.
Compiled by Katherine Clarke